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A Lunchtime Walk Through Lexington’s History

One of the best ways to explore any city is by foot. In the springtime, I love to take advantage of the opportunity to walk around downtown Lexington during lunch. Sometimes my walks are solitary while at times others join me on my walks.

Recently, I had a terrific 2.5 mile lunchtime walk at points due west of downtown. Armed with a camera and a bagged lunch, I began walking. These walks always take me past places previously profiled (see the links below) and places that I’d like to learn more about!

My office is near the site of Asa Blanchard’s silversmith shop at Cheapside and I was intent on taking a closer look at the People’s Bank on South Broadway before Sarah Tate’s talk yesterday at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House.

After walking around the People’s Bank and appreciating the 1960s modern architecture, I walked behind the Historic Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church and realized I still have never profiled this historic place on this site.

I then began walking down toward DeRoode Street. I’ve often passed the Carver Community Center, 522 Patterson Street, and wondered its backstory.

Carver Community Center.

According to the Kentucky Architectural Survey

The site’s history begins with nearby Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church, which established one of the first schools for African Americans in the basement of its “old” church building in 1874. Within a decade, enrollment swelled to 108 students so a church committee raised $900 to purchase a lot for construction of Patterson Street School (site of present day playground). Opened in 1883, Patterson was built within twenty feet of noisy and dangerous railroad tracks. In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration provided funds for construction of George Washington Carver Elementary School, which served neighborhood students from 1934 until 1972.

The area below the Carver Community Center, once part of the Davis Bottom neighborhood, remains largely though work is ongoing to extend Newtown Pike/Oliver Lewis Way through this once-residential area. New homes are being constructed and temporary roads (like Whitmer Way) have been added to accommodate mobile housing units). And it’s possible to sneak a glance at parts of UK’s campus, too, from this nook of Lexington.

UK’s POT visible from an abandoned space on Patterson Street.

According to the Kentucky Heritage Council

Davis Bottom is a residential community located just southwest of downtown Lexington. Established in the 1860s, Davis Bottom served as a portal community after the Civil War for African Americans, Appalachians and Europeans who migrated to urban centers in search of homes and jobs. The community of Davis Bottom is going through its greatest transition due to construction of the Newtown Pike Extension and the Southend Park Redevelopment Project.

The area was once filled with shotgun houses, the decline of which style I’ve recently noted on this site’s Demolition Watch series. After crossing under the Versailles Road viaduct – a road seemingly more massive from beneath – I passed the location of the old Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (another to-be-covered subject).

After leaving the remnants of Davis Bottom and Irishtown, I emerged in what is today known as the Distillery District. Crossing the Oliver Lewis Way Bridge, I looked west once again at the RJ Corman Railyard, the Town Branch and (in the distance) the statue of Henry Clay that stands high above his grave at the Lexington Cemetery.

Walking down West Short Street back to the office is, as always, a trip down memory lane. After all, it was here that I grew up in what was my old Kentucky home. The Historic Western Suburb was platted in 1815 – 200 years ago – and is today one of Lexington’s most beautiful historic districts.

So this springtime, explore Lexington (or your community) for all its glory!

Modern Architecture in the Home of the Father of Modern Genetics: A Conversation on Mid-Century Architecture at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House

The modern People’s Bank Branch on South Broadway in Lexington. Rachel Alexander.

Tomorrow evening at the Blue Grass Trust’s Thomas Hunt Morgan House, Sarah House Tate will give a talk entitled “What’s to Love? Mid-Century Modern Buildings Speak Out.” The lecture itself is expected to begin at 6:15 pm with a panel discussion to follow. The event is free and open to the public.

Sarah House Tate is a founding partner of Tate Hill Jacobs Architects and has been documenting the Lexington’s modern architecture for nearly three decades. “What’s to Love? Mid-Century Modern Buildings Speak Out” will trace the early national trends in modern architecture and explore how those trends appear in Lexington.

After the talk, a panel discussion moderated by BGT Director of Preservation Jason Sloan will ensue. On the panel: Sarah Tate, Craig Potts (Kentucky’s State Historic Preservation Officer), David O’Neill (Lexington’s PVA), Matthew Brooks (Principal architect at ALT32 Architects), and Bill Johnston (the BGT’s Vice President).

The lecture and panel discussion will feature an important dialogue on an often forgotten part of historic preservation: that which is most recently historic. Under the National Preservation Act of 1966, a historic property is that which is 50 years or older. Thus the architecture of the mid-20th century is becoming historic.

Also historic is the venue for this conversation: the birthplace of the Father of Modern Genetics, Thomas Hunt Morgan. The property, recently acquired by the Blue Grass Trust is undergoing a beautiful renovation and this will be the Trust’s first public event in the recently renovated auditorium.


If you go:
April 28, 2015 at 5:30
Thomas Hunt Morgan House
210 N. Broadway, Lexington

Some Harry, Willy Shotguns Demolished in Lexington [DEMO WATCH]

Top: 505, 511, and 513 Willy Street. Bottom: 530 and 532 Harry Street. Shotguns demolished in April 2015.
Source photos: Fayette PVA

A recent column by Tom Eblen indicates that parts of Lexington’s aged housing stock is being adapted, repurposed, and given new life. And although much of the historic qualities of the home’s being remodeled may be lost, the overall streetscape is being enhanced as are the values of the properties.

Of course, these transitions create another potential problem. Increased property values can make it too costly for longtime residents to remain in the neighborhood. As Lexington struggles with finding suitable and adequate affordable housing opportunities, a balance must be struck.

But five properties were recently not afforded such the opportunity to be rehabilitated. Three shotguns on Willy Street and another two on Harry Street have been recently demolished after earning a demo permit from the city.

Willy Street

Built in 1900, 505 Willy Street was the oldest of the 5 shotguns demolished. And at 704 square feet, it was also the largest. The other two Willy Street shotguns were each built ca. 1910 according to PVA records, though they do appear on the 1907 Sanborn map and are thus older than originally believed.

On today’s map, Willy Street is an “L” shaped road that connects Smith Street and Fifth Street. The legal description of each of these properties includes a reference to “Wallace’s Lot.” This, according to the Lexington Streetsweeper, is a reference to a plat recorded at Cabinet E-19 on May 11, 1889 by John B. Wallace as he was dividing the property on which his Sixth Street Home stood (450 W. Sixth). According to the 1907 Sanborn Map, the portion of Willy Street that intersects Smith Street used to be known as Alford Street while the portion intersecting Fifth Street was once known as Hanson Street.

The only reference found in the local newspaper archives to any of these three addresses is from the Lexington Leader‘s “colored notes” of December 3, 1912. It reads that “William Finch, a highly respected citizen, aged 37 years, who died Monday at his late residence, 513 Alford street, leaves a wife, daughter, mother, two sisters, three brothers to mourn their loss.”

Harry Street

The narrow alley of Harry Street lies behind North Limestone on the highways west side, extending for one block to both the north and south of Sixth Street. Along Harry Street, two structures were recently demolished. Both single-story structures were constructed in the shotgun style with two bays: one window and a door apiece. According to PVA records, each residence was 12′ x 48′ in dimension with both having a 5′ deep covered front porch.

In terms of layout, the Harry Street shotguns were mirror images of one another. Both were constructed in 1910 and each had a 544 square foot floor plan with four rooms including a single bedroom and a single bath.

The house at 530 Harry was nearly destroyed once before: a 1925 fire destroyed a neighboring structure and left the vacant 530 Harry in poor repair. It appears, however, to have been rebuilt following that instance. In October 1931, the “colored notes” of the Lexington Leader identify John Johnson as having lived and died at his residence in this home, noting that burial would be “in a family lot in Taterstown cemetery in Bourbon county.” A decade later, the newspapers’ “colored notes” observed the death of another of the home’s occupants: Rev. Levi Garner. Rev. Garner is interred at Highland Cemetery which today is nestled between the Forbes Rd. stockyards and the Town Branch Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The Southern KY Book Fair is Tomorrow in Bowling Green

Named by the Kentucky Travel Industry Association as one of the Top 10 Spring Festivals & Events, the Southern Kentucky Book Fair is this Saturday in Bowling Green! It is a free event where 150 authors and illustrators from Kentucky and beyond are available to discuss their books. There will be panel discussions and, of course, you can purchase copies of the great books there at the event and get them autographed!

I’ll be there at Booth #58 with Lost Lexington so be sure to come and say hello! And if you have friends or colleagues in Bowling Green or in the western Kentucky region who are interested in books, history, or historic preservation — be sure to send them along!

If you go:
Southern Kentucky Book Fair
April 18, 2015 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Knicely Convention Center, Bowling Green
Admission is free.

More details about the Book Fair are available at http://www.sokybookfest.org and you can learn more about Lost Lexington by clicking here.

Sleep in a Western Kentucky Wigwam

The Wigwam Village No. 2, located in Cave City Kentucky, beckons those passing by to pause. Its unique character and charm date back to the 1930s and the explosive days of motor traffic across America. Plus, this is the place where you can “sleep in a wigwam.”

How cool is that?

In response to that growth, small motels popped up across the landscape in the first half of the 20th century. Today, the word ‘motel’ conjures up the classic, sprawling mid-century motor inn with exterior entrances along either one or two levels. And although we might connect these places with seedier elements of society today, even the mid-century motel is making it onto historic radars and into the National Register. The 1988 application of the Wigwam Village to the National Register notes how the standardized room also led to the demise of institutions like Wigwam Village:

The 1960s boom in chain motor inns,
characterized by standardized units, an emphasis on family values, and the financial resources
of franchising, accompanied state and national highway programs and soon rendered most of
the classic motels obsolete.

But before these ‘classic’ motels dotted the landscape, unique ‘small mom and pop’ motor courts providing lodging and other amenities for those on the road.

Wigwam Village No. 2 certainly fits the bill as one of Kentucky’s most unique motor courts. With its 18 conical stone and concrete teepees, the Wigwam Village remains a beautiful and iconic site along US Highway 31W. The beauty comes, in part, from the sites symmetry. Again, per that National Register application:

All of the wigwams are identical in their conical shapes and proportions. Their structural systems consist of steel angle irons on which metal bands spaced one foot apart are wrapped horizontally and “on the bias” and welded. The frames are covered in a concrete-like stucco which is molded at the entrances into rounded forms intended to simulate open flaps. Wooden doors holding tall jalousie windows are recessed, as are the small square jalousie windows. On the surface of the cone, the window frames also are square but they are turned 45 degrees so that they “rest” on a corner. White paint covers the walls, accented in bright red at the top of the cone with a jagged lower edge; about halfway up the wall in a bold zig-zag band encircling the building; around the window openings in a narrow zig-zag band with small triangles along the inner edge and marks similar to exclamation points at the corners. The sleeping room numbers above the doors and on the sides next to the respective parking spaces also are red. Four slender metal poles in imitation of the ends of branches project from the top of each wigwam. Two Art Deco-inspired tubular metal and plywood chairs sit at the edge of the lawn opposite the door to each sleeping unit. Pole-mounted floodlights are locate

The Smithsonian Magazine described the Wigwams as the “most famous of the old protomotels.” And fortunately, this Cave City institution is still operational. It is worth noting that the earlier Wigwam Village No. 1, also in Cave City, was built in 1933 by Frank Redford.

Wigwam Village No. 1. UK Libraries. 

A few years earlier, Redford had opened a teepee shaped ice cream shop near the recently paved highway between Louisville and the Mammoth Caves. (The Department of the Interior had begun taking the initial steps to turn Mammoth Caves into a National Park, a process that would be completed in 1941.)

Customers to Frank Redford’s ice cream stand needed a place to stay and Redford saw his opportunity. He built more teepees near his ice cream stand which resulted in Wigwam Village No. 1. People loved Redford’s roadside inn and he patented his concept in 1936 with Wigwam Village No. 2 being built a short distance from the original.

In time, Redford capitalized on his brand with seven Wigwam Villages across the country. Some are quite recognizable and have been been incorporated into film, most notably the Cozy Cone Hotel in Pixar’s Cars. 


Of the seven Wigwam Villages, only three remain operational including the No. 2. in Horse Cave. Check out this unique piece of Americana right here in Kentucky!

[DEMO WATCH]: Decades of Demolition on Louisville’s Water Company Block Continued Over the Weekend

Demolition underway in Louisville on Saturday, April 11, 2015. The Ville Voice.

The headline from Page One reads: “All Hell is Breaking Loose in Louisville.” And although the Kaintuckeean tends to be quite Bluegrass-centric, the historic preservation news coming from the Commonwealth’s most populous place is alarming.

Metro Louisville demolished multiple structures on Third Street in downtown Louisville on Saturday, including the the Typewriter building, the Falls City Theater Company, and the Old Morrissey Garage. These properties have on multiple occasions been listed on Preservation Louisville’s Most Endangered Historic Places list.

The Morrissey Garage was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 as the Bosler Garage (its original name). Built in the Romanesque Revival design in 1919, the garage has been described as “an important local example of utilitarian architecture and of the local awareness and respect for the automobile industry in the early years” of the 20th century. Jeffrey Scott Holland photographed Morrissey and shared some of the images on Unusual Kentucky.

A 1974 Sanborn map shows these structures standing alone in a sea of parking lot, but the structures have persisted. When acquired by the city of Louisville in 2009, an inspection revealed that structures were in “poor condition.” By neglect, the 2015 inspection “concluded dramatic deterioration” according to the Louisville Metro.

When I read those words, all I could think was that this is an awful case of demolition by neglect.

And it looks like Preservation Louisville agrees. Marianne Zickuhr, executive director of PL, said that “It is unfortunate that Metro could not have found a way to save these buildings before safety became an immediate issue.” She went on to say that “It’s just unfortunate that the owners were allowed to let it sit for so long and let it deteriorate.”

Yes, Louisville utilized the old ignore-the-problem-until-it-is-unsafe-and-then-tear-it-down solution to the block. And where public safety is truly at play, demolition can be the right solution. But I’ll always call for at least providing the opportunity to see what, if anything, can be salvaged.

And according to The ‘Ville Voice, that’s what preservationists in Louisville wanted. The city, developers, and preservationists had been engaged in talks about the future of the block. Within the past couple months, the parties toured the block and communicated about what could be conserved or repurposed. As late as March 13, preservationists were suggesting preservation and reuse of façades, salvaging architectural details and repurposing parts of the more structurally-sound structures remaining on the block.

Then “on April 9 the city responded to suggests provided by preservationists … with an emergency demolition press release. No warning, no notice, gave no one any time to raise funds to save what could be saved. Then radio silence.”

The silence lasted two days and was broken by the sounds of demolition.

An Archway from Morrissey Garage. The Ville Voice.

Louisville bills itself as Possibility City. But I don’t see much imagination or possibility in what happened over the weekend. Zickuhr also said that “Demolition by neglect is not a sustainable way to develop and evolve as a city.”

After this weekend’s wrecking ball, still standing on the block are the old Water Company building and the old Odd Fellows Hall. Elements of these structures could be incorporated into the development plans for the block: a 30 story Omni Hotel that will be Louisville’s third tallest skyscraper. Development costs for that project are nearly $300 million.

Preservation of the façades alone could have offered the Omni project a unique and historic streetscape along Third Street along with unique, classical entrances to its facilities. It could have been held up as a model of preservation and urban design.

But instead, Possibility City went the way of the wrecking ball.

Preservation Louisville suggests that Louisvillians let your voice be heard. Click here to find out more!

DEMO WATCH: Kentucky’s Equine History Embodied in the Robert Sanders House of Scott County

Robert Sanders House in Scott County. National Register. 

In 1785, at the age of 6, Polly Shipp Hawkins immigrated to Kentucky. Much later in life, she recollected her journey through life. The memoirs, written in 1868, recalled a “large brick house ‘standing near the Cane Run bridge on the turnpike to Lexington.'” It stood out in Polly’s mind as it was the first brick house she ever encountered.

And stood out it should. The home encountered by young Polly was probably the first brick structure in Scott County and one of the earliest and finest such structures in all the bluegrass.

In 1904, Scott County historian B. O. Gaines observed that the Robert Sanders house “would last forever.” But that suggestion may soon be untrue.

Although preservationists are actively working to save this two-and-one-half story piece of history, the Robert Sanders house is truly in its eleventh hour.

The home’s inclusion on the 2009 edition of the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation’s endangered property list observed both that “the exterior of this building is large and impressive” but also that “the interior is the real treasure.”

But according to the Georgetown News-Graphic, “work has already begun to strip the interior of the house.” These treasured interior elements include, according to the BGT:

The first story room to the east of the central stair hall contains the original walnut mantelpiece and paneling. Detailing includes scallops, large reeding, fretwork, cornice, and chair rail all in the original, unpainted walnut. To the right of the fireplace is a bookshelf with doors containing small panes of glass and to the right is a closet which once housed an early stairway. The rest of the house preserves original mantels, trim, and floorboards.

Even more spectacular, still, may be the importance of this house and property on Kentucky’s equine industry.

In her essay “A richer land never seen yet” contained in the book Bluegrass Renaissance, Maryjean Wall wrote that “a house that Colonel Roberts Sanders built in 1798 near Georgetown in Scott County became part of a complex that was said to include a five-hundred-bed hotel, a race track, and a farm for Thoroughbreds.”

Wall went on to note that efforts by those such as Sanders “eventually would combine to make an industry.” An action setting Sanders apart from the others was his purchase and import to Kentucky of Melzar – a stallion whose short time at stud produced a prized offspring which led toward Kentucky’s first sweepstakes.” Sanders also imported to Kentucky the first Thoroughbred from England; he was a stallion named Blaze.

Sanders truly contributed to Kentucky and Kentucky stands at risk of losing its physical connection with “the wealthiest pioneer in the state” (as family histories indicate).

His 1,000 acre land grand offered Sanders the space and opportunity to develop his empire. According to the application to the National Register to which the property was added in 1973, the “Sanders estate also included a spring house, ice house, smoke house, loom house, blacksmith shop, and a stone barn. The stone barn, which was laid without mortar, originally had tiny port-holes for mounting rifles.”

The rifles would have been necessary to thwart attacks from Indians. Other defenses built in the event of an Indian attack included thick walls (up to 3.5 feet in places). The basement was apparently designed as a safe place to go in the event of attack as well. The well-built house utilized 8×12 sleepers in its construction (compared with today’s conventional 2×4 … a clear reason this house was thought to “last forever.”) which, among other things, offered additional headroom for those seeking shelter during a raid. Later, a portion of this basement became “one of the finest wine cellars in the state” according to the National Register application.

An obituary running in the Kentucky Gazette in May 1805 reported the “death of Colonel Robert Sanders of Scott County ‘after illness of 4 weeks.'” Hopefully, the physical space he once inhabited will not too perish.

Listen to Last Week’s Trivial Thursday Interview!

Host Mick Jeffries, myself, and Mayor Jim Gray talking about Lexington. 

Before the rains hit late last week, I spent part of Thursday morning in the studio’s of UK’s student-run radio station, WRFL. Mick Jeffries, the godfather of WRFL, invited me on his show Trivial Thursdays to talk about my book, Lost Lexington. My interview starts around the 10:40 mark.

While on the air, I read from a few excerpts about the book and talked with Mick about incubation periods, Belle Brezing, the Kaintuckeean, Wigwam Villages, and more. Later during the show (around 46:30), Lexington Mayor (and Lost Lexington foreworder) Jim Gray talked more Lexington awesomeness.

Turn up the volume, apparently I wasn’t speaking closely enough to the microphone … And tune in to Trivial Thursdays from 7a – 9a every Thursday morning on 88.1 WRFL.

6 Kentucky Sites Listed on National Register of Historic Places

On March 17, 2015, the Secretary of the Interior approved the inclusion of 6 Kentucky properties into the National Register of Historic Places. The properties are located in Campbell, Jefferson, Kenton, and Pike Counties and represent Kentucky’s manufacturing, residential, entertainment, and educational past.

These six sites were previously profiled here and here. And you can read more about the National Register of Historic Places here.

Marianne Theatre

Marianne Theatre Marquee. NRHP Application.

This Bellevue, Kentucky, theatre was designed by Registered Architect Paul B. Kiel in 1941 in the Art Deco and Moderne Style. It was built by owner-manager Peter L. Smith in 1942 in the center of the 600 block of Fairfield Avenue in Bellevue, Kentucky. Already on the National Register as part of the Fairfield Avenue Historic District, the property is being indvididually listed to draw additional attention to it.

There once were over 60 neighborhood theaters in northern Kentucky and the Marianne was one of the finest.

Charles Young Park and Community Center

Charles Young Center. NRHP Application.

Across the street from Lexington’s Isaac Murphy Memorial Garden stands the Charles Young Park and Community Center. This part of Lexington’s East End is undergoing a renaissance and the Charles Young facilities stand to be a landmark in this change.

The park has been owned by the city since 1930 and the one-story brick veneered side-gable community center is an icon of Third Street. During Jim Crow-era Kentucky, segregation dictated separate community facilities for blacks. According to the nomination, the “Charles Young Park provides an important physical and spatial indication of the existence of the East End community, and the importance that a public place holds for any community— for recreation and civic gathering.”

Lynn Acres Garden Apartments

Circa 1950 Aerial of Lynn Acres. NRHP Application.

The 66 two-story apartment buildings in Louisville’s southside were constructed between 1947 and 1950. The complex includes a variety of 12-, 8-, and 4-plex units with greenspace behind each structure intended for children’s play but which is now used by many residents for gardening.

The brick construction and side-gabled roofs had architectural attention in their design – a rarity in today’s residential apartment design. But perhaps the layout of the buildings deserves the most attention as the green space between them and the connected streets are key to good community design.

Louisville, Gas & Electric Co. Service Station Complex

LG&E Service Station Complex. NRHP Application.

Also known as the Edison Building, this gas and electrical service station was constructed ca. 1924. It stands on a 4+ acre lot at Louisville’s 7th and Ormsby, and all of the acreage is included in the nomination. Even before 1924, the site’s utility was related to generating power.

The main structure is cube-shaped and constructed primarily of poured cement. The south façade is the most decorated of the four sides and it is divided into 9 bays. The three-story structure was built with the potential of expansion to 8-stories, but demand was never realized for the additional square footage. A red brick gate house, ca. 1890, also stands on the property.

Hellman Lumber and Manufacturing Co.

Hellman Lumber. NRHP Application.

On Covington’s 12th Street, stands the Hellman Lumber and Manufacturing Co. This warehouse was built from 1886-1894 and the company is one of the community’s oldest businesses dating to 1879. Without a doubt, many of Covington’s structures have been built with wood that has passed through this facility.

The nomination form describes the main warehouse as “an intact two-story two-bay side-gabled brick warehouse-style corner commercial building that is approximately 14,000-16,000 square feet. The original foundation is wet-masonry limestone.” The building and its story represent an intact representation of the era’s booming lumber industry.

Elkhorn City Elementary and High Schools

Elkhorn City High School. NRHP Application.
Near the heart of Elkhorn City are its schools with the complex (6.8 acres) including 6 structures, of which 3 are contributing to the historic character: a 1938 WPA high school, a 1956 elementary school, and a 1956 music instruction building. 

Elkhorn City lies in Pike County about 20 miles from the seat of Pikeville. During the academic life of these buildings as academic facilities, 1938 to the 1980s, the manpower required for coal mining increasingly declined even when demand was high due to mechanization of the process. The nomination form provides that “These facilities demonstrate a continual dedication to public education within this rural Kentucky community. Their existence displays a successful development from rural school facilities into a modernized educational system.”