The town of Poole in Webster County, Kentucky, is around 16 miles south of Henderson, Kentucky, and nine miles north of the county seat of Dixon. It owes its name to John William Poole and his wife, Jane Huston, who purchased a 2,400 land grant and traveled to the area from North Carolina in 1826. The community that developed around their initial landholding – and many of their 12 children remained in the area – became known as Poole’s Mill.* It was part of Henderson County until 1860, when the county boundaries shifted due to the creation of Webster County. I traveled there in the spring of 2018 to document some historic resources in the small community.
An early 20th century view of Poole, looking north.
By the mid-19th century, the rural community had a post office, a general store, a blacksmith shop, a milliners, and three tobacco factories.** The General Baptist Church was established in 1843, while Poole’s Mill Missionary Baptist Church built a church in 1848.
Section of the 1906 15-minute quadrangle showing Poole, Kentucky.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the community grew rapidly. A telephone exchange was established in 1884, and Poole Academy began in 1885. Although a booklet entitled Ordinances and By-Laws of the Town of Poole, KY was published on December 1, 1896, the town was never incorporated, or platted. ***Despite this, the town had ordinances, a board of trustees, and town marshals.
The residential section of Poole.
In the last decade of the 19th century, the town became known simply as “Poole.” The post office name was changed to Poole, and continues to operate today. The Masonic Lodge was established in 1896, and four years later, a chapter of the Eastern Star, known as the Ermine Ford #9, was established.[***] The Poole Deposit Bank was chartered in 1902.
The Poole Deposit Bank building, built around 1902.
The former Poole Deposit Bank is a two-story, three bay wide brick building constructed around the turn of the 20th century for the bank, which was established in 1902. At one time the telephone exchange operated on the second floor. The building is vacant and a large portion of the shed roof has fallen in; it is in very poor condition. When I documented the building three years ago, it was the oldest commercial building still standing in Poole.
Undated historic photograph of the bank building, showing telephone operators on the second story.
The stone “Bank” sign that was located centrally above the second story windows on the facade has been removed, and the current owners apparently stripped the interior of all materials.
The first floor storefront.
Despite the demolition by neglect, the intact storefront of the bank building is truly lovely. Two large four-light fixed display windows are located next to one another, one facing the street, and the other canted in toward the double door entrance. Above the windows and entry doors is a transom of colored glass. The second story windows have stone sills and lintels. A shed roof overhang on wood posts spans the facade. The cornice line is corbelled and there is metal coping on the facade parapet wall.
The transom windows!
An 1896 publication touted the many benefits of Poole, including its merchants and : two general stores, two drug and grocery stores, two tobacco stemmeries, one flouring mill, two doctors, the Poole Academy, and several churches. At the time, a “number of the business houses are substantial structures. The residence portions of the town contain many beautiful homes.”[****]
The bank building in better days.
I haven’t been back to Poole, and I wonder what has happened in the intervening three years. Like many rural communities across Kentucky, Poole grew and prospered in the decades before World War II. Poole High School (no longer extant) was built in 1927, and the Works Progress Administration constructed a gym for the school in 1937.
The Bethel Pentecost Church, formerly the Poole United Methodist Church, was built in 1900.
Poole’s business district began to falter in the 1970s and 1980s. The Masonic Lodge closed, and it appears that its sister organization, Ermine Ford Order of the Eastern Star, is closed as well. Despite efforts like Poole Harvest Daze, organized to help local families and the community, the continuing out-migration of residents from the small rural community means the median age in and around Poole is about 70. The extant historic commercial buildings suffer from neglect, and septic tank hook-ups are an issue.
It’s not an uncommon story, but each rural place I visit that is slowly diminishing leaves a trace on my heart. I wish I could save them all.
[*]Poole, Kentucky: A Journey Back. (Evansville, IN : Evansville Bindery, 2003), 285.
[**] Ibid, 285.
[***] Ibid, 286.
[****]Ibid, 19.
*****Ibid, 41.
