I pulled over when I first saw the store. The gravel parking lot into which I veered belonged to a very interesting 20th century church, and after getting out of the car, camera in hand, I noticed the school. It was gray day, threatening rain, but my temper soared like it was the sunniest of conditions. This was a place – even if I wasn’t quite sure where I was… The road, however, was the old Kentucky Route 90, otherwise known as the Burnside Road, once an important turnpike route.
Old store in Steubenville, Kentucky.
If I’d stopped in this general location in 1905, there would have been a turnpike gate nearby. The Burnside Pike was the first toll road in Wayne County. Construction began in 1876, and the entire route between Monticello, the county seat of Wayne County, and Burnside, in Pulaski County, was completed by 1900.
I may have even seen the stagecoach (all 2,300 pounds of it – and that doesn’t include the 18 passengers it could haul) rattle past. The Monticello-Burnside stage was the last stagecoach in operation in Kentucky, ceasing operation in 1915, but prior to that time, it would have been a daily sight in my current location.
The Monticello-Burnside Stagecoach, circa 1915. Image from the Elmer L. Foote Lantern Slide Collection at the Lexington Public Library.
As it was, only empty buildings and the wind kept me company in what I would later discover was the crossroads community of Steubenville. The store, a one-story concrete block building with a rusticated block facade, boasts a long porch across the front, and a stepped parapet wall defines its roofline.
The Steubenville school, set back further from the road than its commercial neighbor, is a long, side-gable oriented frame building, with two windows to either side flanking what was perhaps once a double (two doors) entryway. The two room school was built in 1934, and remained in service until 1960.
Former school in Steubenville, Kentucky.
Like most rural Kentucky counties, dozens and dozens of similar school buildings once could be seen in Wayne County. In 1959, there were 35 one-room schools in the county, five two-room schools, a three-room school, and one five-room school.*
Early 20th century 15-minute quadrangle map showing Steubenville, Kentucky.
The three historic buildings around me all dated from the first half of the 20th century, but the hamlet of Steubenville was settled around 1800. The farming community was named in honor of the Prussian Baron Friederich von Steuben, the trainer of General George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War.
The first post office was established in the vicinity in 1842, and by 1851, the post office moved and adopted the name of its new home, Steubenville. The post office closed in 1992.
Pleasant View Baptist Church.
The brick church across the road from the school and church, Pleasant View Baptist Church, has an intricate recessed arched entryway on the facade (I don’t know when I’ve seen another quite like it!). Although I could find little background information about the congregation, according to one source, the church was founded in 1870 by an African American preacher named Jones Owsley.**
Although the stagecoach stopped running in 1915, the Burnside Pike remained a pivotal route in this part of Kentucky, and Steubenville, and other small communities, took advantage of the new forms of traffic along the road. But sometime in the 1980s, KY 90 was rerouted to the new Monticello bypass, and the former turnpike route became just another county road.
Though no signs (that I noticed) marked the name of Steubenville, an astute observer can pick out, just like I did, the features that make a spot in the road a place. But with only one of the three buildings I noted still in use – how much longer will Steubenville, named for a Prussian war hero – be more than just a footnote?
*Bobby Gale Edwards, Glimpses of Historical Wayne County, Kentucky. Published in Monticello, Kentucky in 1970.
**Ibid.
Terrific!!! Would like to take tour with you and learn about KY through your eyes.
Thanks David! It would be a slow trip – I like to stop a lot!
Janie, the church building at Steubenville was originally that of Steubenville Baptist Church. Several years ago that congregation built a new building on down Hwy. 90 close to Monticello. Pleasant View bought the old church building and moved there from their old location on Hwy. 1275.
Oh, thank you! That is super helpful information to have – I’ll amend the post.
Hi Janie-Rice!!!
Thanks for letting me know my house has a rusticated block facade…
You are welcome… 🙂
I went to the first, second, third, and fourth grades at that school. I was baptized in that church, and my sister in laws brother and wife (Bill and Doris Richardson) had the store when it closed. For lunch during the school days we could go to the store for lunch. A bologna sandwich, a banana, chocolate Milk for a quarter. The store was owned by Ernest Richardson. There was always a group sitting around the pop belly stove solving the world’s problems.
My 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Elua Bronston And Mr. Horton was the fourth grade teacher.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing these memories!
2 classes of 8th grade students attended that school in 1963 for one semester. The new middle school building was not finished. All the 8th grade students were housed in various and sundry places until the new school was completed later that year. The grocery store was an added bonus if you had an extra twenty five cents to spend.
Thank you so much for reading! Twenty-five cents doesn’t go as far as it used to…
Next door to the store (or near) was the two store home of the Dobe’s. Catty-cornered across the street lived the Stevens, about 3/4 of a mile away lived the Alexanders. George, Abbey, and Patty went to Wayne high in 1950’es the same time I was in school. The dip in the road just past the store would flood when we had a heavy rain. The stagecoach was sold to Wells Forgo and now sets in a bank in CA. As late as 1950 you could add a letter anywhere in USA to Steubenville, Kentucky and the majority of the time it would be delivered in 3 days. If you lived near the store (1/2 mile) you had to pick up your mail at the store. Otherwise, it was delivered to your home. We lived at Slat, Kentucky. The use of KY had come into use. Oh the memories for me could go on.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing this great information!
Thank you for this article about my neighborhood. The store used to be Richardson’s Grocery. It was a big treat for me and my friends to get to walk to the store to get soft serve ice cream. I can remember the sound of the creaking hardwood when we walked to the counter to order. All the groceries were bagged in paper sacks. Mr. Richardson was like a celebrity to us kids back in the day.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing your memories!
I still own the store building. We lived in the back behind it until I was in high school. My dad (Bill Richardson) was the last postmaster. Also the church was originally the Steaubenville Baptist Church founded in the early 1800’s. The building was built in the 1940’s.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing some of the history! Where was the post office located?
The post office was in the store. Before our dad became postmaster the old post office was in a building in front of the school. It was torn down after the post office moved in the store. I should have mentioned my sister and I both still own the store building. Great memories of growing up there, and thank you so much for this article and trip down memory lane.
This is so cool. My dad actually lives in the Bedford stone house right beside the school. The old heat-stove is still there and the chalkboards are still on the walls. He would have loved to let you in to see!!!!!
Oh, that’s great! It’s a wonderful building.
The store building in this article belongs to my brother and myself. Our father passed away in 1998. The store was closed due to his failing health maybe in 1996. My parents operated the country store for over 25 years. I was 6 years of age when we moved there and lived in the living quarters behind the store. This community is certainly a special place to me. The church was formerly Steubenville Baptist Church. My family was members of this Southern Baptist congregation. Both parents were members at there passing. I moved my membership after I married. My understanding the man that the community is named for is buried in the cemetery beside the church. Before my father passed the church decided the building was too small & outdated and they voted to build a new church which is located a mile or two down the road closer to Monticello. Now for the school building, my mother and my grandfather both attended school on these grounds. I only got to play in the building when the neighbor that owned it’s granddaughter came to visit. There is certainly a lot of history around and under appreciated. Thank you for your article. I enjoyed it very much.
Thank you so much for reading and sharing some of the history!
My family moved into Steubenville in 1976 or 1977 building a house behind the old Steubenville Church that is now Pleasant View. As children there was 4 to 5 that caught the bus there of a morning and got off the bus of an afternoon. Of a morning there would be Bill and Doris Richardson that would fix sandwhiches or heat you up a frozen sausage and biscuit and a cooler that had the coke glass bottles and you could pop the top at the side of the cooler. The church was very old. There was a tornado that struck in 1984 that took the top off and landed in our back yard behind the church on a Sunday morning. A neighbor Gilbert Neal stated he watched 3 tornados come from the church area and one went on each side of our house behind the church and took the roof off and leveled the trees in the old cemetery breaking grave stones. After that there was a time capsule in the walls of the original member that started the church with names of the families and dates. I can remember news crews from Lexington coming down the day that they went into the walls. There was actual paper insulation inside the church before being restored. I don’t know what happened to the original papers unless in museum. Steubenville was an awesome place to live as a child whether kids riding bikes through neighborhood to the store to get cokes or a treat to kids playing outside and riding bikes in parking lot of the store when they closed to riding in the parking lot of the church. It brings back so many memories 25 to 30 years ago.
I used to live in the the back/side of the store with my dad. I used to ride wheelies all over the place on my bike. The lady that owned it lived on the right. Good times. 3rd trailer down had a peach tree that we had peach fights from. Daniel Neal lived in the house on the right of the church, always had fun there.
I lived in the side of the store with my dad years ago. The lady that Owed it lived in the house next door. Daniel Neil lived beside the church in the right. I remember having good childhood memories around there.
Is Bobby Gale Edwards still alive.? I bought one of his books “Glimpses of Historical Wayne County, Kentucky” way back in 1970. Wow! Times flies!
Thanks for the pictures and all the comments .I lived down the road from the school and went to school there in the 50’s
I wonder if my grandmother and great-grandparents ever stopped here. My grandmother, Cassie Alma Miller, born 1896 in Monticello, Wayne County, and my great-grandparents lived near here, William Ervin Miller b. 1862; Lucinda Lewis Miller b. 1863. They left Wayne County around 1912 for Canada.
I grew up directly across the road from here. Also lived in the back for a while as a child. I used to go in the store every day and get a sandwich and a coke for “free”. I later found out after I was grown that my grandpa Gilbert Neal was paying for it later. So many memories.
Janie-Rice Brother – this is such a beautifully written piece. Thanks for the pictures and descriptions. And all of you who wrote memories of the buildings and area, thanks, this was so interesting.
Thank you so much! I’ve loved hearing all of the Steubenville memories that people hold close.
This Is A Great Read At 3 Am, Or Any Time. I Sure Enjoyed it.
I am glad you enjoyed it – thank you so much for reading!