Uncategorized – Page 5 – The Kaintuckeean

An Early Stone House of Fayette County… to be Demolished?

The four-bay, two-story John Bell House at 460 Greendale Road is the latest addition to our Demolition Watch. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, this residence was built in the first decade of the 1800s and is recognized as one of the early stone buildings of central Kentucky. That status is noted in Lexington’s 2007 Comprehensive Plan (p. 302).

In Clay Lancaster’s 1955 writing on Rural Residence of Fayette County, the subject property was included in a short list of the early stone houses. Describing that list, Lancaster wrote that “they are not numerous.”

Stoneleigh. Carolyn Murray-Wooley, ca. 1983. University of Kentucky Libraries.

Bell, Poindexter, Bullock and Webb

John Bell, the son of Revolutionary War Captain David Bell, was born in Virginia in 1758. He had this property, known as Stoneleigh constructed and from here sold both hogs and cattle throughout the South according to the papers of Henry Clay.

Upon Mr. Bell’s death in 1835, the property was sold to former U.S. Senator and Mississippi Governor George Poindexter who had abandoned Mississippi to practice law here, in Kentucky. Eventually, Poindexter would return to Mississippi.

Perhaps one of the most interesting tales relating to Poindexter occurred when he was living in Washington, D.C., and retained the services of Richard Lawrence for the painting of his residence there. A few months after the paint had dried, Lawrence became the failed assassin of President Jackson. Jackson accused Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina as well as Poindexter of conspiring in the assassination attempt. Although there was no evidence connecting either senator to the crime, Mississippi failed to return Poindexter to the Senate. He immediately came to Kentucky.

The property passed through the hands of Winfield Bullock, too, before being acquired by John Webb in 1848. The property remained in the Webb family’s control until earlier this year.

The Road to Demolition?

The present concern involves the transfer of the 12.4 acres on which this historic property resides to BT-OH, LLC on June 29, 2016 for $1.15 million. BT-OH is a Delaware limited liability company formed in 1999 as a subsidiary of United Parcel Service, Inc. It is believed that the acreage is valuable to UPS not for its historic value, but instead as a parking lot. When the property had been listed for sale, the presence of a historic brick building was not noted. Signage seemed to indicate only acreage of developable property.

A demolition permit has yet been applied for as of the date of this writing, yet the property remains at risk. It is not located in an H-1 historic district, but a stone wall on the property should be enough to warrant a demolition hold to be placed on the application once it is sought.

Stay tuned for more details.

555 North Broadway Restored

Join the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation’s monthly deTours program on Wednesday, August 3, as we tour 555 North Broadway, a meticulously restored house in the Northside Historic District by architects Joe Turley and Maureen Peters. We will gather at 5:30 pm and the deTour will begin at 5:45 pm. As always, BGT deTours are free and open to the public. On-street parking is available along Sixth Street and on Fayette Park.

This three story, three-bay, tan brick veneer Prairie-style home with red flared tile roof (pictured above and below) was constructed in 1914 for Dr. Charles A. Vance. Dr. Vance was a 1900 graduate of Transylvania Medical College. After graduation, Dr. Vance went to practice medicine with his uncle in New York but returned to Lexington to do general practice. Later he decided to become a general surgeon, and in 1945 served as the President of the Southern Surgical Association.

This deTour will showcase the extensive planning, design, and work of restoring this five bedroom, 5,496 SF Lexington treasure. Immediately following the August 3 deTour is our Social AfterHour at West Sixth Brewing, located at 501 W. Sixth Street, near Jefferson Street.

IF YOU GO

BGT deTour
555 N. Broadway, Lexington

August 3, 2016
Gather at 5:30 p.m.,
program begins at 5:45 p.m.

555 N. Broadway, Lexington

Free and open to the public. An AfterHour at West Sixth Brewery follows.

#BGTdeTours

Photos courtesy of the Blue Grass Trust.

deTouring Rupp Arena (Home of the Greatest Tradition in College Basketball)

Entrance to Rupp Arena. University of Kentucky Archives.

On Monday evening, one of four teams will be crowned the NCAA Champion. For basketball fans (which is all of us, right?), you can probably already hear the lyrics sung by Luther Vandross to One Magic Moment. Right?

The Final Four was once held, in 1985, in Lexington, Kentucky at Rupp Arena. It was a memorable performance as the underdog Villanova went on to beat favorite Georgetown.

Yes, the tradition of college basketball is rich in Lexington and at Rupp Arena.

Timeout during a men’s basketball game. Author’s collection.

The home team, the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball Team, is the most winning college basketball program. The team’s all-time record in Rupp Arena is 546-64.

The arena itself opened in 1976; its dedication coming during its third game – a December 1976 win against the Kansas Jayhawks. But the venue is about more than just basketball.

Concerts, church services, community events, minor league hockey, arena football, and more have been only a part of what has made Rupp Arena an important part of Lexington’s history.

An empty Rupp Arena in 2016. Author’s collection.

This week you’ll have the opportunity to explore this rich historic place that is now in its 40th year. It may be the last time you’ll have to see Big Bertha – the 12,000 pound sound system hanging from the center of the stadium. It’s being removed during the main tenant’s off-season. It will be the most recent of many renovations and alterations made to the venue over its rich history.

The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation will be holding its monthly deTour for April at Rupp Arena. More details are available on Facebook, so mark Wednesday, April 6, 2016 on your calendar for this event!

339 Jefferson Faces Wrecking Ball

339 Jefferson Street. Fayette PVA.

With spring comes the blossoming buds of the flowers, but it also seems to bring the wrecking ball. On March 4, 2016, a demolition permit was sought for 339 Jefferson Street.

The old house, according to records of the Fayette County PVA, was built around 1890* and is another example of Lexington’s disappearing vernacular architecture. The property owner as of January 1 was Dixon Enterprises, LLC, but the demolition permit reveals that LFUCG Code Enforcement is the applicant/owner. Dixon owns a significant amount of the center of the block.

339 Jefferson Street, then numbered 181 Jefferson, on the 1901 Sanborn Map. UK Libraries.

The house appeared on the 1901 Sanborn Map, but was then numbered 181 Jefferson Street. As noted above, the PVA records indicate that the house was built in 1890. The 1896 Sanborn map, however, does not indicate that any structures were yet constructed on that portion of the western side of Jefferson Street. As such, I believe that 339 Jefferson was built somewhere between 1897 and 1901 … ca. 1900 – 2016.

On August 27, 1910, the Lexington Leader reported that “the funeral services over the body of Mrs. Nannie L. Harvey of 339 Jefferson street, who died Friday afternoon will be held Sunday afternoon, the burial taking place in the Lexington Cemetery.” She was survived by her husband, the sole beneficiary under her will which was probated in November of 1910.

The Jefferson Street corridor is currently one of Lexington’s most active and exciting districts with new development and investment filling the area. Demolition of vernacular structures like these shotguns I highlighted last year is often a side effect of a historic area’s popularity. Other alternatives, like infill and redevelopment of blighted areas like what is going on in NoLi, exist.

It remains to be seen what will occur on this site. But until we know, RIP 339 Jefferson (ca. 1900-2016). After nearly six score together, we hardly knew thee.

The Lexington Country Club

Lexington Country Club in 2016. Author’s Collection.

The charter member list of the Lexington County Club reads as a “who’s who” of Lexington at the turn of the twentieth century. This first social club in Lexington was modeled after the clubs common and popular in larger cities in the eastern United States so that these leaders (men only) would have a place to relax. The Lexington Leader, then the local Republican newspaper, outlined the club’s purpose for prospective members and donors:

Think of having a charming place near town in easy driving distance, with an opportunity to enjoy country life in its most finished sense! Where men after business hours can go and take their families and guests for luncheon or dinner, outdoor and indoor games, where there are beautiful lawns and tennis and golf grounds and society in general go for dances and all sorts of diversions. In this way the most wholesome kind of social enjoyment can be developed and people have that for which they so often long and sign, a perfect resort for entertainment outside of their own homes. In nearly ever other city in America there is something on this order – a country club or a hunting club.

And so it was in 1901 that the Lexington Country Club organized with a site selected along Paris Pike. In 1907, the house that was utilized for the clubhouse was reinvented by the Columbus, Ohio architecture firm Richards, McCarty & Bulford whose work features prominently elsewhere in Lexington. The landscape architects of the Olmsted Brothers firm worked on improvements to the property. The facilities finally opened in October 1907 to a gala event.

Lexington Country Club prior to the 1925 fire. UK Libraries.

Fire and Rebirth

Eighteen years later – on October 19, 1925 – the clubhouse caught fire. Schoolchildren from the Falconer school across the road helped to remove furnishings before the fire became too strong while firefighters from Lexington were dispatched. Despite the effort, the clubhouse was a total loss then measured at only $50,000. The decision was made to rebuild at once.

At the time of the fire, the club’s board was considering what to do with its facility and how it might grow its physical space. Had they deliberated for just a few years longer without the intervening fire, it is a worthy question to ask would the club have survived had the fire come just a few years later? The Great Depression arose following Black Friday four years and ten days following the fire that consumed LCC.

Instead, the fire occurred during the throes of the Roaring Twenties and its grand reopening was realized in June, 1926. With its new facilities in place, the financial hardships brought on by the Depression and the Second World War were weathered by the club.

Marion Miley

None of these days, however, are the most remembered in club history. Instead, that honor is reserved for a more ghastly date: September 28, 1941.

In the early morning hours on that fall day, burglars broke into the Lexington Country Club hoping to retrieve money in the house which had been received during an event at the club earlier in the evening.

Miley arrived at the club as a resident on the club’s second floor when she was just 16: her father became the club’s golf pro and her mother managed the office. Though her father took a similar position in Cincinnati, both Marion Miley and her mother remained in Lexington. Miley’s golf game flourished winning many tournaments in the 1930s. By 1939, she was ranked #2 among amateur women golfers in the United States.

Marion Miley and Lexington Mayor Charles Thompson in 1935 on the steps of the old municipal building. UK Libraries.

But on that fateful evening it was found that Marion heard the noise downstairs when she went to the door of the second floor apartments she shared with her mother. At the door, she was met by her assailant and she was shot at close range.

Though the floor has since been replaced and the second floor remodeled, the spot where Marion Miley fell can be seen in the club’s ladies locker room. The legacy of Marion Miley, however, is best represented in a room that bears her name and contains mementos from her life. Additionally, an annual memorial tournament is held in the club in her honor.

The Club’s Ballroom in February 2016. Author’s Collection.

A Post-War Evolution

Following the Second World War, the club evolved once again. Many members left to join the newly reorganized Idle Hour Country Club nearer to town on Richmond Road. Meanwhile, the Lexington Country Club took a more “family” approach with the addition of a swimming pool and other expansions. Today, its modern facilities enclosed within the heart of a space built in the 1920s create a welcoming environment for members and their guests.

On Wednesday, March 3, the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation’s monthly deTours program will highlight the historic Lexington Country Club with a tour that is – as it is each month – free and open to the public. Additional details are available on Facebook.

Much of the information about the Lexington Country Club provided in this post was derived from the book, Lexington Country Club: A History of the First One Hundred years 1901-2001 by Rick Smoot (2004).

Mayor Jim Gray is Running for the U.S. Senate

Lost Lexington author Peter Brackney and the author of the book’s foreword, Mayor Jim Gray, in the Mayor’s Office.

On November 4, 2014, Mayor Jim Gray was re-elected mayor of Lexington. Also on that date, my book Lost Lexington was published. I was fortunate enough that the good Mayor penned the foreword to that book.

Though his family and he have had their success in the development and construction sector, Mayor Jim Gray is a friend to historic preservation. He is a leader who does not cut corners, but instead looks for forward-thinking, long-term solutions.

Did I mention that Mayor Gray is a supporter of preserving our cultural heritage?

Mayor Jim Gray and I sharing thoughts on historic Lexington and the book Lost Lexington soon after publication.

Given that Mayor Jim Gray announced earlier today that he is challenging Senator Rand Paul, I thought it was a good moment to remind readers of Gray’s Lost Lexington involvement. Below is the foreword he penned for the book:

In the nearly two and a half centuries since Lexington was founded in 1775, this once-frontier settlement has grown into a flourishing city of more than 300,000 residents. It has produced some remarkable landmarks and people. These entrepreneurs, intellectuals and civic leaders had the imagination and vision that helped make Lexington what it is today: a city that embraces new ideas and innovation while valuing its rural landscape and authentic past.

The story of how Lexington has evolved to its present-day landscape is a story of balancing preservation and progress. Philosophies, priorities and ideas change—for better or for worse. And of course, Lexington’s architecture and landscape have reflected those changes. In Lost Lexington, Peter Brackney highlights several sites that, for a variety of reasons, did not survive as the city grew. Brackney’s work explores structures that were lost over a century ago, as well as more modern buildings and attractions, of which many readers will have personal memories and recollections.

Reflecting on Lexington’s architectural journey is a meaningful exercise. Drawing upon Brackney’s fascinating research, we can see these stories as important lessons for the way forward. As Lexington continues to reinvent itself, it is the city’s unique and rich past that will inform and inspire its future.

Jim Gray
Mayor of Lexington

If you are interested in learning more about Jim Gray’s candidacy for U.S. Senate, click here.

And if you want to pick up a copy of Lost Lexington, click here.

5 in ’15: The Best of the Kaintuckeean in 2015

The majority of posts on this site focus on Lexington, Kentucky history and historic preservation. But looking back at 2015’s most popular posts on the Kaintuckeean revealed a couple of fascinating details. One big overservation was that 4 of the 5 most popular posts were about subjects outside of Fayette County. That’s because, well, “Kentucky Kicks Ass.”

And 2 were from Nicholasville! So read on and discover the posts. Last year, I included the page of my book, Lost Lexington, in the rankings. Though it would have been #3 this year, I opted to include only posts. But thanks for continuing to love the book!

#1: Graded School Ruins Along the Dawkins Trail

The Ivyton School in Magoffin County can be spotted from the junction of the Dawkins Trail and the Mountain Parkway.

#2: No Destination: Griffith Woods

Griffith Woods, in Harrison County, once had a tavern that was relocated to Clark County in recent years.

#3: Lexington’s Newest Disappearing Neighborhood

The 1920s houses in this area were demolished in 2015 to make way for the new Shriner’s Hospital

#4: Another Nicholasville House is Gone

Another house from the 1920s is lost to demolition. This one is in Nicholasville.

#5: A Snow Covered Nicholasville

A foot of snow on the ground in Nicholasville resulted in some beautiful pictures. Hoping we don’t repeat this in 2016!

This Christmas, Remember The Christmas Truce

Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence
Over Belleau Wood that night
For a Christmas truce had been declared
By both sides of the fight.

These lyrics from one of Garth Brooks’ songs inspired my intrigue in the Christmas Truce of World War I ever since the song was released nearly 20 years ago. And while I’m passionate about Kentucky history, I’m admittedly unversed on world history of the 20th century (an indictment on both what we teach in American schools and on my own collegiate course selection). So I took Garth at his word.

But stories of the Christmas Truce originated following the holiday in 1914 in the early years of The Great War, while the Battle of Belleau Wood didn’t occur until 1918. And the clincher is that the Battle of Belleau Wood happened in June. Garth was wrong.

The common notions regarding the Christmas Truce, which I’d been taught to believe, were wrong.

Which is why I was quite pleased to find myself seated next to Terri Crocker at the Kentucky Book Fair last month. She is the author of The Christmas Truce (University Press of Kentucky, 2015; $40.00). A New Yorker by birth, Crocker is a PhD candidate at the University of Kentucky where she also works as a paralegal. Her historical passion and investigative nature are what make The Christmas Truce such an excellent work.

Crocker works through the most common misconceptions about the Christmas Truce, chiefly that the soldiers hated the enemy or that the holiday detente was purposed solely as a mutiny against a purposeless war and feckless military brass. Instead, Crocker posits (utilizing the many contemporary reports and private letters of soldiers) that the Truce broke the monotony of a hellish, trench-based warfare against an enemy that differed not from their own.

Crocker, through meticulous research, dismantles the revisionist histories put forth in the 1960s by both historian and filmmaker alike to reveal a significant series of events which began independently at various points along the 20-mile Western Front.

The Truce also varied in how is was celebrated along that Front. In places, football (soccer) was played between British Expeditionary Forces and the Germans while in others the opportunity was taken to retrieve fallen comrades from the no-mans-land between the trenches. Christmas songs were sung, the Germans illuminated small Christmas trees, and food and drink were shared to varying degrees.

A constant, notes Crocker, was that “cease-fires ended with firing that had been prearranged,” but that out of “honour” one side informed the other of that prearranged time. Although the Truce was a welcome reprieve, it was known that the War was not over.

As we celebrate the centennial of the Great War, World War I, it is important to review and challenge the commonly accepted version of history. Especially when that accepted version is, in fact, inaccurate. Crocker does just that by setting aside the Truce’s mythological power and investigating the events as told by those who were present during this moment in history.

The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War was published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2015.

Recognizing and Preserving Our “Venerable Trees”

I first learned of Tom Kimmerer and his work during the late summer and into the fall of 2014 with the news related to a Ball Homes’ development near Harrodsburg Road and Military Pike that threatened a nearly 500 year-old bur oak. The developer hired Kimmerer to create a preservation plan for this ‘venerable’ tree which stands on a bluff above the old South Elkhorn schoolhouse. For the tree preservation plan, Ball Homes earned an award from the Lexington-Fayette Environmental Commission.

Although the preservation of historic buildings has been at times fiercely discussed over the past half-century in Lexington (at times more passionately than at others), the fight over the preservation of historic trees has not drawn the same level of attention. But the preservation of the Old Schoolhouse Oak may be a game changer.

And the premier guidebook for the preservation of trees was recently published by the University Press of Kentucky. The author, not surprisingly, was Tom Kimmerer. Kimmerer’s Venerable Trees: History, Biology, and Conservation in the Bluegrass is a self-described “celebration of the long relationship between people and trees and a cautionary tale of what happens when we neglect that relationship.”

Tom Kimmerer and Ben Chandler at the 2015 Kentucky Book Fair. Author’s collection.

In Venerable Trees, Kimmerer harkens to the early days of Lexington when settlers like Robert Patterson and Josiah Collins felled significant bur oaks and walnuts to construct first a blockhouse and later cabins like the one standing today on the campus of Transylvania University.

In one particular image, a detail of the Patterson Cabin shows the grain on an old oak log that “may be one of the original bur oak pieces used to build the cabin.” Through the page, the history of the building speaks volumes but so does the ancient history that occurred while that tree grew before being cut down for utility by mankind.

The image immediately conjured, for me, the fire, demolition, and removal of the Lady Sterling House in Nicholasville. An 1804 structure which burned in 2014, the burnt original timbers showed their age. Of that loss, I wrote:

But the log cabin which had withstood over 200 years of history and two other major fires seemed resilient. It might be able to be preserved.

The logs had been cut and hewn by hand. The trees from which those timbers came could have stood several hundred years before the trees were felled. If the log cabin couldn’t have been reclaimed, those logs could have perhaps been rebuilt on the same or another site. Or the logs could have been repurposed and reclaimed in other ways.

The timber of this building spoke to me, but I’ve largely neglected to consider the honorable tree in my passion for preservation. But our venerable trees should not be forgotten – they should be preserved.

Truly, Venerable Trees is not what I expected. I expected that the book on biology would read like a textbook and would appeal only to a narrow subset of the population whose passion involves counting tree rings. And without a doubt, this book will appeal to those individuals as well.

But Kimmerer does a fabulous job of presenting complex matters in simple, readable prose. The stories of particular trees both in the Inner Bluegrass Basin and in the Nashville Basin are told alongside an understanding of how different species of trees reproduce, how that reproduction is aided by the natural environment, and with an emphasis on the importance of these significant natural monuments. All with a good collection of both black-and-white and color photographs.

Venerable Trees is highly recommended for the arborist, the history buff, the preservationist, and those who love Kentucky’s natural beauty. For more about Tom Kimmerer and his work, visit his website.

Graded School Ruins Along the Dawkins Trail

Ivyton Graded School – Ivyton, Ky. Author’s collection.

Harold Ickes said that “the new rural schools, made possible by good roads, are quite as
modern as the best city schools. Where it was necessary to have eight one-room schools in the
past, there is now a single eight-room school.” Ickes would know: he served as President Franklin Roosevelt’s Interior Secretary and was responsible for implementing the New Deal.

Although a number of New Deal programs were involved in building new schools, the Works Progress Administration was the most active. The WPA channeled “more than $162 million through
thousands of state projects and had as many as seventy-two thousand Kentuckians on the payroll in the September 1938 peak.”
(Blakey 1986, 59).

One of those schools is the old Ivyton Graded School which is located just off the Mountain Parkway in Magoffin County. Perhaps you have noticed the ruins on the northern side of the roadway.

The Mountain Parkway (and Dawkins Trail) at Ivyton, Kentucky. Author’s collection.

The ruins first caught my eye when returning from a court hearing in Pikeville in 2013. It was a cold March and spring had not yet begun to bloom, leaving the ruins exposed. I was immediately drawn to the point that I reversed course so that I could explore.

The Kentucky Heritage Council surveyed the site nine years earlier, in 2004, for its Inventory Survey, observing that

Ivyton School under construction. UK Libraries.

All that remains of the building is the exterior walls. The structure is constructed of ashlar sandstone blocks laid in broken range work. The school was a one-story, three-bay (w/d/w), side-gabled structure. The centered, arched entry of the façade, constructed with quoins and a keystone, projected slightly from the wall place of the façade. A date stone directly above the entry states: “WPA 1938”. Stone quoins are found on each corner of the structure. None of the windows remain. Each of the window openings has a keystone. The southwest gable end of the structure has three large window openings, a window opening near the apex of the wall and a stone chimney. The school appears to have been constructed in a “T” shape, with a perpendicular gable-roof section projecting from the rear of the structure.

Date stone at the old Ivyton Graded School – Ivyton, Ky. Author’s collection.

Above is a photograph, taken in 2013, of the date block directly above the entrance to the old graded school.

I recently returned from another court appearance in Pikeville and made it a point to again visit the ruins. This time, I knew that the Dawkins Trail (Kentucky’s longest rail-trail) crossed the Mountain Parkway at Ivyton. So I explored further on foot. Within a short walk from what has become a de facto trailhead at Ivyton are two of the most unique locations along the 18-miles of open trail, including a 662-foot tunnel and the bridge trussle over the Mountain Parkway.

So next time you are traveling the Mountain Parkway, be sure to see if you can spot the old Ivyton Graded School!

The afternoon sunlight hits the Ivyton School ruins in November 2015. Author’s collection.