kernel: The Fayette Alliance

The marketing team behind the attempted “Kentucky for Kentucky“, Kentucky for Kentucky, has done a few videos lately that have gotten the attention of the community. One was presented at the final presentation for the Rupp Arena, Arts and Entertainment District plan and the other profiles a local organization, The Fayette Alliance.

I have – and you probably have – seen cars driving around town with a Fayette Alliance bumper sticker. But have you ever wondered more about the organization? I knew they were involved in preserving greenspace and farmland, but the video created over at Bullhorn for the folks at The Fayette Alliance really gives a deeper understanding of an organization committed to making Lexington a “world-class city in our world-class Bluegrass.” Check out the video below:

The Fayette Alliance was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Lexington’s Historic Western Suburb. Fayette Alliance “has worked with local government to usher over 50 major land-use policies into law that promote farmland preservation and our signature agricultural industries, responsible development, and improved water quality and infrastructure in Fayette County.” On these issues, the Fayette Alliance has created a strong and unified voice on important issues affecting and that will continue to impact Lexington and her future.

Their five pillars reach beyond greenspace because all of Lexington is intertwined. Their five pillars are: creating a dynamic city, protecting our farmlands, helping neighborhoods, cleaning up our streams, and community outreach.

If you are interested in more information on The Fayette Alliance, check out their website.

The Father of the Kentucky Constitution is buried in Lexington

Col. George Nicholas Historic Marker – Lexington, Ky.

As the wilderness of Kentucky was becoming settled, our collective hero-worship turned from the pioneer to the war hero and statesman. An accomplished Virginia attorney even before he crossed the Appalachians, George Nicholas helped bring Kentucky from wilderness to statehood.

George Nicholas was born in 1754 near Williamsburg, Virginia to a prominent family of the Old Dominion colony. He attended College of William and Mary in his hometown and there obtained an education and became an accomplished attorney.  Though he served in the Revolutionary army, he did not participate in any major engagements.
The year 1780 was significant for Nicholas, his family, and his hometown. His father, a prominent attorney and political leader who had opposed the Declaration of Independence, passed from this life. Nicholas’ hometown of Williamsburg lost its status as state capital. Nicholas, too, left Williamsburg. Heading west, Nicholas resettled to Charlottesville, Virginia. There, he befriended future President James Madison. In his new home, George Nicholas was returned to the Virginia House of Burgesses for several terms as representative for Albermale County.
And though his father had opposed the Declaration of Independence, Colonel George Nicholas was a strong proponent for adoption of the Constitution when Virginia considered ratification at its 1788 convention. Once Virginia had adopted the new federal constitution, Nicholas and his country again looked westward.

Col. Nicholas from the C. Frank
Dunn Collection (KDL)
President Washington appointed Colonel Nicholas to be the first United States Attorney for the District of Kentucky. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789, Kentucky (a judicial district of Virginia consisting of nine counties) was designated as one of the thirteen original judicial districts. Washington’s appointment of Nicholas occurred on September 29, 1789, and Nicholas dutifully followed his nation’s call to Kentucky whereupon he settled in the then-seat of government: Danville.

For seven years and through nine conventions, Kentuckians had sought statehood independence from Virginia. Now in Danville, Nicholas joined the call. A statehood petition was granted in 1791 and a state constitutional convention was called in April 1792 to prepare a constitution for the new Commonwealth. Five representatives from each of Kentucky’s nine counties came to Danville to accomplish this goal. As one of Kentucky’s leading legal minds, Colonel Nicholas was called upon to serve as chief draftsman of the document. For this, Nicholas is known as the “Father of the Kentucky Constitution.”

A great debate at the constitutional convention arose over the issue of slavery. Nicholas favored slavery and its legal merits, but at least one member of the convention resigned when Nicholas’ draft included language that protected slavery. Found in Article IX of Kentucky’s first constitution, the provisions prohibited the legislature from passing laws “for the emancipation of slaves without the [prior] consent of their owners” and a “full equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated.” Article IX did at least forbid the “inhumane” treatment of slaves and it also prohibited the commercial slave trade.

Nicholas’ constitution also lacked mention of taxation, education, or a scheme through which to amend the constitution. In today’s Kentucky, this is hard to believe as we face an amendment to our state constitution on almost every visit to the ballot box. These deficiencies and the inability to amend led to calls for a new constitutional convention which was finally convened in 1799; this convention produced Kentucky’s second constitution which was largely based on Nicholas’ work.

On June 15, 1792, Nicholas was appointed by Governor Isaac Shelby to serve as Kentucky’s first attorney general. He stayed in this position for only six months before retiring from public life and to Lexington where he continued to practice law. In 1799, Transylvania University was established as such and with it came the first law school in the west; Colonel Nicholas was appointed as its first law professor. 

Colonel Nicholas died in Lexington on July 25, 1799, and he is buried in the Old Episcopal Burial Ground on Lexington’s Third Street. Named after him are both the city of Nicholasville and Nicholas County.

UK Couple’s engagement during ABC’s Bachelor highlights Lexington

Dixiana Farm – Lexington, Ky.
(Photo from Marry Me Monday video)

On Monday, a Lexington couple’s engagement was the subject of a nationally broadcast commercial during ABC’s The Bachelor. Thanks to a tweet by the University of Kentucky, I knew this was coming making it only somewhat endurable to join my wife in enduring watching this hour of television.

UK alum Brandon Poynter introduced himself as being from Lexington, Kentucky with a photograph on-screen of downtown’s Victorian Square Main Street facade. His proposal to University of Kentucky graduate student Mallory Johnson was the moment of interest in a minute long advertisement by jeweler Jared’s. You can watch his proposal here:

 

Domino Stud Farm Mansion, since lost to fire
(Photo: Dixiana Farms)

What particularly caught my eye was where Brandon proposed: Dixiana Farm. Located off Russell Cave Road, the farm was the subject of my 2010 post after a major fire devoured one of the farm’s antebellum mansions which is pictured at left. In the 1940s, the great Dixiana Farm was divided into two farms. But the two were reunited in 2009 “putting the historic farm back to its original acreage and name.”

It is always great to see part of Lexington’s beautiful countryside and downtown profiled nationally.

And best wishes to Brandon and Mallory!

ed. note: A revised version updated the photo of the Domino Stud Farm Mansion which was destroyed by the 2010 fire. The original antebellum Dixiana Farm mansion remains standing.

Another Round in the Centrepointe Saga

Architect Rendering of Centrepointe from Limestone & Vine
(Photo: EOP Architects)

After the adjournment of yesterday’s Courthouse Area Design Review Board Meeting, the agenda called for a preliminary presentation of the future of the Centrepointe block. With no application previously filed, I think this presentation slipped by everyone (except H-L’s Bev Fortune). This was probably the intent all along: to get feedback from the board prior to having too much information in public hands to be criticized in what has already been a four-year bout among different community stakeholders.

But as a result of this “surprise” presentation, we now have an idea of what is the latest proposal for the block bounded in downtown Lexington by Main, Upper, Vine, and Limestone streets. We will call it, “Centrepointe, version 5.0.”

(Photo: EOP Architects)

The first two proposals by owner and developer the Webb Companies involved a monolithic structure taking the form of either phallus or tombstone. From my perspective, these proposals contained no architectural interest and seemed out-of-scale for downtown Lexington. Later, Webb hired Jeanne Gang from Chicago to create a vision for what could be done with the block. In a disappointing turn of events, Gang was released from the project last October. At that time, Webb announced that EOP Architects of Lexington would take over architectural design.

EOP and Webb incorporated many of Gang’s suggestions and recommendations. Among them is the block’s overall layout, which Gang devised using light and shadow tables: smaller buildings along Main Street, an 8-10 story office tower at Main and Limestone, and the large skyscraper at Upper and Vine.

Kept is the diagonal cut at Main and Limestone into the shorter tower which was intended to create better lines of sight for both pedestrians and drivers. A new feature is the proposed structure at Vine and Limestone: slightly larger than anything under Gang’s proposal, the 3-4 story office building is reminiscent of a more rigid and less natural adaptation of Beijing’s National Stadium (aka, the birds nest). Also retained is the expensive but necessary underground parking.

(Photo: EOP Architects)
Back are Webb’s favorite mode of transportation: the pedway. And as for the big tower: it isn’t very interesting. It looks like something that would be in a larger city. The entrance on Vine Street isn’t very exciting. But Gang’s “tube” design – which I liked – apparently didn’t fit Marriott’s large hotel design model plans. And even if information about project financing has been varied throughout this process, Webb has reminded us for the duration of Marriott’s commitment. If we are to get another large hotel as is sought by the Visitor’s Bureau, we need to work with the hotel to meet their needs, too. 
From what I’ve seen, this design may be the most workable yet. To be certain, there will and should be some modifications. And a public meeting is in the works. 
What do you think?

Kinkead House, home of Living Arts and Science Center, ready for contemporary architecture addition

Artistic Rendition of LASC Addition
The Martin Luther King neighborhood is the planned home for what is to be one of Lexington’s most contemporary pieces of architecture. On November 16, 2011 the Living Arts and Science Center (LASC) began a campaign to raise nearly $5 million for the construction of an 11,000-square-foot addition that will more than double the size of its current structure, the historic George B. Kinkead House. Designed by Louisville’s award-winning De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop, the project is not the first to change the antebellum building – though arguably it is the most drastic in scale and design.

LASC Jan 2012 (Photo by Jason Sloan)
Built in 1847, the Kinkead House was initially – and still recognizably – designed in the Greek Revival form. Dick DeCamp suggested that popular local architect Thomas Lewinski (responsible for the extensive Italianate alterations to Latrobe’s Pope Villa) designed the mansion for Kinkead, as well as the Italianate changes incorporated sometime after 1853. George Kinkead, lawyer to Abraham Lincoln and family, was one of Lexington’s most forward-thinking citizens.

Kinkead was pro-Union and anti-slavery. His action spoke loudly on his beliefs: he provided 11 acres of land around his home to freed slaves. The area became known as Kinkeadtown and was almost exclusively African-American for nearly 100 years. Today, Kinkeadtown comprises the heart of the East End, though there is scant evidence other than the expansive mansion of the old community.

Location of New Addition
(Photo by Jason Sloan)

The Kinkead family owned the house for 134 years prior to donating it in 1981 to the LASC which had been leasing the property since 1970. The mission of the Living Arts and Science Center is to encourage “participation in art and science by engaging the community through discovery, exploration and creativity.” This mission should be advanced by the extensive addition that will include a planetarium, arts gallery, and recording studio, among others.

The Kinkead House is among Lexington’s most historically significant buildings. And not just for its architecture, but for its associated history and its current owner-occupany, the Living Arts and Science Center. With the new LASC addition, the architects have respected of the height and scale of the current structure, though Herald-Leader columnist Tom Eblen notes that it “is really a separate building, tucked along the south side and back of the Kinkead House.” Hopefully, the new addition provides a clear link between the building’s past and help progress the nonprofit’s mission as place of progressive and creative education.

Antebellum Mason County Courthouse Part of Historic Downtown Maysville, Ky.

Mason County Courthouse – Maysville, Ky.
Maysville is one of the great hidden treasures in Kentucky. If you haven’t been to Maysville, you owe yourself the trip.

Mason County is named after founding father and namesake of college basketball bracket-buster George Mason. The area was settled early – Christopher Gist settled the area in 1751, with Simon Kenton and Thomas Williams among the first permanent settlers. While conflicts with natives made the area a dangerous place for settlers early on, Maysville would later enjoy a nationwide reputation as a harbor town and port. The town was originally called Limestone, leading to the naming of Limestone Street in Lexington. The road between Maysville and Lexington was among the most heavily travelled routes in Kentucky during the era of the steamboat.

Maysville retains much of its historic character. The area surrounding the courthouse is filled with beautiful historic homes. This Greek revival courthouse was completed in 1846, and was constructed in anticipation of the county seat being relocated to Maysville.

Eatocracy in Action! A Kentuckian is in running for People’s Best New Pastry Chef! VOTE!

Dad and the lil’ Kaintuck excited to cut into
a German Chocoloate Cake-inspired creation
by Stella Parks.

My wife and are in complete agreement. If we can escape the kids for an evening and either is suffering from a sweet tooth, our destination is Table 310. Their self-described “pasty chef” is from Lexington, but trained at New York’s Culinary Institute. Everything she creates is simply incredible.

Allow me to ignore the fact that I haven’t previously covered the historic building in which Table 310 is housed. And I’ll ignore the delicious food – charcuterie and cheese plates – that make the restaurant Lexington more cosmopolitan.

The “pastry girl” is Stella Parks, aka @Bravetart, and her simple creations capture my generation’s youth but with high-quality ingredients and an amazing attention to detail. Her creations have been featured in Food+Wine magazine. She’s received numerous local and regional accolades, but here is one that you can help this Kentucky girl win:


Help Stella win and VOTE! It is a vote for all of Kentucky as she’s all alone among pastry chefs in that she hails from the best state in the Union. Cast in the east region of voting (there’s also a west and a central), Stella is up against a bunch of New York City types. In her region, she’s the only candidate from this side of the Appalachians.

UPDATE (2-15-12): Stella didn’t win People’s Best New Pastry Chef. Instead, the editors of Food and Wine magazine named our favorite Kentuckian pastry chef one of five Best New Pastry Chefs in America. But kind of like Hollywood, there are multiple awards. It’s the equivalent of saying that she lost the People’s Choice Awards, but won the Academy Awards. CONGRATULATIONS, STELLA!

Impressions of Martin County, Kentucky

Martin County Courthouse – Inez, Ky.

Without a doubt, Kentuckians are proud of our freedoms, our nation, and our flag. But I was immediately struck by a different form of patriotism when I entered Martin County: I was immediately taken by the number of Confederate flags flying on and in front of Martin County homes.

To many, the Confederate flag is nothing more than a racist symbol of hatred. For others, however, it is a cultural and historic reference to ancestors who fought and lost their right to independence. While I am sure there are some Martin countians who wave the Confederate banner for the former reason, I am confident that the vast majority do so for the latter. The people of Martin County I know and those I encountered while in Inez were and are all warm-hearted and willing to extend a friendly greeting to a non-native.

This, however, is truer throughout Appalachia and rural Kentucky than it is in any urban setting. And some high-profile visitors received in Inez have given her residents opportunity to exercise this hospitality.

Streetscape – Inez, Ky.

At roughly 35%, Martin County has among the nation’s highest poverty rates, though it is fifth among Kentucky counties. Martin County and its seat, Inez, became the face of poverty in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson and his wife visited. In fact, it was on the front porch of of Tommy Fletcher’s shack that President Johnson declared “war on poverty.” A coal boom in the 1970s brought jobs and a degree of prosperity to the region, but many of those jobs have been lost and coal seams exhausted. Presidential candidate John McCain returned in 2008 to Inez, which he described as one of America’s “forgotten places.” As part of his 2008 presidential campaign, John Edwards also visited Martin County to highlight his perspective on “two Americas.”

I did not stop along the rural highways of Martin to stop and photograph the scenery. I wish that I had. Even with the negative environmental impacts caused by surface mining and mountaintop removal, reclamation efforts and untouched land leave behind spectacular vistas and images of quintessential Kentucky. It is no wonder then that until 1874, Inez was called Eden. Or that two of Martin County’s other hamlets are named Lovely and Beauty.

I would love to return to Martin County. There is great history in the small communities of Warfield and Beauty. The questions though are how? and why? The road to Inez is certainly one that is, excepting the regular supply of coal trucks, less traveled. To arrive in Inez or in Martin County, one must make it their destination. I plan to do so again.

Sources: CNHI; Daily Yonder; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fleming County Courthouse in Flemingsburg, Ky.

Fleming County Courthouse – Flemingsburg, Ky. (Photo: NRK)
I don’t know if you can quite get the feel of Flemingsburg from this picture, but this neocolonial courthouse sits at the very top of a hill in a very hilly little town. This is the county’s third courthouse, and it was built on this site in 1952.
Source: UK Postcard Collection; KDL

This building replaced a courthouse built in 1830 (pictured, right), which was considered among the finest examples of Federal architecture. Apparently, the old building contained a good deal of intricate interior and exterior wood carvings which had been done by trained slave labor. The old building was demolished not due to poor condition, but because a donor had bequeathed money for the construction of a new courthouse. According to Carpenter’s Courthouse book, the building “unsuccessfully tries to emulate the style and details of the former building, including a modern fan doorway.”

The Flemingsburg Historic District file in the National Register reads that this courthouse is a “nondescript public structure replaced the circa 1830 federal square-plan courthouse that was built by Eckles and Stockwell. The earlier square-plan courthouse not only represented one of the earliest courthouse designs to be used in Kentucky, but also stood as a monument to the strong building traditions of the Fleming County community.”

Fleming County has had a few really interesting residents over the years, including a famous Union spy (James J. Andrews) and one of the men who raised the flag over Iwo Jima (Franklin R. Sousley).

Photo: AOC

[ed. note] In 2009, ground was broken on the new Fleming County Judicial Center. A number of historic structures were demolished to make way for this new 32,800 square foot judicial center. The dedication is scheduled for later this month, February 21, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

Lexington’s Bond House has tragic story hidden in its past

Bond House - Lexington, Ky.
Bond House at 209/211 North Limestone Street – Lexington, Ky.

Nestled between Columbia’s Steakhouse and the Lexington Beerworks sits the Bond House. Of Georgian Revival design, it was constructed in 1909 by owner C.E. Bond of Lawrenceburg with architectural design being possibly attributed to John V. Moore. In the early twentieth century, Mr. Bond acquired several landholdings in Lexington including this parcel as well as parcels on both East and West Main Street. Like many of the buildings in the area, the Bond House typifies urban mixed-use architecture with first-floor commercial and upper-story residential occupancies.

Bond was well-known in his Lawrenceburg home as he was a builder and the president of the Lawrenceburg National Bank. The third Anderson County Courthouse, built in 1861, was remodeled in 1905 by Bond; it, however, burned to the ground in 1915. The fourth and present Anderson County Courthouse was constructed using stones from the earlier courthouse. C.E. Bond sold this Lexington parcel in 1913 to brothers James E. and John P. Slavin.

As is often the case, little is known of James E. Slavin. But I discovered a most emotional tale when querying John P. Slavin.

In January 1906, “combined fortune and misfortune of death, a joy mingled with grief, fell upon the home of Fireman John P. Slavin and wife Saturday. During the early morning hours Mrs. Slavin gave birth to a fine boy, but Friday afternoon their son, Thomas Lyons Slavin, aged five years, died.” Lexington Leader, Jan. 7, 1906 (sec. 2, p. 7 col. 4). It was scarlet fever that had taken the life of the young five year old. Then on January 16, 1906, this was printed in the Lexington Herald: “John Joseph Slavin, infant son of Fireman J.P. Slavin, died at the home of Mr. Slavin on Georgetown street, Sunday night at 9:30 o’clock. This is the second death in Mr. Slavin’s family in the last ten days, he having lost his five-year-old son Wednesday a week ago.”

What a tragedy. I cannot imagine the grief that family suffered. This story reminded me of the humanity and the importance of the owners, common or otherwise, of the buildings that I’ve profiled on this site.

“The Bond House” ca. 1920/21. Photo: Asa Chinn (KDL)

With prohibition repealed at the end of 1933 by virtue of the 21st amendment, the Bond House became a storeroom for the Kentucky Distillers’ Products, Inc. On a Tuesday night in April 1935, eighty-eight cases of whiskey were stolen from the storeroom at 211 North Limestone Street. The loss was valued at $2,000 according to a police report.

In 1983, the Bond House was added to the National Register of Historic Places by virtue of its location in the North Limestone Commercial District. Proudly, the owners bear signage indicating both its National Register and Blue Grass Trust listings.

A half million dollar renovation in 1988 converted what was then a fireworks store and warehouse back to its mixed-use origins: four loft apartments and two commercial first-floor enterprises. Today, children’s boutique clothier Bella Bliss calls the Bond House home. Interestingtly, it was a clothier (V.L. Lingenfelter’s) that was housed in 209 North Limestone when Asa Chinn took the photo above.

Sources: Blue Grass Trust; local.lexpublib.org; National Register; Slavens.net