walkLEX: Courthouse Plaza Topiary

walkLEX is the newest section of The Kaintuckeean. It will catalogue some of the sights in downtown Lexington as experienced by the authors. walkLEX is different from the Kentucky120 Project and No Destinations in that each post will focus on a small component of downtown Lexington, rather than on a town or county. This first post, on a topiary in the courthouse plaza is the perfect example.


After Nate posted about the Fayette County courthouse, Martha asked about the 'wire horse' located in front of the Circuit Courthouse.

I can't figure out who designed it, but this twelve-foot tall Horse Topiary was placed in the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse Plaza in April 2009 as Lexington prepares for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Sustainable plants and flowers are slowly taking over the topiary and it should be filled in by the time the Plaza is used during the Games.

UPDATE (9-25-2010): Photographed nearly a year to the day after my original photo, you can see that the topiary is not completely filled. Even so, it is a nice accent for downtown and all the Spotlight Lexington festivities.

No Destination: London

I intended to go to Powell County and to Stanton before returning home. But rather then turning in Livingston, I went straight. Oops. I discovered my mistake upon seeing the "Laurel County" sign.

The drive into London on US-25(S) is beautiful as you drive through the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. I called a friend who now lives in London, hoping to stop in for a visit. As a result of my ill-timed phone call, I missed Camp Wildcat (which was the site of an 1861 Civil War skirmish). But that was OK as the plum tart was well worth it!

I will leave London to Nate and to the Kentucky 120 Project as the town was built around its Courthouses. The county courthouse looks older than it is. Even so, a new courthouse is under construction. There is an old federal courthouse, as well as a new one (pictured). Quite a judicial metropolis for a town of only 6,000 inhabitants.

I hope to visit Laurel County again to visit its non-London areas: the Cumberland Gap, the original KFC and the annual World Chicken Festival (which I missed by only two weeks!).

No Destination: Livingston

Of the three incorporated communities in Rockcastle County - Brodhead, Mt. Vernon and Livingston - Livingston was my favorite. And I don't know why.

According to the 2000 Census, the population was 228. The old graded school was boarded up and over 1-in-4 persons live below the poverty line. Even so, the man sitting on the steps of the school spoke fondly of what the town once was. He recalled his years at the graded school fondly and how the community had once been vibrant. I discovered the following:

But Livingston has no hotel, no drug store or bank or any of these sundry establishments. There was a time when all these and more were present. Not one, but four hotels and numerous boarding houses catered to temporary residents. Not one, but two doctors tended human frailty. All that remain now are ghosts, faint echoes of a once-prosperous past when Livingston was a busy and exciting place to live. Livingston's Main Street, at the heart of the town, is a place of padlocked doors and boarded windows, of burned and sagging buildings, of broken glass and rotting timbers and unswept dust.

The last source of pride was the Livingston Graded School, which served the community from 1927 to 1994. It closed in the wake of school consolidation and budget cuts as Kentucky sought to modernize its education system.

There is a memorial park in Livingston with a memorial to the Graded School, saying "Can't Hide the Pride." Hopefully, this community will again one day have a source of pride.

Also in this memorial park is a beautiful 9-11 memorial. Standing at about 12 feet tall, it is a complete surprise and worthy of being found in a community/town/city of any size. Because in Livingston, you cannot hide the pride.

No Destination: Mount Vernon

As the county seat of Rockcastle County, I anticipated too much of little Mt. Vernon. In truth, it is certainly not a fault of the people. Walking through downtown, I passed the closed (it was a Sunday) Tea Cup Cafe (pictured in the saloon-looking structure) as the owners were exiting. A short conversation revealed that they are working hard to increase the image of Mt. Vernon. The sidewalks need fixing and other downtown improvements are needed - but the good news is that members of this little community recognize and desire these improvements.

On one end of Main Street is the courthouse and new judicial center - which I will leave for Nate to discuss. It was, at best, disappointing (though none of the citizenry seemed to miss the old courthouse either). The town is named after George Washington's Virginia home; the county after an observation by a hunting party that a rock in the area resembled a castle.

One destination missed on my sojourn is Rockcastle County's most famous attraction: Renfro Valley. Located two miles north of Mt. Vernon, Renfro Valley is Kentucky's Country Music Capital is the home to a popular entertainment center and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.

No Destination: Brodhead

Entering into the mountain region is simply breathtaking. Throughout the rest of the days' drive, the scenery was beautiful.

The Rockcastle County community of Brodhead is the home of the Little World's Fair. The Fair has been an annual event for over 100 years and is now a weeklong fundraiser for the Brodhead Volunteer Fire Department. A curve in the road, Brodhead is at the headwaters of the Dix River. Originally named Stigalls Station, the town was renamed in the late 1860s when it became a stop on the L&N Railroad.

I tend to do a little 'Googling' when posting about my travels, and I was surprised to find the following tidbit from Brodhead's past: "Aug 10, 1993 - In Brodhead, Ky., a man who sat in a lawn chair guarding his marijuana field with an assault rifle was shot to death by police after a daylong standoff." [And unlike Nate earlier this week in Campton, I felt perfectly comfortable in Brodhead.]

No Destination: Preachersville

When I saw this little town on the map, I wanted to drive through and see a church called "Preachersville [Blank] Church." Special thanks to the United Methodists for fulfilling my photographic curiosity.

Preachersville, Kentucky is a quiet farming community in Lincoln County between Lancaster (Garrard) and Crab Orchard (Lincoln). Near the Dix River, it was unsurprisingly named because - there were a lot of preachers who lived in the area. Apparently, the concentration of ministers was more dense in this area then in any other region of the country as Preachersville is the only community in the United States to hold this unique name.

Today, it is the home of two churches. The Drakes Creek Baptist Church (c. 1860, but the building burned and the new church was built in the 1960s) and the Preachersville United Methodist Church. The Methodist Church, pictured above, was established and built in 1891.

This area of Lincoln County is beautiful. The foothills of the Appalachians lie on the horizon and the rolling hills are fertile. I made this trip a couple weeks ago and on that Sunday, the weather was perfect: the grass greener and the skies bluer.

Before leaving Lincoln County, I travelled through another small community: Crab Orchard. Near the end of the Logan Trace of the Wilderness Trail, Crab Orchard was famed for its mineral springs. Apparently, it was not uncommon for 400-500 guests to visit the springs each day through the 1920s. Crab Orchard also had at least one curiosity: the water tower evidences the divide experienced by families in this area during the Civil War. The water tower reads "Crab Orchard: Embracing our Past" with the American and Confederate flags painted on either side.

Kentucky 120 Progress - September 27, 2009

So I'm up to 34 now out of 120. That's a little over 28%. Not too shabby, though I need to get started on the western part of the state.

Fayette County Courthouse - Lexington-Fayette, Ky.

Hopefully Peter won't be too upset, but I decided to just get Fayette over with today. Pictured below are the new Circuit and District Court buildings at the corner of Main and Limestone. They don't bother me as much as they apparently bother others, though I do absolutely love the old courthouse above, which is now the History Center. There are TONS of stories to be told about this old courthouse (Cheapside Park, the statutes, the water fountains, etc.) but I'm going to let Peter tell you those, because he knows those stories better than I do. All I know is that this is the FIFTH courthouse to sit on this spot, and based on the pictures in some of my Lexington history books, most of them were really really beautiful buildings.
So, Peter...whatcha know?

Powell County Courthouse - Stanton, Ky.

Powell County's courthouse looks like a middle school. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it just looks very 80s. Honestly, it completely blends in and I almost didn't realize what it was before I passed it. The drive through Stanton was pleasant, as this concluded my drive back from Eastern Kentucky on this beautiful cool Kentucky day. Among the most interesting things I learned about Powell County's courthouse was its Civil War history. It was among the many Kentucky courthouses burned during the Civil War, but Powell County's courthouse had the unique honor of having been burned down TWICE during the Civil War. Man, that would be rough.

Wolfe County Courthouse - Campton, Ky.

This was the first time on this trip when I've been a little creeped out. On the way down the highway towards Campton, there was this KSP officer who swung his car out behind me as if to pull me over. I got that feeling everyone knows in my stomach, because I really really thought I was getting pulled over. Then he flew by me, and then about a mile up the road pulled another huge U-turn and went back the other way.
Then as I came into Campton, (which was a ghost town by the way) the creepiness factor went through the roof. When I pulled up to the courthouse, what I believe to be the SAME COP pulled into the courthouse square. The courthouse square was completely empty except me and this cop. He walked into the courthouse after giving me a stare and that was it. I snapped my picture and got out of there.
It was an interesting courthouse, but in desperate need of some TLC. Paint was chipping all over the place. Interestingly, this area of Kentucky was mentioned in John Swift's journals as containing huge silver mines. However, no trace of these reputed silver mines have ever been found. Also, Wolfe County was named after Nathaniel Wolfe, who was allegedly the first graduate of the University of Virginia.

Breathitt County Courthouse - Jackson, Ky.

Ouch. This is the Breathitt County Courthouse in Jackson. I've never quite really understood Jackson, starting with the fact that the sewage treatment plant stands right along the major road through town. The smell is as bad as you imagine. And this picture above was the best I could do of the Breathitt County Courthouse. Again, the newer Judicial Center next door, pictured below, was much more attractive.

I knew nothing about Jackson's history, but according to the historical markers, this was the epicenter of the "feudin' and fightin'" history of Eastern Kentucky. The courthouse that stood here from 1899 to 1963 was a landmark of this time period. From 1870 to 1920, stemming from family disagreements and political differences, more than 100 Breathitt County officials were killed. Forty men were killed in 11 months between 1901 and 1902.

Perry County Courthouse - Hazard, Ky.

Perry County was one of two places I visited today where the new judicial center is MUCH more attractive than the old courthouse. Here, the judicial center is on the left, and the courthouse on the right. I put in an extra picture of the judicial center, just so you get an idea how cool it looks
.

There's a fountain in there next to the benches, and the judicial center really fits in and enhances the downtown area.
Hazard was founded by Elijah Combs, who came here along with his seven brothers in 1790. Interestingly, Hazard and Perry County are named after the same person - Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
On my way out of town, I stopped in a drug store parking lot on the bypass and took the picture at the bottom of this post.

Letcher County Courthouse - Whitesburg, Ky.

Whitesburg and Letcher County hold a special place in my heart, because this is where my wife and her family are from. We travel through the mountains a couple of times each year and visit the 'Burg, as I like to call it, and it is a uniquely charming place. From the amazing "Speak Your Piece" section of the newspaper (where anyone can write in and say ANYTHING - offensive, libelous, you name it), to the annual Mountain Heritage Festival, Whitesburg is an interesting little place. This weekend was the Mountain Heritage Festival, which was a little dampened by the constant rain showers. But, I got to listen to some country music and eat a deep fried miniature pecan pie, so all was right with the world. I also picked up some fresh peach butter and snapped this picture of Letcher's courthouse. In celebration of Mountain Heritage, the windows up and down Main Street were filled with old pictures of the prominent mountain families, and some pretty amazing pictures of the courthouse that used to stand in this spot. My father in law tells me that this current courthouse is much better than the "purple courthouse" that was there before renovations. Apparently the windows were supposed to be blue, but in the sun, they turned purple.

No Destination: The Roebling Bridge

I had plans to go with a friend to last weekend's Kentucky-Miami (OH) football game at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. To get there, I took the interstate but only as far as the river. We parked in Newport, had a pitcher of beer at the Beer Sellar on the river, and boarded a water taxi which ferried us across and down the river to a spot between the stadium and the baseball ballpark (they do the same thing before Reds' games).

Aside from enjoying a few minutes on the water, one of the biggest perks was traveling under the Roebling Bridge. Named after its architect, John A. Roebling, the bridge was constructed over a ten-year span and was completed in 1867.

If either the name Roebling or the appearance of the bridge seem familiar to you, they are. After finishing the Cincinnati-Covington bridge, Roebling's services were utilized in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge which began in 1870 and concluded in 1883. The similarities between the two bridges are clear.

At 1,224 feet, the Roebling Bridge was (at the time of its completion) the world's longest suspension bridge. This record was surpassed by the Brooklyn Bridge which spanned 1,595 feet.

Also pictured (far left) is the Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, a 22-story condominium project that was designed by Daniel Libeskind. The structure won world-wide aclaim and was named the best high-rise in America in 2008 by CNBC. I first noticed the Ascent from the Reds' ballpark during a July 2008 game and it is certainly a beautiful building.

Oh, and Kentucky won the game, 42-0. Go Cats!

No Destination: Winchester

After leaving the Howard's Creek area in southern Clark County, I traveled north on Boone Avenue (KY 627). After his courthouse visit, Nate had told me about the great oddity of Winchester: College Street.

Look far and wide, but there is no remaining college on College Street or elsewhere in Winchester. But, from 1890 to 1954, Winchester was the home of Kentucky Wesleyan College; it has since relocated to Owensboro. Among its most notable alumna, Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley Reed (1902).

The old college grounds are now a city park and some of the campus buildings remain. The Carnegie Library (c. 1914) is now a community center (a child's birthday party was going on during my campus visit) and the Spencer Memorial Gymnasium is currently being expanded and converted into the city natatorium.

Downtown Winchester has many small, locally owned and operated businesses. The historic buildings are mostly well-kept, in repair and freshly painted. The downtown area is dominated by, as Nate put it, a "massive" whitewashed courthouse.

Leaving Winchester, I drove past the Ale-8-One bottling plant. Ale-8-One is a Kentucky soft drink that is most like a ginger ale, but that would still be an inaccurate description. Introduced in 1926, the soda has a limited distribution area but it is "the drink" in Winchester. I saw countless young teenagers milling around drinking from the iconic glass green bottle.

A final note: Helen Thomas, journalist and White House correspondent for every President since John F. Kennedy was born in Winchester. Regrettably, there is no historical marker related to Ms. Thomas in Winchester.

No Destination: Howard's Creek (Providence) Church

I continued without destination by heading east from Athens. I have found that a No Destination trek is made more comfortable with the GPS feature on the iPhone as I could take a few extra turns with the knowledge that I was merely on a detour and not going down a dead-end.

I found Grimes Mill Road - just inside Clark County - to be breathtaking. The beautiful stone home, the red barns and the bridge over the stream all captured eras past. Minutes later, I find myself peering in the windows of a cafe & bakery at Combs Ferry. It was closed, but not out of business as large sacks of organic sidamo coffee beans lay on the floor.

Uncertain as to whether my destination for the day would be McKee, Winchester or Paris, I saw a historic marker and followed the path down which it led. The church at Howard's Creek was regularly attended by Daniel Boone. In 1790, the church was renamed "Providence" and the present stone structure was contructed by William Bush, who was a member of Boone's second Kentucky expedition. According to the historic marker, the church "passed to Negro Baptists, 1870."

After a heavy rain, the road to the church would be under water at two points. It was a beautiful, short drive to the church and the old, stone building was picturesque. As I walked up to the church on a Saturday, I noticed the freshly mowed grass. As I snapped a few pictures, the minister came out and we exchanged greetings.

He had been preparing the Sunday sermon for his flock at the Providence Missionary Baptist Church. About 14 attend weekly, and the church remains a black baptist congregation. It also remains as the oldest Baptist church west of the Alleghenies.

No Destination: Athens

Leaving my home in Nicholasville, I traveled through eastern Jessamine County and southern Fayette County before arriving in the small community of Athens (pronounced with a long "A", AY-thənz). Located in rural Fayette County (but part of Lexington-Fayette due to the 1974 merger of city and county), Athens was first settled in 1786 and was chartered in 1826.

Originally known as "Cross Plains," it has been suggested that the name "Athens" is a reference to Lexington's old nickname, "The Athens of the West." The nickname was a statement of Lexington's educational and societal strength during the early- to mid-1800s.

The village was a manufacturing center until most of the town had burned by 1860 (according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which listed the Athens historic district in 1979, a major fire occurred in 1853-54). Today, Athens is nothing more than a crossroads. The old Athens Elementary School was closed a few years ago and is now used as an antique mall.

What remains of the historic district sits at the crossroads: the Aubrey Inn (c. 1800) and the Marshall Tavern (c. 1840). These two brick structures have been well-cared for and are surprisingly imposing for this little hamlet; clear evidence of what once was.

Gallatin County Courthouse - Warsaw, Ky.

U.S. 42 is always a beautiful drive - I highly recommend it. When I lived in Oldham County, I would drive it whenever I had the chance, but I never made it as far up the road as Warsaw. U.S. 42 basically follows the river, and there are a ton of great old river towns along the way. Warsaw is one of those towns.
The courthouse above is on the National Historic Register, and was built in 1837.

I took this picture just two blocks behind the courthouse on the Ohio River. I thought it was pretty picturesque, so I stepped out of the car and snapped this one really quick. Just two miles up the river from here there was apparently a horrible river accident back in 1868. If you pull over to the side of the road, there is a historical marker describing the collision between the America and the United States, two passenger boats traveling between Louisville and Cincinnati. The United States had barreled coal oil on board, which ignited in the collision, spreading to both boats and coating the river in fire. There was $325,000 in damage ($5.6 million today according to an inflation calculator) and 162 people died in the tragedy.

Boone County Courthouse - Burlington, Ky.

Burlington has a really nice historic downtown area, with a wealth of markers that provide a ton of information. All government buildings are in a little cluster downtown, including a HUGE new judicial center. The historic courthouse above was built in 1889. According to the historical marker, there has been a courthouse on this spot since 1799, and this is the third such building. A few interesting things about this building:
* It was built in the Renaissance Revival style for about $20,000
* Notice how small the cupola looks? Well, that's because the original cupola was deemed to be too heavy for the building to support, and it was removed in 1898.
* There is a nearly identical courthouse in Bandera, Texas built a year after this one, but made of sandstone.
It felt great to head out of Burlington, because it meant that I got to leave the big roads behind and get back to the little country roads.

Campbell County Courthouse - Alexandria, Ky.

At this point, I was really frustrated. Navigating Northern Kentucky is a complete disaster. Roads meander around, and there are "freeway-style" roads all over the place. After wandering around for awhile I finally found this courthouse in the middle of what I guess used to be Alexandria. It felt sort of bleak up there. It is now a history center for the county I think, but I couldn't find the new judicial center anywhere. So I got this picture of the historic courthouse and was happy.
The courthouse's historic marker told me that Campbell was the 19th county, was formed in 1794, and that originally the county seat was in Newport (which makes much better sense). But for whatever reason the county seat was moved to Alexandria in 1840.

Kenton County Courthouse (No. 1) - Independence, Ky.

Okay, so this was nuts. Kenton County has two county seats - one in Independence, and one in Covington. I did not know this today, and now I'm sort of upset that I didn't get the other one in Covington when I was up there. Can anyone tell me if its prettier than this one in Independence? I was wondering the entire time I was in Independence why the seat wasn't in Covington, and now I feel kind of stupid. I guess I'll get it on my next trip to Cincinnati.
I have to admit that I got lost trying to find this courthouse in Independence, due mostly to the fact that Northern Kentucky is about the most confusing place in the world to drive. I had to end up calling Peter, who helped me get where I needed to go through the magic of the internet.

Grant County Courthouse - Williamstown, Ky.

Today I decided to travel up to Grant County on a little bit of what remains of the Dixie Highway (U.S. 25). For anyone living in Lexington, the next time you head up to Cincinnati, I highly recommend the route. It basically weaves around under I-75, but like many of the old highways in this country, the road follows the terrain instead of blasting through it. It's a beautiful drive through the Bluegrass, and there are tons of great now-defunct roadside stores and shops to check out.
The courthouse above bears the date 1937 on its cornerstone, and is about to be "the old courthouse," as there is a huge judicial center being constructed down the street. It's pictured here below.