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    Christian County
    Christian County
    Christian County
    Ebook184 pages39 minutes

    Christian County

    By Chris Gilkey and William T. Turner

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    About this ebook

    In the years since Christian County was founded more than 210 years ago, the rural area--including many small communities and the county seat of Hopkinsville--has become a historic treasure of various architectural styles. Water-powered mills are representative of the first local industry. Blacksmith shops, followed by several small craft shops, preceded the largest 19th-century industry: the manufacturing of Mogul brand farm wagons. A plow factory and a butter manufacturing facility were also two of several short-lived industrial attempts to make a great financial success. Throughout the 20th century, changing social and economic growth brought the demolition of many priceless architectural examples. This title presents a close observation of many of these vanished landmarks, with old churches, public buildings, country stores, schools, and road toll gates providing a glimpse into the county's past.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439622575
    Christian County
    Author

    Chris Gilkey

    Coauthors and historians Chris Gilkey and William T. Turner are lifelong educators in the local public schools and at the collegiate level. In addition to their previous Arcadia titles, the authors are active in community restoration projects and the Pennyroyal Area Museum, the Woody Winfree Fire Transportation Museum, and the Christian County Historical Society. The images used in this publication are from the half-century effort of official local historian and coauthor William T. Turner.

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      Book preview

      Christian County - Chris Gilkey

      Turner.

      INTRODUCTION

      For every creation, there is a season. In every culture, surviving architecture is the most visible and enduring link with history. Christian County is a presentation through images of structures spanning a construction period from before 1800 to 1915. They are all gone, destroyed by wind, fire, or human neglect and demolition.

      In 1795, the Kentucky Legislature opened the land south of the Green River for settlement. This area included all of Christian County, which came into legal existence on March 1, 1797. An abundance of fresh water, wild game, and timber for building and firewood drew settlers.

      People from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia brought with them the popular styles and fashions of building construction during the period from 10 to 30 years after the land was initially populated. The county seat, Hopkinsville, was established in 1797 and emerged as the center of social, economic, and religious life.

      Hopkinsville was settled about 1796 by the family of Bartholomew (c. 1755–1827) and Martha Ann Wood (1763–1845). They migrated from the Greenville District of South Carolina by way of Jonesborough, North Carolina, later part of the state of Franklin and finally in Tennessee. Wood built his first log cabin at what is now the southeast corner of West Seventh and Bethel Streets. He later lived and died in a home southeast of the present intersection of Fourteenth and Campbell Streets. Wood gave to the county four and a half acres, upon which the county seat would be located, and one half interest in the town spring.

      The original town plat, squared off in a block pattern, included the area from Fourth to Fourteenth Street and from Little River to Virginia Street. In 1817, a second addition was developed from Virginia to Campbell Streets and from Eighth to Fourteenth Streets. As the city limits expanded to accommodate growth across 200 years, the town now covers 19,631 acres and extends 7 miles from north to south and about the same distance from east to west. The character of Hopkinsville is defined in this layout. Buildings for both public and private use portrayed the work ethic and the variety of occupations of the people in this pioneer community.

      Across these 200 years, a multitude of buildings populated these squares, providing a variety of purposes and architectural appearances. Homes, factories, schools, stores, churches, and government buildings not only defined the living ethic, but also presented an appearance that reflected the culture and interests of the populace.

      The variety of architectural styles found in this county ranged from Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Victorian, Queen Anne, American foursquare, art deco, cottage, bungalow, and ranch.

      The interest in styles brought two recognized architects to Hopkinsville in the second quarter of the 19th century, and they both contributed several examples of the Greek Revival order. Hugh Roland (1792–1852), from Chambersburg, Ohio, designed the third Christian County Court House in 1837. It replaced the first courthouse, a log building in use from 1798 to 1807, and the second, a brick structure occupied from 1811 to 1837. Maj. Nathan B. Kelley (1808–1871), from Columbus, Ohio, drew plans for the Western Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, now Western State Hospital, in 1848; the Bethel Female High School in 1855; and possibly for South Kentucky College, the present site of Belmont Elementary School, in 1858.

      Major Kelley brought two contractors, then called mechanics or master builders, to Hopkinsville to implement his plans: Samuel L. Salter (1823–1897) and John Orr (1830–1905). Salter, born in Philadelphia, studied architecture and carpentry at the University of Cincinnati. He came to Hopkinsville in 1850 along with Orr to construct the Western Kentucky Lunatic Asylum and the Bethel Female High School. After the Civil War, Salter became superintendent of buildings and grounds for the hospital. John Orr, a native of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where he learned the carpenter’s trade, also settled here in 1850. Salter and Orr were partners in the construction business until 1866, when Orr, along with Martin Miller, established the Hopkinsville Planing Mill.

      Another reputable mechanic was Daniel Umbenhour (1816–1882). The small Dutchman, born in Pennsylvania, settled in Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1840. There he constructed public buildings, covered bridges, barns, homes, and churches. Umbenhour moved to Christian County in 1853 and settled near Brewer’s (later Binns’) Mill, which he constructed. Several of his home and church construction examples remain in the county, including LaFayette Methodist Church, the present Planters Bank, and the country home of Evelyn Lacy Noland.

      Christian County and Hopkinsville have experienced the loss of many landmarks. From the accidental burning of the Western Kentucky Lunatic Asylum in 1860 and the Hotel Latham in 1940 and the intentional burning of the courthouse and the Christian County Male Academy in 1864 to the needless destruction of the First Baptist Church in 1965, the Bethel College in 1966, and the Hopkinsville High School in 1976, a great number of priceless architectural treasures have been destroyed.

      The loss of county and city landmarks in the past 50 years has sparked the motivation for preserving those that remain. Businesswoman Lena Jones Wicks led the public movement to save Riverside Cemetery Chapel in 1959. Municipal government involvement in preservation came in 1974, when Mayor George L. Atkins Jr. launched the effort to acquire the 1914 U.S. Post Office. The Pennyroyal Area Museum opened in this structure two years later.

      A struggle between preservationists and those opposed came in 1983, when the Alhambra Theater, opened in 1928, was closed. Patrons of the arts convinced political leaders to fund the restoration of this renaissance theater.

      After railroad passenger service ended in 1968, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad passenger station faced demolition. In 1980, Mayor Al C. Rutland Jr. and the city council bought the structure, obtained a federal grant, and restored it for use by the Pennyroyal Arts Council.

      The Central Fire Station and the town clock, long the icon of Hopkinsville’s identity and recognition, was constructed in 1904–1905 on East Ninth Street. It was restored and opened as the Woody Winfree Fire/Transportation Museum in 2008. Currently, there is an effort in the community to also save and restore the 1913 Carnegie Public Library, located on the northeast corner of Eighth and Liberty Streets.

      Though some success in preservation has been achieved with public buildings, the destruction of landmark homes has been extensive in the past 50 years. However, a number of homes have been carefully

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