The season of tulips, jonquils, and other spring blooming bulbs seems very far away right now, as Kentucky is held captive by a polar vortex of bitterly cold temperatures and the ground lies inert under several inches of snow and ice. Traveling out and away from the agony of winter sounds delightful, but alas – that is beyond me. So with thoughts of bulbs and spring in mind, I would like to introduce a small rural community known as Holland in south-central Kentucky. (Kentucky has many such exotic and far-flung locales!)
Holland, Kentucky, as shown on the 1931 Lafayette, TN/KY 15′ USGS quadrangle map.
Holland sits southeast of the county seat of Scottsville, Kentucky, at the juncture of the Holland Road and the Lafayette Road (Kentucky Routes 100 and 99). Around 1810, the Holland family, who gifted their name to the community, settled in the area – perhaps not as romantic as a paean to the Netherlands, but the prosaic explanation makes more sense.
A former filling station in Holland, Kentucky.
A post office, a reliable sign of growth and development in the 19th century, was established in Holland in 1881. John H. Francis was the first postmaster.
This historic photo shows the Holland General Store (built 1902) which also served as a post office, in Holland. The building does not appear to still be standing. Image from A Pictorial History of Allen County, Kentucky, published by the Allen County Historical Society in 1985.
Holland today is a collection of houses, an early 20th century filling station, a church, and a cemetery. The artist Henry Lawrence Faulkner (1924-1891), a one-time resident of Allen County, is buried in Holland’s cemetery.
Glimpses of former structures. original use unknown, peeked through the summer vegetation on my sojourn in the crossroads community.
A historic structure in Holland bowed by time and neglect.
The news in Holland in the summer of 1913. From The Citizen, 3 July 1913, publisher R.B. Pitchford.
The early 20th century Holland Missionary Baptist Church.
An early 20th century (1913?) photograph of some residents of Holland, Kentucky. Elizabeth Burlington Morphew is seated on the near side of the buggy. Photograph courtesy J. Eric Thomason.
The most intriguing building is the two-story frame former Henry Clay Hughes House, built about 1900.
The Henry Clay Hughes House.
Mr. Hughes designed the house as a residence and a hotel, and it purportedly contained 18 rooms when built. When it was documented in 1982, it had been vacant for around 14 years. I don’t know the status of the building now, but it looked great when I saw it in 2019.
What looks like the ell of the dwelling is actually the facade, with elongated windows marching across the first and second story in a tidy and symmetrical row. The two-story porch has fortunately retained much of its original ornamentation. The Italianate style, the inspiration for those long and narrow openings, persisted in Kentucky for a long time. I’d love to know the floor plan of this house and how space between residents and visitors was divided.
Another view of the Hughes House/Hotel.
A historic view of the Hughes House/Hotel. Image from A Pictorial History of Allen County, Kentucky, published by the Allen County Historical Society in 1985.
Rural communities like Holland were once common across Kentucky, but every year, more of them slip away – both from the landscape and from our collective memory. Local newspapers, if they exist at all, no longer collect the news from rural hamlets and villages. Long entrenched family names vanish, and passers-by might wonder if there is a connection between this tiny spot and the former Dutch Republic. I do my part to capture fleeting snapshots of history, and as my furnace struggles to heat my drafty old house, I dream of spring.
Janie-Rice,
I love what you do. I think of the little farming community in eastern Jefferson County known as Worthington where my father’s family farmed for generations. It was a center of potato production, one of the largest in N. America, I’m told. Now it’s all but absorbed by urban sprawl, its few landmarks– a general store, a farmers co-op– vanished.
Sometime when the weather’s better, you may want to visit my place in Franklin County, built in 1859 with a long history behind it in the Elkhorn Basin. Our mutual friend Pat Kennedy has worked on it on and off for nearly 50 years.
I second Richard’s motion. I’d love to read about it.