Every historic building has a story to tell
I am the youngest of four children, and a big gap in years exists between my siblings and me. It worked well for my mother, as my two sisters helped watch me (and dress me up, and cut my hair, and put makeup on me…) but as their activities took up more and more time, (read more)
Categories: Bath County, Bluegrass, Farming, Historic Preservation, Kentucky, Kentucky architecture
Tags: Bath County, Owingsville, Stories
It’s the last day of May, and the last day of Preservation Month. My challenge to myself, to write a daily blog post, is nearing its end. While I didn’t quite make 31 posts (I believe 29 is my total, and I blame that on the lovely weather that wouldn’t allow me to sit in (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture
Growing up on a farm influenced me and my interests in many ways, most of which are difficult to explain to anyone who grew up “in town.” The cycle of life and death never recedes into the background on a farm, and while that doesn’t make personal loss any easier, it does shape the way (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Farming, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Louisville
Tags: Bourbon Stockyards, Butchertown, Cattle, Louisville
Roads are curious thing – and in Kentucky, they are big business. A new road delivers up promises of jobs and economic development; sometimes the premise for a project seems to be nothing more than “if you build it, they will come.” A road also takes away – a new road bypasses a community (this (read more)
When I talk to people about vernacular architecture, I catch myself comparing it to messy but delicious experiments in the kitchen, or unexpected adventures, or exploring a brand new place. Sometimes, you might cook up some comfort food. Or you could create something brand new. Local builders took familiar ways of buildings, house plans they (read more)
I am more of a reader than a movie watcher. Circumstances conspired to move me in that direction: farm child, only four channels on our TV (and viewing time was restricted), and the influence of older siblings and parents, who, when not working, were reading. That said, I love the movies, and I especially adore (read more)
Categories: Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, McCracken County, Theaters
Tags: Columbia Theatre, Paducah
There are as many origin stories about the names of Kentucky’s small towns and crossroad communities as there are these spots on the map. Sometimes the postmaster (or postmistress) got to choose the name. Perhaps a nearby industry inspired the name of a place, or a popular elected officials. I had a wonderful cousin named (read more)
On a rainy, rather foggy March day a few years back, I was in the field, scoping out Casey County for a possible survey of historic buildings. It was not a day to wander about and take photographs – the typical two-lane Kentucky roads that hugged the creeks dipped perilously close to the rain-swollen waterways, (read more)
Categories: Bluegrass, Casey County, Historic Preservation, Kentucky architecture, Log Houses, Vernacular
Tags: Casey County, log, timber-frame, William Clark Quantrill
Place is very important to most Kentuckians. We identify ourselves not by where we live, but where we are from – or where “our people” are from. I may live and work in Lexington, but I am from Mt. Sterling, and I cheer on efforts in my hometown that make it a more interesting, inclusive, (read more)
Kentucky is a state of geographic contradictions. The geographer John Fraser Hart commented that “few if any states have such enormous diversity within such small compass.” I see this as I venture from one side of the state to another – not only in our landscape, but in our buildings. Treasures are to be found (read more)
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