Detail, Original Floor Tile, The Lincoln Institute

Original Floor Tile, The Lincoln Institute

Berea College educated black and white students together until 1904 when Kentucky State Representative Carl Day convinced his colleagues to outlaw integrated education.

The Trustees of Berea resolved to continue educating black students and by 1910 completed construction of a school building in Simpsonville, Kentucky with the help of a challenge grant from Andrew Carnegie. The stone, brick and asbestos Tudor Revival building designed by Foster & Tandy opened its doors to eight-five students on October 1, 1912.

Whitney Moore Young (1921-1971), civil rights spokesman and advisor to three Presidents was the head of the school for over 40 years. The school experienced a steady decline in enrollment after 1954 when segregated education was outlawed and closed in 1970.

The U.S. Department of Labor currently leases 54 acres of the campus from the Lincoln Foundation for the operation of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Job Corps Center.

Mr. Larry McDonald, president of the Lincoln Foundation, invited photographers from St. George’s Community Center to document original architectural details of the building, which has undergone extensive modifications over the years. Student photographers Aaron Payne, 13, and Cherree Montgomery, 16 went to the campus in July with Ted Gatlin, Jr., St. George’s Community Center Freedom School Site Coordinator and graduate student at Kentucky State University and Donald Vish, originator of the photography and mentorship project at St. George's.

The image selected for use as a note card for the Lincoln Institute is a detail from the original floor of the entrance hall and is unchanged since the doors of the school first opened in 1912.

September 7, 2009
DV

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

Photo credit: Mari Mar, Friendly Pines. This image depicts trees around Lake Nevin at the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest.

Half an hour south of downtown Louisville lies a refuge for all seasons, the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. Bernheim's attractions include an arboretum and 35 miles of hiking trails.

Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, a German immigrant who succeeded in distilling, established the forest in 1929 by assembling 14,000 heavily farmed and logged acres in Bullitt and Nelson Counties. Frederick Law Olmsted designed Bernheim Forest's original layout. Bernheim gave his Forest for the future enjoyment of his fellow Kentuckians.

Today's forest consists of an arboretum and a natural area. The arboretum contains formal and informal plant collections. The visitor's center is Kentucky's first platinum-level LEED-certified building. In the natural area, primarily a beech-maple forest, visitors can explore over 35 miles of hiking trails, ranging from casual strolls to a strenuous, all-day excursion on the Millennium Trail. The Quiet Garden offers especially serene views of Lake Nevin, the largest of Bernheim's four lakes.

Covington ascending

In rough geographic terms, Covington, Kentucky, is to Cincinnati as Hoboken, New Jersey, is to New York City. An evening in this riverfront city, an hour and a half upriver from Lousiville, reminded me of Covington's architectural and topographical beauty. Perhaps no other building in Covington is as eye-catching as The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind:

The Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge in Covington provides a dynamic addition to the skyline of the greater Cincinnati area and is a dramatic departure from the surrounding waterfront buildings. Its curving crescent form and sloping roof line are designed to maximize views, with each unit having an unobstructed view of the Cincinnati skyline. . . . The building was completed in March 2008.

Not everyone admires The Ascent. Archidose.org confesses a little vertigo upon viewing The Ascent's "swooping form" and "its skin, its solid/void patterning and [its] mirrored glass."

Covington also boasts a rich collection of older structures, such as the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption on Madison Avenue (left) and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (right):

Frankfort Foray

I spent the end of the week in Frankfort, Kentucky. It's a lovely river town and home of the state's capitol. The old downtown has some great architecture, some good restaurants, and a great bookstore called Poor Richard's Books.

Poor Richard's is one of the reasons I am always willing to go to Frankfort. The bottom floor is a nice independent bookstore, where you can always find something of interest. And then there's the second floor. On the second floor, you find used books. Old books. Not so old books. Musty treasures. The lights are weak and quivering, so it's best to climb up there when the sun is shining. The second floor is an attic loft. Glorious, dust dancing in the light, and oddities of all sorts. I always feel I'm climbing up a flight of stairs and back 150 years when I go there. It seems like something out of a Dickens novel. Hot in the summer. Cold in the winter. And always treasures. Books with stories only limited by your own imagination.

Oh, I should mention that my husband, Kurt, a Kentucky historian and bibliophile, thinks Poor Richard's is one the best bookstores to locate books on Kentucky -- both new and old.

In addition to Poor Richard's, we visited the Frankfort Cemetery, visited some historical sites, and I got a few good photos. Hope you like them.

An angel from Frankfort Cemetery







The state capitol from across the river.








From the Liberty Hall Garden.

Maysville Kentucky -- Life in the Slow Lane

Kentucky has much to offer, and with the price of gas why not enjoy what the state can provide?

I went to Maysville, Ky., for a few days. Maysville is at a bend in the Ohio River, across from Aberdeen, Ohio. It's a pretty town with a great deal of pride in its history and its preservation.

My husband was there to research; I took the time to check out some beautiful architecture and find some good photos. Hope you enjoy.

Bourbon and bluegrass

The November 4, 2007, edition of the New York Times' travel section features a story on the pursuit of bourbon and bluegrass in Kentucky:

[Author Steven Kurutz] embarked on a road trip centered on bourbon and bluegrass, exploring the back roads of the state where those two American mainstays trace their deepest roots. It was a trip that spoke to our passions and vices; [travel companion] Chris and I are both avid fans of traditional country and roots music, and we’re also dedicated whiskey drinkers, so much so that holidays are often met with an exchange of a bottle of whiskey between us. (Occasionally, we’ve even combined the two, sneaking a flask into a concert.)

We fashioned our itinerary in the style of a bluegrass song: a defined structure but with ample room for improvisation. During the first part of the trip, we would hit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a whiskey version of California’s Napa Valley made up of seven distilleries (Maker’s among them) that are open to the public. Our final stop would be the sixth annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration in Rosine, the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass. It was in the central part of the state, in the rolling hills between Lexington and Louisville — where a layer of limestone filters the iron from the water, making it ideal for bourbon making — that Scotch-Irish distillers settled in the early 1800s.

Cross-posted from The Cardinal Lawyer and Agricultural Law.

Multimedia notes

1. The online version of the Times' feature includes a multimedia supplement, which you may watch in a popup window.


2. Be sure to enjoy Bill Monroe singing his signature song, Blue Moon of Kentucky: