Planning for a New Historic District: Sharpsburg, Kentucky

I grew up hearing stories about my paternal grandfather, a native of Bath County, Kentucky ,and the weekly trips he made back home to enjoy the “sweet air” of his home county. Years later, on my first county wide survey as an architectural historian, I spent weeks savoring that sweet air as I helped document the historic buildings, farms, and cemeteries of Bath County.* But the project funding stretched only so far – and we were never able to achieve our goal of listing additional properties in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Now, to my great delight, I will be returning to Bath County, to survey the town of Sharpsburg and nominate it as a historic district. I’ll talk about the survey process and the National Register at a public meeting in Sharpsburg on Tuesday, December 13, 2022, at 6 pm at the Community Center.

A circa 1935-19378 photograph of the Works Progress Administration Gymnasium and Auditorium under construction in Sharpsburg, Kentucky. Image from the Goodman-Paxton Photographic Collection at the University of Kentucky. This building, restored by the community, is the site of the public meeting.

Sharpsburg is located off of Highway 11, the former Mt. Sterling to Maysville Turnpike, some nine miles northwest of the county seat of Owingsville. The town is about 15 minutes (or 11 miles) from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky and Interstate 64. The town  was established in 1814 on land belonging to Moses Sharp, a Virginia native who moved west to the area around 1780.

Sharpsburg, Kentucky, as shown on the 1952 USGS topographic quadrangle of the same name.

The post office at Sharpsburg opened in 1821, and by 1847 it was a “thriving little community situated in the heart of the best farming section of the county.”[1]  In the mid-19^th century, Sharpsburg had two schools (one each for boys and girls), two wool factories, six doctor, four stores, one tavern, two sawmills, three churches, one bagging factory, and ten mechanical shops.[2]

The Conway House was built in 1911 & remained in the original family until the 21st century.

The Blue Grass Community Foundation and the R. L. Brown Foundation, in partnership with the City of Sharpsburg, is funding the NRHP nomination that will recognize downtown Sharpsburg as a historic district.

The gymnasium today – now the Sharpsburg Community Center.

While the NRHP is not guaranteed to save any historic building – or community – it does preserve a record of a place, its built landscape, and the men and women who made it their home. What it does not do is place any restrictions on property owners or what they can do with their properties.

A wonderful bungalow in Sharpsburg with some fabulous architectural details.

While my grandfather grew up in the county seat town of Owingsville, and I therefore can’t make any familial claim on Sharpsburg – I am nonetheless so excited to have this opportunity to document and record the historic buildings in the town, and write the nomination that will, with any luck, make its way to Frankfort and then to Washington, DC to be officially listed.

*I directed the survey, and spent as much time in the field as possible, but the majority of the work was carried out by three graduate students in the University of Kentucky Historic Preservation Program: Elizabeth Gallow Heavrin, Sarah Pennock Lyons, and Maria Gissendanner Burkett. They did an amazing job under typical Kentucky summer conditions.

[1]  J.A. Richards. A History of Bath County, Kentucky. (Yuma, Arizona: Southwest Printers, 1961), 361.

[2] Ibid.