Author: thekaintuckeean

A Is for Appalachia shares the heritage of Appalachia with children

A is for Appalachia: The Alphabet Book
of Appalachian Heritage

I grabbed a new book for story time with the kiddos last night that had been on the shelf for a few years but had not yet been read. Parents know the curse: kids want the same book over and over again. But daddy wanted a change.

It was getting a late start to story time, so we only made it through a few letters of the new book. It was an alphabetical book that explores the traditions and culture of Appalachia entitled A is for Appalachia: The Alphabet Book of Appalachian Heritage.

Reading about Appalachia, Baskets, Coal, Corn, and Dulcimers begat questions from my six year old. 
Do we live in Appalachia? No, but we are awfully close.
Have I been to Appalachia? Sure let’s look at the map and explore when we’ve driven through on trips. And every time we’ve gone to visit Mawmaw, we’ve been in Appalachia?
Was church camp in Appalachia? I’m not sure, but it was sure was pretty like these pictures. Wasn’t it?

I could sense an appreciation for Appalachia developing as the pages turned.

A is for Appalachia! was written by Linda Hager Pack and illustrated by Pat Banks. It shares the great Appalachian heritage in a simple way for children, but the book is a delight to read for adults as well.

The book can be a simple alphabet recognition tool, but the few paragraphs under each letter are informative yet simple. And the illustrator included a helpful map of the southern Appalachian mountains identifies the states in which the verdant green Appalachians stand out as crossing the geo-political borders almost to in one illustration say that Appalachia is a united place bound by custom and heritage more than anything else.

And, best of all, my kids are looking forward to more about Appalachia tonight!

You can order A is for Appalachia: The Alphabet Book of Appalachian Heritage from amazon.com.

The Remarkable Run of UK’s Football Program … in 1950

1950-51 Kentucky Wildcats. U. of Ky. Libraries.

With Kentucky football on the brink of 5-1 needing a home win against Louisiana-Monroe tomorrow for the best record since 2007, times feel good with Kentucky football.

Historically, that isn’t an emotion we’ve gotten to ride very often.

But if you go back a little over half a century, you’ll find the greatest year for athletics at the University of Kentucky.

Bear Bryant, ca. 1950. U. of Ky. Libraries.

The familiar part of the
story is tied, of course, to basketball. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the UK Wildcats defeated Kansas State’s squad in the NCAA finals. It was the third tourney win for Adolph Rupp’s team which finished its season with a 32-2 record.

But on the gridiron, Bear Bryant’s Wildcats fought out a 10-1 record during the regular season and were destined for a Sugar Bowl matchup against the the University of Oklahoma.

In those days, final football national media rankings were determined prior to the bowl seasonAs a result, the national championship nod was given to the Oklahoma Sooners. But the Wildcats wouldn’t cooperate during on New Years Day 1951 in New Orleans. The following video clip from the news reel contains highlight from the matchup.


Vito Parilli passes the football during 1951 Sugar Bowl
U. of Ky. Libraries.

So under the arm of quarterback Babe Parilli, #8 Kentucky soundly clinched victory over the #1 ranked Sooneers. Hindsight, being 20/20, utilized the computer algorithms of Jeff Sagarain to recompute rankings of historic football squads, inclusive of their bowl records. Recomputed, Kentucky’s Sugar Bowl victory made it the National Champions for the 1950-51 football season!

In either event, there is no doubt that it would have been an exciting time on campus. Coaches Adolph Rupp and Bear Bryant both earned well-deserved welcomes in Lexington as they each brought significant trophies home to the University of
Kentucky.

Go Cats!

This post is based on an excerpt about Stoll Field & McLean Stadium from LOST LEXINGTON, KY.

Lexington has dozens of well-restored landmarks, but so many more are lost forever. The famous Phoenix Hotel, long a stop for weary travelers and politicians alike, has risen from its own ashes numerous times over the past centuries. The works of renowned architect John McMurtry were once numerous around town, but some of the finest examples are gone. The Centrepointe block has been made and unmade so many times that its original tenants are unknown to natives now.
Preorder LOST LEXINGTON here

Majestic St. Rose Priory rises above Washington County

Saint Rose Catholic Priory near Springfield, Ky. Author’s Collection.

Few things are quite as majestic as traveling along one of Kentucky’s scenic roads when suddenly a grand church appears seemingly out of nowhere. The juxtaposition of the two sanctuaries, Kentucky’s undulating land and the house of God, almost always prompts me to stop for a moment.

Such was the case a few weekends ago when driving through Washington County along the road to Loretto. At once, the towering St. Rose Priory Church came into my line of sight. Its height was exaggerated, too, because of the high bluff on which the church stood overlooking the road.

Immediately dominant are the “majestic octagonal tower and inspiring stained-glass windows” which feature prominently in the church built in the Tudor-Gothic style in the mid-19th century. The tower’s tiered buttresses also add to the visual impression of great height.

St. Rose was established earlier, in 1806. Father Edward Dominic Fenwick, the son of a wealthy Marylander, used his inheritance to purchase a 500 acre farm near Springfield.

Work began on constructing a small monastery, also known as a priory, which was completed in 1807. Also built, completed in 1809, was a small brick church which remains standing as a chancel on the present church’s northern end. West of the Alleghenies, it is the oldest structure still utilized as a church. It is also the first foundation in the United States by the Dominican Order.

St. Rose Catholic Priory. Author’s Collection

The small brick church, though simple in form, functioned briefly as a cathedral for the Diocese of Bardstown prior to the completion of Saint Joseph. When the new Diocese of Cincinnati was created in 1821 from the Bardstown diocese, Fr. Fenwick was consecrated as its first bishop. The consecration services were held here, at St. Rose.

Added over the years was a convent and educational facilities. The small brick church was added to with the current larger, grander church which was begun in 1852 and dedicated in 1855. The architect for the new Saint Rose was William Keely, a renowned church architect, who also designed Louisville’s Cathedral of the Assumption.

The blue limestone used for the ca. 1852 church was quarried nearby.

Saint Rose of Lima (Peru) was the first American saint and for her this historic and beautiful church was named. In 1978, farming operations ceased and the old ca. 1867 Italianate priory was demolished in favor of smaller facilities. Much of the land originally purchased by Fr. Fenwick was sold leaving about 100 acres of property for the church.

Saint Rose Priory & Historic Marker near Springfield, Ky. Author’s Collection.

A state historic marker by the road reads:

Founded, 1806, by Fr. Fenwick from Maryland. First Dominican religious house and second oldest priory in the U.S. Site of first Catholic college west of Alleghenies, 1807. St. Thomas School here, 1809-28. Jefferson Davis, later President of Confederacy, student, 1815-16. In 1822 Fr. Wilson founded first community of Dominican Sisters in U.S. Present church built, 1852.

Today, Saint Rose has the designation of a proto-priory meaning that it previously served as a priory much in the same was as Bardstown’s Saint Joseph proto-cathedral retains its designation from its days as the cathedral for the dissolved Diocese of Bardstown. And the church remains an active and beautiful parish church.

Donation reunites two parcels of Hunt-Morgan history

Thomas Hunt Morgan House – Lexington, Ky. Blue Grass Trust.

At Second and Mill streets is the home built by John Wesley Hunt, Hopemont, that later became known as the Hunt-Morgan House. Around two corners from Hopemont’s iconic Palladian window is 210 North Broadway.

The latter building has been home to the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky since 1965, but both the building and that organization have longer lineages. WCCK is now celebrating its 120th anniversary and in celebration has “made an extraordinary preservation gift to the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation.”

In 1870, 210 North Broadway was built for Capt. Charlton Hunt Morgan and his wife, Mrs. Ellen Key Morgan. At the helm of design and construction was one of the finest architects of time and place, John McMurtry. The land on which the Hunt’s built was once a part of Hopemont’s more significant acreage. It has been announced that WCCK is donating the North Broadway property to the Blue Grass Trust. The BGT, already the owner of the Hunt-Morgan House on North Mill, will reunite these two parcels again under common ownership.

Historic marker outside 

Born at Hopemont in 1866, Thomas Hunt Morgan was a young boy when his parents moved into 210 North Broadway. It was here that young Thomas began to show his interest in biology and naturalism as he gathered birds, birds’ eggs and fossils.  By the age of 16, he was enrolled at the State College, later the U. of Kentucky, from which he would graduate as the valedictorian in 1886.

A professorship at John Hopkins University was followed by the same at Columbia University. While at Columbia, Dr. Morgan created his infamous “fly room.” Using the inexpensive and fast breeding species, he studied heredity at a chromosomal level.

In 1933, Dr. Morgan received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “his discoveries concerning the role played by chromosomes in heredity.” He was the first Kentuckian to receive the Nobel Prize and he is known as the “Father of Modern Genetics.”

After earning his Nobel Prize, Dr. Hunt was named the president of Caltech. He would pass away in 1945 in Pasadena, California.

His childhood home at 210 North Broadway would forever bear his name as the Thomas Hunt Morgan House. Over the years, various additions have been made to the property as it has seen various uses since it was the Morgan family residence. Specifically, an auditorium (ca. 1912) and dining hall (ca. 1970) have left many more square feet than originally included in the McMurtry design.

The buildings future is secure as it will become the new home for the Blue Grass Trust in the spring of 2015.

The ‘Handsomest Public Monument in Jessamine County’

Confederate Monument in downtown Nicholasville.
Author’s Collection.

One hundred fifty years ago, the Union was engaged in a great Civil War. As a border state, Kentucky was as divided as the nation.

While the Commonwealth gave up 50,000 of her sons to the Confederacy, she offered fifty percent more to the cause of preserving the Union.

A star representing Kentucky could be found on the banner of both USA and CSA alike.

Although our state motto is “United we stand, Divided we fall,” the Commonwealth surely was divided during the War Between the States.

Yet after the War, Kentuckians found themselves enamored with “the Lost Cause.” Kentuckians largely rallied and united under this banner.

In so doing, Kentucky truly became a southern state.

Confederate Monument at the Jessamine
Courthouse. Author’s Collection.

Throughout Kentucky, there are tangible reminders of this transition. Though more Kentuckians fought and died wearing Union blue, there are more monuments in the Commonwealth recognizing the sacrifices of those who wore grey.

On Jessamine’s courthouse lawn stands one such monument. Atop an eleven-foot tall pedestal of unpolished granite stands a Confederate soldier cast in bronze.

Larger than life, the seven-foot tall Rebel is not at full attention. Instead, he appears to be resting with much of his weight being borne by his musket. Yet the soldier looks onward, ever watchful, with his gaze down Main Street.

Toward Lexington.

Toward the north.

(Though the soldier is mindful of an attack by Yankees from the north, the Union held Camp Nelson which is located south of the Courthouse. Had a Rebel scout been stationed on Nicholasville’s courthouse lawn, he would have surely seen Union troops on their way to reinforce Camp Nelson. Perhaps the Confederate soldier was resigned to the presence of his enemy?)

In his book “A History of Jessamine County, Kentucky,” Colonel Bennett H. Young (a Confederate veteran himself) described the monument as the “handsomest public monument in Jessamine County.” And truly, it is.

Text on the base of the Monument. Author’s Collection.

The monument was erected by the Jessamine Confederate Memorial Association and was dedicated to Confederate soldiers who were buried at the nearby Maple Grove cemetery. Carved into stone are these words of honor to the fallen Confederates:

Nor braver bled
for brighter land
nor brighter land
had a cause so grand.

In 1997, the monument and its base were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Memorial Association began raising funds for their monument in 1880 some 15 years after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. It would take another 16 years before the Association would be able to dedicate their monument.

Fundraising was still insufficient, but a slight change to the monument’s design helped finish the project. Of course, that “slight change” turned out to be quite significant: the bronze soldier was originally a Union soldier.

The monument company which sculpted the soldier had an unclaimed soldier which it was willing to part with at a discount. Alterations were made to render the unclaimed soldier into a Rebel.

Before a crowd of some 3,500, the Confederate Soldier Monument was dedicated on the courthouse lawn in Nicholasville on June 15, 1896. “The city of Nicholasville royally entertained all those who came to unit in the ceremonies,” wrote Col. Young.

Col. Young, then living in Louisville, attended and spoke at the dedication: “We come in tenderness and devotion and affection to mark, beautify and bless the soil that garners their dust, and to declare by this monument, which we trust will remain forever, that … our departed comrades shall be as deathless.”

A version of this column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal on August 20, 2014. It should not be republished without permission.

Movin’ On Up … Changing Times at the Jessamine County Library

Jessamine Co. Public Library, Nicholasville, Ky. Jessamine Journal.

When was the last time you moved?

Packing up all of your belongings and making sure that they are secure for even a short haul is an exhausting process.

When I moved into my current home several years ago, a friend helped me to relocate a few dozen boxes of books. Afterward, he volunteered to never help me move my books again.

That awkward sofa is really a piece of cake? The insanely heavy armoire is somehow manageable, even down a flight of stairs.

But an unending stream of books is just too daunting.

So when I heard that the Jessamine County Public Library was packing up its entire collection of books (and more), I thought of my friend and of all the books I’ve moved.

But then, all of my books probably fit in less than 100 square feet floor to ceiling. The library’s Main Street location has 22,000 square feet.

This is a big and daunting job. Fortunately, the heavy lifting isn’t being done by library volunteers or staff. A moving company that specializes in commercial relocation has been hired to move all of of those books.

The books will remain on their shelves during the process, shrinkwrapped into place. The shelves will then be loaded onto a truck and moved to the library’s temporary digs on Computrex Drive. All of this will be welcome news to those at the library who won’t have to re-catalog each and every volume. Still, it will be an arduous process requiring the library to close its doors for about a month.

All of this is necessary because the existing South Main Street library has simply grown too small for the library with the eighth largest circulation in the state. The facility, built in 1996, has previously been expanded.

Of course, the library itself is a century older.

Sarah Rice Whithers
McLean Co. (Illinois)
Museum of History

Begun in 1896, the Acme Book Club was formed as a literary society with a collection of 600 books for members to borrow. Three years later, Sarah Rice Whithers left the Nicholasville Presbyterian Church money for the establishment of a public library.

The two merged into the library which operated from the church at Maple and First Streets until 1906 when a two story library was constructed at Main and Oak Streets where Central Bank is now located.

In the 1960s, the library relocated to Second and Chestnut Streets and then-named Whithers Memorial Public Library again moved into its home at Second and Maple Streets in the mid-1970s.

Finally, the library found its present home in the 1990s. It was renamed to the Jessamine County Public Library in 2001.

For over a century, a free book library has served the people of Jessamine County. During that time, the library has expanded to meet the growing community and the ever-changing demands.

The shelves aren’t just stacked with books. The temporary move to Computrex Drive will also include the music, the video games, the movies, and the other collections available from our library.

And in a little over a year, all those collections will be packed up again and returned to an expanded facility at South Main Street.

Rendering of the Expanded Jessamine County Public Library. JCPL via Jessamine Journal.

Significantly expanded. Square footage of the library will nearly double to 42,000 square feet. This will over increased space for a larger collection as well as space for all of the programming which occurs each week at the library.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product when the library returns from its temporary location on Computrex Drive.

But I’m also really happy that I don’t have to move all of those books!

A version of this column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal on October 2, 2014. It should not be republished without permission.

The Horse Cemetery: Hamburg’s Last Vestige of Itself

Hamburg Horse Cemetery on Sir Barton Way, Lexington. Author’s Collection.

In the shadow of the Super Walmart at Hamburg Place in northeast Lexington is a small cemetery of famed equines. Hamburg was once a massive horse farm which encompassed some 2,000 acres. The horse cemetery is seemingly all that is left of the site’s heritage.

And the horse cemetery isn’t even in its original location for it has been moved a few hundred yards from its original site which is now the parking lot for the aforementioned Walmart.

Birdseye View of Hamburg Place. U. of Ky Libraries.

The origin of Hamburg Place began in 1898, when John Madden purchased 235 acres along the Winchester Pike. Madden, a successful thoroughbred trainer and owner, named his farm Hamburg after his horse of the same name, which had been sold and the proceeds from which were used to acquire the farm. Although John Madden died in 1929, his family continued his legacy and success.

That is, until development became too tempting.

In the late 1990s, development began by Madden’s family.

Lamenting the loss, a 2000 publication by the Sierra Club suggested that “the conversion of Hamburg Place, a historic farm outside of Lexington, is emblematic of the changes that poorly planned growth is bringing to Kentucky.” The report went on to note that “where once there were 400 acres of trees and pasture there is now an Old Navy clothing franchise and lots of parking.”

Although, the names of Madden’s horses – among them Old Rosebud, Sir Barton, Alysheba, Star Shoot and Pink Pigeon – can be found on Hamburg’s street signs, it is the cemetery which is the most tangible reminder of what once occupied this massive expanse of land.

Monument to John Madden in Hamburg. Author’s Collection.

Buried here are many of the horses named above, each with a headstone in a circle around the central monument to Nancy Hanks.

Nancy Hanks was born in 1886 and named after the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Her great achievement as a trotter was a world’s record of 2 minutes, 4 seconds to the mile.

There is also a memorial, though not the gravesite, of founder John Madden. “The Wizard of the Turf” and the “Founder of Hamburg Place.”

This post contains excerpts from LOST LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY.

Lexington has dozens of well-restored landmarks, but so many more are lost forever. The famous Phoenix Hotel, long a stop for weary travelers and politicians alike, has risen from its own ashes numerous times over the past centuries. The works of renowned architect John McMurtry were once numerous around town, but some of the finest examples are gone. The Centrepointe block has been made and unmade so many times that its original tenants are unknown to natives now.

Preorder LOST LEXINGTON here

Robert Tharsing’s Room With A View

Robert Tharsing’s “Room With A View” Exhibit. Author’s collection.

Circumstances caused me to enjoy several trips down the long corridors of the Chandler Medical Center. Enjoy? Well, if life gives you lemons then it is best to make lemonade.

In designing the new hospital, great steps have been taken to make it a beautiful place. During the week, musicians perform in the library. And art is everywhere.

Painting of the Old Courthouse by Robert Tharsing
Ann Tower Gallery.

Along one hallway that connects the new hospital to the traditionally-institutional old hospital is a display of art by UK art professor Robert Tharsing.

Tharsing’s “Room With A View” stems from the artist’s time living in a flat above Cheapside Bar & Grille during the 1990s. At the time, Tharsing also maintained a studio near High and Rose Streets.

In moments of thought, the artist would stare out his windows.

And his paintbrush followed his eyes to create scenes of downtown Lexington that transcend time.

“The paintings in this exhibition literally and elegantly depict one artist’s brief view of a small corner of the Earth in all its beautiful banality” reads the card describing the display.

The noble old courthouse stands proudly in the heart of downtown with the autumnal leaves of Cheapside Park beginning to change colors. Other paintings depict snowy streets capes.

Interestingly, the last time I took the opportunity to appreciate the hospital’s rotating art collection the same space featured on display a collection of Robert Tharsing’s daughter, Lina Tharsing, “Making a New Forest.”

Painting of an Interview of Gatewood Galbraith.
Ann Tower Gallery.

One of my favorites in the 14-piece exhibit is that of a tv reporter interviewing Gatewood Galbraith at the corner of Cheapside and Short Streets. The attorney and perennial political candidate was as much a fixture of downtown as anything until he passed away in 2012.

In my email signature, I have a quote from Gatewood that speaks to the purpose of art in healthcare. “Make a resolution to lift someone’s spirit each day and follow through with it.” That was Gatewood’s mission and a few minutes with Tharsing’s simple collection is sufficient to raise one’s own spirits.

Postcards of the collection can be purchased online from Institute 193 or in person at Ann Tower Gallery or the Morris Book Shop.

Tying the knot that gave us Abraham Lincoln

Historic Marker at the Homesite of Jesse Head. Author’s Collection.
Postcard of Jesse Head. Ky. Hist. Soc.

A block or two off of Springfield’s Main Street is the homesite of Jesse Head. Though the home is long gone, replaced in a prior century by a rural Victorian which itself has seen better days, the once-occupant of the site is uniquely tied to history.

One of Springfield and Washington County’s greatest claims is their relationship with Abraham Lincoln.

It was in Washington County that Lincoln’s parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, were wed in 1806.

Three years later, the Great Emancipator was born in nearby Hodgenville.

The preacher who wed the two was Jesse Head.

Rev. Head, a Marylander born in 1768, had lived in Springfield since the 1790s. On the place of his old  homesite now stands a historic marker which reads  

On June 12, 1806 he performed the marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, who, in 1809, became the parents of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the U.S. Head, born in Maryland in 1768, “came-a-preaching” to KY in 1798. Cabinet maker, justice of peace, on Sundays he preached fearlessly. Moved shop to Harrodsburg, 1810, kept on preaching, began newspaper.

In 1922, a monument was dedicated at the Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg which is Head’s final resting place. At the time, a poem was prepared and read by Henry Cleveland Wood which spoke of the marriage ceremony once officiated by Rev. Jesse Head:

That from this lowly union there would spring
A modern Moses to a captive race;
A just man, fashioned in heroic mould-
Of Hero’s stuff-a fearless President-
Emancipator-yet a Martyr, too-
Abraham Lincoln-Man of Destiny.

The Retirement Home of Senator John Pope

Retirement house of Sen. John Pope in Springfield, Kentucky. Author’s Collection.

One of Lexington’s finest landmarks is the Pope Villa which was designed by Benjamin Latrobe for Senator John Pope and his wife Eliza. The senator sold Pope Villa in 1829 after President Jackson appointed Pope to serve as the territorial governor of Arkansas.

John Pope. Congress.

Departed for the Gem State, Pope would serve as governor until 1835. While in Arkansas, he brought in Kentucky architect Gideon Shryock to design the state capitol for Arkansas. The old capitol remains standing as the oldest state capitol (albeit no longer used as the capitol) west of the Mississippi River and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

After his governorship, Pope returned to the Commonwealth and retired to Springfield, Kentucky, in 1835. Eliza had died in 1818 and Pope remarried in 1820 to a widow from Washington County. In Springfield, Pope returned both to the practice of law and elected office including serving in Congress from 1837-1843.

Retirement house of Sen. John Pope in Springfield, Kentucky. Author’s Collection.

Pope’s retirement home in Springfield is unlike his historic Lexington home designed by LaTrobe. The biggest similarity among the two is that when each was constructed, the residences were built on the edges of town but are today located in dense residential areas.

In the case of Pope’s retirement home, 207 Walnut Street in Springfield, the home was built in 1839 by designer-builder John Riley. The lack of a prominent architect accounts for “the relatively conservative style of the house” as suggested in the National Register application (PDF). Built as a one-and-a-half-story brick building, [the home has] the usual four rooms on both
stories, each with a fireplace served by the two projecting chimneys at the ends of the
main block.”

While common in lesser homes of the era, especially those with multiple tenants, the dual front doors of the home are quite unique. It is thought that this would facilitate a separate entrance to Pope’s library and office.

A service ell on the rear of the building was quite typical, though the design was conceptually distasteful to the architect of Pope’s Villa in Lexington.

The historic marker outside of Pope’s retirement residence reads

Eminent Washington Co. citizen. Brilliant Kentucky lawyer, statesman. Born, Va. Represented Shelby Co., 1802, Fayette Co., 1806, in Leg.; U.S. Senate, 1807-13; Ky. Sec. of State, 1816-19; Ky. Sen., 1825-29; Gov. Arkansas Ter., 1829-35, named by Pres. Jackson; U.S. Congress, 1837-43. Federalist and Democrat. Built this home, 1839. Died here; buried in Springfield Cemetery.

Noting Pope to only have served as a Federalist and Democrat, the historic marker doesn’t acknowledge Pope’s later identity as a Whig. As a Whig, Pope was thrice elected to Congress from Springfield.

John Pope died here on July 12, 1845.