Although my immediate surroundings gleam brightly with the red and green of the holiday season, thoughts of Christmas are interspersed with images of the devastation in Western Kentucky following the tornados of December 10 and 11, 2021. Explaining the scope of the tragedy to a five year old strains my communication skills – she especially wants to know where families will live and how Santa Claus will find them. Thinking about families left suddenly homeless led my mind to the historic types of lodging once available in Dawson Springs, one of the towns ripped apart by the deadly storms.
The Darby House once operated as a boarding house in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. Circa 1996 image from the NRHP files.
Dawson Springs, situated in Hopkins County in western Kentucky, went from small railroad town to bustling and famous resort town in a decade.** The mineral springs discovered in the late 19th century by Washington Hamby, a local merchant, catapulted the town from a population of 130 citizens in 1880 to more than a 1,000 residents in 1885.
Hamby – who owned a popular hotel – wasn’t the only local entrepreneur who sought to take advantage of the healing waters and railroad traffic. While several hotels were constructed as the town grew into a resort, many families let out rooms in their home, or ran boarding houses.
A circa 1923 postcard showing W.I. Hamby in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. Image from the Kentucky Historical Society, Ronald Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection, Graphic 5.
The home of Dr. A. G. Darby, the first practicing physician in Dawson Springs, functioned as a family residence, Dr. Darby’s office, and a boarding house to accommodate the thousands of annual visitors to the town.
The Darby House, located on the west side of Dawson Springs on US 62, originally fronted right on the railroad tracks. It was the perfect spot for a business – whether for a doctor or as a place to stay while taking in the waters.
The facade of the Darby House, July 2018.
It’s not clear whether the 2.5-story frame house, built around 1886, operated as a boarding house from the beginning. Various secondary sources present differing opinions, but what is clear is that the dwelling, with its distinctive two-story porches on the the facade and the rear elevation, remained in the extended Darby family until 1992 – and it was still a boarding house at that time.
A historic view of the Darby House showing its proximity to the railroad. Image from Preserve the Darby House on Facebook.
According to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination form for the Darby House, the influx of visitors to Dawson Springs in 1903 turned nearly every house in town into a “boarding house for the season.” In 1915, the Darby House was advertised as “The Dawson Hotel” in a promotional brochure for Dawson Springs. The Darby House wasn’t fancy, but in 1922 promised reasonable rates and “kind and courteous treatment.”
I wasn’t able to find a floorplan of the house, but it has a central passage plan, and four rooms on the first floor. The second story apparently has six rooms – I don’t know if that was the original layout or a later alteration. During the property’s use as a boarding house, the kitchen and dining room were located in the basement.
Side and rear elevation. The east side of the back porch was enclosed around 1910 to create bathrooms.
The construction of the Outwood Veterans Hospital in 1922 on the outskirts of Dawson Springs may have led to the gradual decline of resort visitors – the hospital first operated as a sanitarium for veterans with tuberculosis. The Great Depression exacerbated the slow fading of the resort business.
Long-time lodgers, rather than resort visitors, made up the bulk of the boarders after 1936, when Dr. Darby’s widow died. His step-granddaughter, Elizabeth Hess, ran the boarding house until her death in 1992 – a few years before her death, rooms were rented for $25 a week. Several employees from Outwood, that same Veterans hospital that might have stemmed the flow of resort visitors leery of tuberculosis, lived at the Darby House.
Circa 1940 image of a street in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. From the Goodman-Paxton Photographic Collection, University of Kentucky.
Following the death of Elizabeth Hess, a local group known as Preserve the Darby House, purchased the dwelling and began a restoration. At the time I visited Dawson Springs, the Darby House was home to the local Chamber of Commerce.
The population of Dawson Springs was a little over 2,400 in 2020. In one news report, the mayor of Dawson Springs, Chris Smiley, reported that 75% of the town was destroyed in the tornado. Lives have been shattered, and all of Kentucky grieves with the impacted communities. The Darby House was the only historic boarding house from the restart era still standing in Dawson Springs – it may have survived the end of the mineral water era, but I don’t know if it survived one of the worst tornados to ever hit Kentucky.
Both of my Grandparents lived in Dawson Spings. My Dad Mother are from Dawson Springs Master Sargent Norman Ford Tina Glover Ford I remember alot Histoy in this Town. Norman Douglas Ford
I was curious about the floor plan, too, and found a 5-minute video on YouTube: “Walking Through “The Darby House” – Dawson Springs, KY”. It’s a confusing walk through, but helpful in visualizing the interior, especially the rooms on the third floor and the basement.
The video showed beautiful stained glass windows upstairs. And LOTS of rooms.
I watched a video by the Antique Nomad showing the destruction in Dawson Springs and could catch a glimpse of what I believe is the Darby House at 6:00 minutes in, down the street on the left, still standing.
https://youtu.be/FiMrBThD3RU
It survived. I was in Dawson Springs December 22, dropping off gift cards for tornado victims and touring the devasted neighborhoods. On way out of town I missed my turn and went directly in front of the Darby House. I took a photo of it while stopping and asking police whether I had missed my turn to go back down to state route 109. There is no damage to that part of town where Darby House stands.
yes the darby house is still standing in Dawson Springs , Kentucky it wasn’t damaged in the tornado i didn’t take any pictures of if out of respect for the families they already loss so much and because their are still searches going on even though the officials are saying everyone has been accounted for their are still groups of volunteers searching especially all wooded areas 2 people have already been found dead in a wooded area and a good ways from their mobile home and with all that going on if didn’t feel right to be taking pictures and it also being Christmas Day I didn’t want to cause anyone anymore pain they suffered enough already. But yes the Darby House is still there and standing in the city of Dawson Springs Kentucky The Darby House is now a bed and breakfast and is where the Dawson Springs Police Officers stay at. But the rest of Dawson passed the Darby House is heavily damaged about 75% of it is a complete total loss it’s devastating. Buckhorn Plant building across from Ideal and Diary Queen gone,baseball field is damaged , all the houses behind baseball field highly damaged or completely long, gas stations, restaurants , apartment complex is gone, 2nd mile high is where you can see the start of all the damages houses completely gone only thing left is the foundations, roofs tore completely off houses and so many trees on both sides of the road up rooted, shredded, snapped in half, powe me lines down, guard rail and papers, clothes, personal belongings just scattershot everywhere in the woods up in trees. It’s going to take a long long time for the recovery process and building back to a new normalcy for the Dawson Springs Community but we are all strong and aren’t going to give up we’re all going to continue taking it one day at a time and we will continue to help and support one another and we will rise above this tragedy and come out even stronger from it we are and many thanks to all the love, support, the many of volunteers, truck loads of donations that keep rolling in from all across the globe Thank you we appreciate everything everyone has done and is continuing to do for our state ,our people, our community. I’m not from Dawson Springs but i live in a little town that’s 10 minutes away from Dawson Springs I was born and raised in Caldwell County in Princeton Kentucky. Seeing all the destruction from the December 10&11,2021 EF-4 Tornado is devastating and heart breaking.
#kentuckystrong
My Mom was born in Providence about 18 miles north of Dawson Springs and still have family living there. I was in Nebo dropping off donations a week ago that I was able to raise here in Bridgeport, Alabama. We drove truck over to Providence to visit my aunt and then went down to Dawson Springs to drop off 41 Dollar General gift cards at local ministry to hand out to those in need. We walked around the destroyed residential area and was shocked at how completely it was destroyed. Honestly, I am surprised more were not killed that night. I always loved this small town when my parents drove us through it on our way to Providence to visit my grandparents. I feel for all affected by the tornados that night and only hope I can do more to help.