Tag: walkLEX

The Main Stage at Lexington Children’s Theatre – Lexington, Ky.

In 1978, the Sleepy Head House furniture store expended $350,000 on renovating a warehouse at 418 West Short Street. Sleepy Head House billed itself as “The South’s most complete Factor-Furniture Store.”  Years later, the facility closed as consumer trends didn’t bring consumers downtown to buy mattresses.

Another group acquired the old warehouse  after their “nearly 60 years of nomadic existence that scattered its operation among the Opera House, ArtsPlace, and a warehouse off Winchester Road.” The Lexington Children’s Theatre purchased the old Sleepy Head House in 1996 and immediately launched a $3 million capital campaign to create the theatrical complex the organization required.

The Lexington Children’s Theatre was not a new game in town. It’s 60 year “nomadic existence” began in 1938 to “present educational entertainment for children and to provide the opportunity for creative expression.” The following spring, the theatre’s first production, Noah’s Flood, hit the stage.

So by 1998, LCT had moved into its permanent home and in September of that year opened its new stage with The Riddling Child. It remains an incredible part of central Kentucky’s arts scene and introduces the stage to children throughout the region. During our visit, costume and set designers (all done in-house) were busy at work preparing for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The four street addresses (416, 420, 422, 426 W. Short) consist of two 3-story and two 2-story multi-bay brick buildings. The properties are carved out from the surrounding Victorian Square indoor mall. While some question has arisen to Victorian Square’s future, the LCT owns its own structures and its future is wholly independent.

Check out the other photos from our visit to the Lexington Children’s Theatre in the following slideshow. Photos are also available on flickr.

Sources: Bricks+Mortar, Lex. Children’s Theatre, Lex. H-L

The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour for young professionals (and the young-at-heart). The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month. Our February gathering will be at the Oldham House on South Limestone Street. Join us there at 6:30 p.m.; learn more details on Facebook! You can see Kaintuckeean write-ups on previous deTours by clicking here.

Lexington Central Fire Station – Lexington, Ky.

On East Third Street, just east of Martin Luther King Blvd, is Lexington’s Central Fire Station. It opened in 1929 and replaced an earlier central fire house on Short Street. According to a January 1926 article in the Lexington Leader, the old Short Street fire station was “not only unsightly and dilapidated, but a ‘menace to life and property.'” A good case for new construction.

So the city hired J. Graham Miller to design the Central Fire Station which was constructed by the Skinner Brothers and the Perry Lumber Company. It remains Lexington’s most active fire house nearly 85 years later.

The  ‘Lil Kaintuckeean and his grandmother

During our BGT deTour of the station house, we explored the living areas, the boiler room, offices, and kitchens of the fire house where our first responders spend so much of their days and nights.

One notable feature of this fire station is that there are four working fire poles. To demonstrate, one of the firefighters went down a pole while those assembled watched. We all wanted to join in, but only my four year old was able to slide down the firehouse pole.

At least to the extent his grandmother could lift him! It was a fun time for even the youngest among the crowd!

After the firehouse, we explored the nearby Old Episcopal Burying Grounds as well as the London Ferrell Community Garden. Needless to say, the ‘Lil Kaintuckeean kept me from listening and photographing.

The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour for young professionals (and the young-at-heart); the Central Fire Station was our deTour in Oct. 2012. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month. Our February gathering will be at the Oldham House on South Limestone Street. Join us there at 6:30 p.m.; learn more details on Facebook! You can see Kaintuckeean write-ups on previous deTours by clicking here.

Entrance to Spindletop Hall – Lexington, Ky.

Spindletop Hall – Lexington, Ky.

A forty room mansion in the Georgian Revival style located on Lexington’s Ironworks Pike was constructed in 1935-1937 for Ms. Pansy Yount. The mansion, at 45,000 square foot, stands at the end of a quarter-mile long, tree lined private drive. When one considers the massiveness of this home – along with its numerous outbuildings including a garage, pool house, stables, aviaries, and kennels – the constructions costs of a mere $1 million seem quaint. Today, the PVA has assessed the value of the 1,066 acre property at $20 million which is far short of its actual value.

The 17-bay mansion itself consists of a rectangular 9-bay plan with two receding flanking wings to create the balance of the structure with most of the structure in Flemish bond laid red brick. The original copper roof remains. Dominating Spindletop are the six Ionic limestone columns on the temple portico behind which a limestone block facade contrasts with the dominant red brick.

There are wrought iron features throughout Spindletop, but none quite as spectacular as as the Palladian window on the northwestern elevation of the porte-cochere. There, the setting sun creates a canvas which brightly displays the detailed iron work.

And although the porte-cochere would have been a primary entrance to the home, the entrance hall is not want of beauty. The double doors through which you enter cost $14,000 for the pair at the time of their installation and are made of bronze. Also of bronze is the three part chandelier hanging overhead from the molded plaster ceiling. The hall is flanked by a pair of winding stairs, though the centerpiece is a large white mantel which had been extracted from Wornersh Park in Surrey, England.

Elizabethan Living Room – Spindletop Hall

Three main rooms off the Great Hall: the Georgian Dining Room, the Elizabethan Living Room, and the William & Mary Music Room. The dining room features a carrara marble mantel built for Shapwick Hall in Somerset, England, ca. 1750. The colossal living room – 30′ x 60′ – has oak paneled walls and a beautiful wooden mantle carved with the phrase “East, West, Home’s Best.” This Flemish phrase complements the 16th century tapestry hanging on one wall (hiding those panels which are not carved). The music room contains a ca. 1735 mantle from London, wainscoted mahogany walls, a fare violin collection, and a Kimball reproducing organ. The organ can be played in the music room or remotely controlled from six locations throughout the house. One hundred rolls of music were specially recorded for the Yount organ and are contained next to the instrument in a Chinese lacquered cabinet. The organ pipes are largely contained underneath the Grand Hall, though nearly a mile of organ pipe is contained within the mansion.

A few steps down from either the music or the living room is the Gothic Library. There one will find oak paneling, faux hammer beam ceilings, and a gray stone English Tudor mantle removed from Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, England. The texts on the shelves have been gifted to Spindletop; Mrs. Yount removed her 7,000 volumes with her to Texas. Also gone is the original oriental Persian rug which reportedly cost $40,000 in the 1930s. The porte-cochere enters into the library, which has long been my favorite room in the mansion.

Upstairs, two palatial bedroom suites offered respite for Mrs. Yount and her daughter, Mildred. Mrs. Yount’s suite is decorated in the French style while Mildred’s is in that of 18th century England. Each suite consists of four rooms. Off Mrs. Yount’s bathroom is a safe which is alleged to have contained a necklace once belonging to Marie Antoinette.

Given the infamous Lindbergh kidnapping, Mrs. Yount was concerned that her Mildred – the richest little girl in America – would also be kidnapped. It is believed that under the house, there is a tunnel to safety. Mysteries and great beauty about at Spindletop Hall. More can be found on flickr.

Yount lived at Spindletop until she relocated in Texas in 1955. In 1959, the University of Kentucky purchased the property for a discounted $850,000 as Yount viewed the transaction as a gift to UK.

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour for young professionals (and the young-at-heart); Spindletop was our deTour in Sept. 2012. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month. Our February gathering will be at the Oldham House on South Limestone Street. Join us there at 6:30 p.m.; learn more details on Facebook! You can see Kaintuckeean write-ups on previous deTours by clicking here.

Kentucky Theatre Marquee – Lexington, Ky.

Shelves of Letters for the Marquee at the Kentucky Theatre – Lexington, Ky.

The familiar marquee on Main Street identifies the only remaining of Lexington’s great, old theaters. Named as “a credit to Lexington and the entire State,” the Kentucky Theatre opened in 1922. At the time, the Kentucky was one of several theaters in the community of 40,000. The Ben Ali and the Strand also welcomed moviegoers, but none with the grandeur that was offered at the Kentucky Theatre. With its original space intact, the Kentucky Theatre is described by Steve Brown (President, Kentucky’s Mighty Wurlitzer) as “the most important cultural and civic space in the city.”

The ceiling originally featured a massive stained glass dome which was complimented with back-lighting that changed with the ‘mood’ of the film. To the best of anyone’s recollection, the stained glass was removed because the promoters of The Sound of Music thought that the glass dome had an adverse effect on acoustics. The Kentucky was designed for motion pictures and even was capable of showing the new “talkies”; the theatre was one of the first fifty theaters in America to feature sound. All these special effects, all in 1922.

Interior of the Kentucky Theatre – Lexington, Ky.

And all in a beautiful Italian Renaissance styled theatre opened as the premier movie house for Lexington by the Swiddow family. Even with management changes and numerous changes in customer demands, the Kentucky Theatre has only had one pause in operation over the past 90 years.

In 1987, a neighboring restaurant experienced a fire that caused significant damage to the Kentucky. Through a dedicated group of patrons and local leaders, the Kentucky would not remain closed. A grand reopening in 1992 revealed a beautifully restored theatre that continues to receive updates. A major renovation is planned in conjunction with the theatre’s 90th anniversary. This will be coupled with the complete restoration and reinstallation of the Kentucky’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ that first played there when the theatre opened in 1922.

Lexington in 1922, however, had its own skeletons. In particular, Lexington shares that southern sin of segregation. Since it opened, the Kentucky Theatre has had a single level and thus no feasible method for separating blacks from whites. This was not a progressive step; it was a design intended to prevent the attendance by blacks at films shown at the Kentucky. When the Kentucky’s smaller sister theatre was opened next door in 1929, it featured a balcony which allowed Lexington’s black community to appreciate the ‘old Spanish’ architectural style of the State Theatre.

Of course, times have changed through the years. Fortunately, segregation has ended. The balcony has been removed from the State Theatre.

In time, the seating capacity of the Kentucky srunk from 1,108 to 805. The stalwart manager, Fred Mills, has worked at the theaters since 1963. And the ever-popular Rocky Horror Picture Show is often a sellout at recent history’s highest grossing theater for the film. The theaters have served also as the site for weddings and funerals, for political debates, and the weekly Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour.

Yes, the Kentucky Theatre’s cultural and civic role in Lexington has been and is incredibly rich. And if these walls could only talk. Fortunately, the basement’s floor does. There one can find shelves of letters for the marquee while on the floor there are scribbled notations reminding the signer of the letters needed. The films named with these letters include the greatest works of cinematic art this country and world have offered.

The Botherum – Lexington, Ky.

At the heart of downtown Lexington’s historic Woodward Heights neighborhood is the Botherum, a circa 1850 mansion. Today, the property is owned by Dale Fisher and Jon Carloftis, but the land itself was once the northeast corner of Col. Robert Patterson‘s original 400-acre tract, granted him in 1776.

It was here, in the middle of the nineteenth century, that lawyer and banker Madison C. Johnson, that “the fascinating residence known as Botherum … [was] erected by local builder-architect John McMurtry.” Like many Lexingtonians of his day, Johnson was a “cultivated man” whose interests varied greatly. An amateur astronomer, Johnson incorporated into the design the wrought iron octagonal parapet from which he could view the heavens.

Drawing Room at Botherum

It is believed that Johnson worked closely with McMurtry on the home’s design, incorporating personal details into the originally U-shaped mansion that combines Grecian, Roman, and Gothic elements. Within the U was an enclosed garden, no doubt to satisfy other of Johnson’s varied tastes. The walls of the Botherum vary too in material: while many are of rough limestone others are of brick construction with a plaster surface to give only the appearance of stone.

Despite his own personal touches, McMurtry was not commissioned to build Johnson a temple for himself. Rather, the Botherum was built to honor the memory and Johnson’s love for his wife who had died some twenty-three years earlier in childbirth. The story parallels that of the grief stricken Shah Jahan whose love for his wife, who also died in the delivery of a child, inspired the construction of India’s Taj Mahal.

Bohemian Glass Doors

Johnson’s affection for his late wife, Sally Ann, was also noted because Johnson believed himself physically ugly and found his wife quite the opposite. Johnson’s belief of his own appearance may have been his greatest challenge. Upon graduation from Transylvania College, Johnson had his diploma sent to him and his valedictory address read by the college president so that he would not be compelled to take the stage.

Johnson collaborated with Henry Clay (their friendship enough that Clay gifted Johnson with the massive gingko tree now in front of Botherum) and became a confidant for Abraham Lincoln. It is said that Johnson even rejected an offer by Lincoln to serve as Secretary of the Treasury for his fear of joining the Washington social scene was too great.

Floor boards covering a possible root cellar beneath the basement floor.

It is unclear if his lack of confidence in his personal appearance kept Johnson from having house guests, but he did construct a small guest house to the rear of Botherum for the occasional guest. Some ‘guests’, however, were permitted to stay in the house particularly those seeking their freedom on the underground railroad. Although the particularities are unknown, one can imagine Madison C. Johnson concealing the “fugitives” in the root cellar beneath the original basement kitchen – a kitchen which itself was and is accessible only by trap door.

Dale Fisher, one of the new Botherum owners

Madison C. Johnson was a noted businessman in Lexington having been president of the Northern Bank of Kentucky and having helped to establish the Lexington Cemetery. Before his death, the U-shaped Botherum was closed and the central garden removed. Above it, a central room joined the master floor plan. Johnson died in 1886 and his heirs immediately sold the Botherum and the surrounding acreage to J.C. Woodward. Within a year, a city map identified a subdivided Woodward Heights subdivision.

Given its impressive stature and romantic inspiration, it is almost a footnote to recall that prior to McMurtry’s architectural additions, the home was a simple, three-room farmhouse. From its humble beginnings, Madison Johnson remembered and honored the legacy of his deceased wife with a beautiful home which draws crowds to this day.

Botherum – Lexington, Ky.

Additional photos of the Botherum are available on flickr.
Also, here are a few pictures from the Historical Buildings of America Survey (1940).

Source: NRHP (Botherum); NRHP (Woodward Heights)

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour for young professionals (and the young-at-heart). The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Uniquely, and because of our nation’s celebration of independence, our next meeting is MONDAY, July 2 with more details on Facebook! You can see Kaintuckeean write-ups on previous deTours by clicking here.