The Taylor Hotel, Elizabethtown, Kentucky

The Louisville and Nashville Turnpike, completed in the 1830s, was a boon for the communities it passed through – encouraging the development of towns and businesses related to the road, such as taverns and inns. The rebirth of that turnpike in the early 20th century as the Dixie Highway (US 31W) bolstered commercial growth in much the same way, except (of course) by catering to  automotive traffic rather than the stagecoach.

A  section of a 1915 map showing the route of the Dixie Highway. Issued by the National Highways Association, online at the Library of Congress American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection, https://lccn.loc.gov/2021668513

Both the 19th century turnpike and the 20th century Dixie Highway followed a route along Main Cross Street and across the Public Square in downtown Elizabethtown, Kentucky. In 1930, the Taylor Hotel was constructed to take advantage of the visitors making their way through town on the Dixie Highway.

Façade of the Taylor Hotel, May 2022.

Located on the south side of West Dixie Avenue (appropriately), the three-story brick hotel combines elements of the then-popular Revival styles (first floor doorways with fanlights, and the elegant classically-influenced cornice) with what I call Craftsman Commercial (seen in the geometric shapes of the stone panels at the parapet). What matters most is not the style, however, but what the combination of materials and the scale and fenestration of the building meant to the passer-by. The solid, fashionable building promised a safe night’s rest and comfortable accommodations for travelers.

The Taylor Hotel, circa 1980. Photograph from the NRHP files.

In 1929, brothers Henry and Jesse Taylor purchased the Watkins Grocery Store from Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Leeper, with plans to tear down the grocery store and build an elegant hotel. The eponymous hotel, designed by Louisville architect T.J. Nolan, was designed with 25 hotel rooms (on the second and third floors), a mezzanine, as well as a lobby, coffee shop, private dining room, and kitchen on the ground level. Construction was estimated to cost  $50,000.*

A historic postcard view of the Taylor Hotel.

The Taylor brother’s vision was a good one, and thankfully the hotel still stands. I am less than thrilled about the bricked-in windows across the facade, but perhaps someday those openings will be restored. Maybe the gorgeous awning will be returned to its former glory as well! One can always hope. The building is contributing resource in the National Register of Historic Places-listed Elizabethtown Courthouse Square and Commercial District, so (approved) work can qualify for a Historic Tax Credit.

I’m partial to old motels and hotels along historic roadways, and I am delighted that the former Taylor Hotel has been adaptively reused into apartments. Reuse of historic building stock like the handsome hotel building is a great way to provide affordable housing to downtown residents.

*Susan McCrobie, “Food and Fun Hailed from Dixie Avenue Establishment,” in Bits and Pieces of Hardin County History, the newsletter of the Hardin County Historical Society. Summer 2013.  chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.hardinkyhistoricalsociety.org/uplimg/Summer%202013_1.pdf