OLD STOREFRONT FOR WOODTURNERS WORKSHOP

OLD CALICO AND BROWN HISTORIC STOREFRONT

Paint Lick is a small unincorporated town with a business section of about twelve stores near scenic Paint Lick Creek. Fortunately it retains several historic buildings that preserves its "sense of place' to the streetscape as well as to the cultural landscape.

Above photo is the old Calico and Brown original storefront which includes a history that goes back to 1901 as a general merchandise store. Under a new use, it is a workshop run by Don Weber, wood turner tradesman. Among his many talents are hand crafting chairs, benches, stools, timber framing joinery, and tool making. The list goes on but the focus is old methods of crafting with wood. Mr. Weber has written many articles for various well-known publications.

A HISTORIC TOOL FOR PRODUCING WOOD ROOFING SHINGLES

The above roofing tool sits among Weber's many projects of newly made items. The roofing tool is sitting on the original wood floor, painted gray, of the old storefront. The building has been kept, as much as possible, in its original condition.

DON WEBER'S WORKSHOP

The photo above is an example of the many facets of wood tuning that exist in his workshop. Located in a farming community of clean air and no crime to speak of, it is a hidden jewel of a community.

It's a delight to stop in his workshop and view the many projects he has underway. His window display is set with examples of furniture made in the old way. Don Weber gives workshops on green woodwork and blacksmithing. To view the man and read about his interesting history -- click here

FOLK HOUSING -- TENANT OR SADDLEBAG?

Two Tenant Houses in Madison County, Kentucky.

Houses are built  fore and  aft on the property

Kentucky has been my home for about two years now. That makes me almost a native in my eyes. 

In the past I have traveled extensively in the states to experience various cultures. You might say that this country of ours is all one culture but as you travel and live in various regions with your antenna up you may discover that our country has many various cultures, all with a strong sense of place.

One mark of a culture is the houses it builds.

In Kentucky, where I presently live, I am exposed to various  types of vernacular architecture. Tenant houses and  saddlebag houses being but two types within this area.These two forms are similar. 

Tenant and Saddlebag can be confusing to label. Within this post is a description of the historical differences between the two.

The Saddlebag house and the Tenant house are very similar in construction. They are what is referred to generically as a two pen house or double pen, one room deep and two rooms wide. An easy signature of identifying both is that they often have two front doors. 

The Saddlebag 's exterior usually has two different building materials such as log on the original one room and weatherboarding on the one room addition. 

Tenant homes are usually built with board construction from early sawmills. Tenant houses grew out of the saddlebag design. From my observation, Central Kentucky extant tenant houses built in the early twentieth century are two rooms across and two rooms deep.   

Saddlebags have an interesting history of how they came about. Common Houses In America's Small Towns by Jakle, Bastian and Meyer claim that the houses were called saddlebag as they were originally one room wide houses and as the use expanded they added one room off to the side. This meant that the house now was two rooms wide along the front facade while still remaining one room deep. The addition was the "saddlebag." 

The saddlebag house has a center chimney and two fireplaces serving each room. Often they have two front doors. These particular houses in my part of central Kentucky reflect the settlement patterns of late 1700s to early 1900s. They exist yet they are disappearing from the landscape due to development or abandonment. Often the saddlebag's one room addition would be constructed of different material than the original one room house. An example being an original log one room house having a side room addition built with weatherboarding. 

Tenant House design grew out of the Saddlebag influence. The tenant house arrived in the late 1800's and continued through the early 1900s. They were originally built incorporating the two room width and either one or two rooms deep. They reflected the early Saddlebag by having a central flue, rather than a fireplace with a central chimney.  The flue serviced stoves in each room. Tenant house configuration imitated the Saddlebag by having double front doors.

Tenant or Saddlebag houses usually have a front porch with a roof extending out from the house roof line. Many times it was almost as wide as the front of the house. The front porch was a social place rather than a working place – working was reserved for the back of the house. The front porch provided a place to relax, view the landscape, sunsets or sun-ups, neighbors passing and most of all a place to cool off in the pre-air-conditioned days.

Rocking chairs were usually part of the front porch scene. Even today houses in central Kentucky retain the wide covered front porch along with several rocking chairs of both old and new vintage. And the rocking chairs are used -- not just an adornment.

Many Tenant houses in Central Kentucky have evolved from one room deep to two rooms deep. In Central Kentucky they usually have a skin of vertical wide boards, two rooms deep and two rooms wide, small to medium sized rooms, crawl spaces below, two windows on each side of the house, sometimes a back porch with roof overhead, side gable roof-line, usually one and a half story, roof of metal or wood shingles, center chimney or flue, two centered front doors flanked by a window on each side of a door.

The construction of many of these early1900s Tenant houses are called "box construction" or locally, "boxed." Click here for more about box construction techniques.

Although some researchers of vernacular housing feel that tenant housing was originally built for tenants there are some who claim Tenant houses were for folks seeking low cost housing. 

About once a week, I would ride by two Tenant houses that sat fore and aft on its rural landscape. The houses had been sided with gray shingles probably during the 30’s. Each house had two front doors. The house in the “fore” of the property had another set of two doors in the back of the house.

Recently, one of the two houses was torn down by the descendants of the original family that built and lived in them since the early 1900s. Their reason for taking them down was to make space for a new large mobile home. The one saving grace is that the wood and various parts of the housing were methodically saved for building a small church by some of the owner's family. A photo of the two original tenant houses is located at the top of this post.

With the razing of one of the houses and a soon scheduled razing of the remaining -- a part of the feeling of this historic landscape will disappear.

Close up of Madison County Kentucky Tenant Home.

Vernacular historic houses have been overlooked as important features of the landscape to save. However, vernacular houses overall play an important role in giving us a sense of the cultural ways in which people lived.
VISIT MY OTHER POSTS ON FOLK HOUSING -- CLICK BELOW:

VERNACULAR MOUNTAIN HOME

HISTORIC BOX CONSTRUCTION VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE

REAL BATS VISIT THE LOCAL LIBRARY

areUNDER CONTROL IS A BIG-EARED BAT

Yes, live bats were in the library but not loose and flying around scaring the patrons. The live bats were part of a community presentation at the Madison County Berea Library in Kentucky which was open to all ages.

Presenter, GaryLibby, wildlife biologist, discussed interesting facts about bats that included the fact they are important to our ecology by controlling insect pests in large quantities. Also, he mentioned that bats cannot exist near polluted water as larvae are a food source. In the U.S. bats have become more at risk as humans continue to create disturbances near bat's habitats.

Big- eared bats are considered considered big for the bat world. Also, as their name signifies, they have larger ears than most other bat species. One of the young children in the audience gave out a friendly squeal that its ears, "looked like a bunny rabbit."

A main diet item of these bats is moths. If you happen by a tree with lots of holes, such as a snag, and find moth wings on the ground -- you'll know a bat was probably feeding there.

MANY CHILDREN ATTENDED -- GARY GAVE THEM THE OPPORTUNITY TO TOUCH THE WING OF THE BIG-EARED BAT -- THE CHILDREN WERE FASCINATED AND LINED UP TO DO SO.

Gary listed three myths about bats: 1) they don't get tangled in anyone's hair 2) they don't suck your blood, only Vampire bats do and they live in South America and 3) they rarely carry rabies, not anymore than raccoons, possums, cats, or dogs. He also pointed out that bats have no interest in biting you -- only caught insects which are their main diet.

The bags (pillowcases) hanging on the coat-rack in back of Gary had individual live bats in them. He had taken them from a local cave the night before and will place them back in their cave after the presentation. He said taking a hanging bat from a cave is like picking apples. You just reach up and pluck one. Of course he did not recommend it for untrained and unvaccinated folks.

ONE OF THE SMALLEST BATS IN THE U.S. -- EASTERN PIPSTERELLE

These tiny bats are sometimes called, "butterfly bats" due to their small size. They hibernate in caves in the winter and have one or two "pups" (babies) in the spring. Males live to about 15 years while the females only 10 years.

They usually feed over open water and can catch insects every two seconds increasing their mass in a half hour by 25%.

Predators of all bats include snakes, feral cats, raccoons, owls, and hawks.

Overall, the presentation gave exposure to an animal that has a bad rap. When one has an opportunity to view one close up and hear the facts about them -- you realize that they are an important wild critter within our natural world providing an ecological niche.

FALL TREES-- GLORIOUS!

On an overcast day I gaze in awe at the majestic woods surrounding my homestead. My 360 surround is dramatic with color.

Field and woods display their earthy hues.

The ashen color bark contrasts with a skirt of red.

Patterns of a drama unfold from the woods along the mountain ridge.

I settle on my old porch bench with a cup of coffee, looking over it all, while contemplating its mystery.

QUILT BLOCK SQUARE -- SCHOOLHOUSE PATTERN -- ON OLD SCHOOL

SCHOOLHOUSE EXTERIOR QUILT BLOCK ON KIRKSVILLE SCHOOL

RENOVATED KIRKSVILLE SCHOOL -- NOW A COMMUNITY CENTER
OLD DOOR CORNICE STILL EXTANT

The two-story brick school in Kirksville, Kentucky has taken up the idea of hanging a large quilt square on the exterior of its second story old school building. The pattern is very appropriate -- called the "school house pattern."

The pattern was historically designed as a symbol of the child labor movement protest against young children working in sweat shops rather than attending school. In the early 1900s, this practice of child labor peaked. Efforts by various social reformers during the early part of the twentieth century resulted in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that included compulsory free education for all children.

Today, Kirksville school has a new use -- it's now the town's community center.

FOR MORE OF MY POSTS ON QUILT SQUARES AND QUILTS CLICK BELOW:

QUILT SQUARES ON BUILDINGS AND BARNS

QUILT SQUARES ON BARNS

1800s KENTUCKY QUILTER SEAMSTRESS

KENTUCKY QUILT 1885 WITH PROVENANCE

FOLK REGION -- GIVING IT DEFINITION -- CENTRAL KENTUCKY

TOWN OF BEREA -- SUMMER FARMERS MARKET -- MADISON COUNTY, 2009
CLICK HERE TO READ POST

SILVER MAPLE WITH ROBIN'S NEST
WEDDED TO THE LAND AND THE LAND HOLDS MEMORIES

COUNTRY FARM -- ESTILL COUNTY -- RED LICK CREEK AREA 2009

SMALL TOWN OF PAINT LICK -- GARRAD COUNTY -- 2009

BARBARA'S 1940S CHICKEN HOUSE -- ESTILL COUNTY -- 2009
CLICK HERE TO READ POST

TOWN OF BEREA -- ONE ROOM BLACK SCHOOLHOUSE -- 1922
PHOTO COURTESY JESSE WARD

EARLY LARGE FARM HOUSE AND LAND -- EARLY 1800s OR BEFORE -- MADISON COUNTY

EARLY LOG CRIB -- HALF DOVETAIL NOTCHING -- CIRCA EARLY1800S -- CLIMAX, KY
CLICK HERE TO READ POST

The above photos represent pieces of the folk culture that was or is now found in Central Kentucky. Together they start to define a folk region.

In the book Kentucky Folk Architecture a definition of a folk region is put forth by Richard M. Dorson from his book American Folklore -- as follows: "a place where the people are wedded to the land, and the land holds memories. The people possess identity and ancestry and close family ties through continuous occupation of the same soil."

VERNACULAR MOUNTAIN HOME -- EARLY

VERNACULAR MOUNTAIN HOME, MADISON COUNTY, KENTUCKY

Kentucky Folk Architecture is one of my favorite books that I rely on when attempting to document the area's folk architecture. I moved to Kentucky two years ago -- but became familiar with the publication in 1989 when I was in graduate school in Oregon (I was in the late bloomer category). It focuses just on what the title says. Wrote in 1976 by William Lynwood Montell and Michael Morse it as relevant today as when it was first published.

The above home is an example of folk architecture. It could be considered a single pen form. It has two rooms across the front with a fairly square footprint. Presently, there is a metal roof. Perhaps it started out with a wood shingle roof when it was built? The main construction material was more than likely white oak.

Many of the folk houses of this date (circa 1900) that I have run across in this area are box constructed. This home has been tar papered on the exterior and painted green. Perhaps the tar paper was employed to keep drafts at bay as box construction had perpendicular boards with (sometimes) strips over the spacing where the perpendicular boards met. If the home did not have the strips it could become very cold in the winter. Many of the box constructed homes have applied exteriors such as vinyl or asbestos or in this case tar paper. Locally, box construction is also called "boxed."

It is a tidy and well kept home. An elderly man presently lives in the place. This form represents a culture going back about one hundred years or more. It has stories to tell as all folk architecture can.

FOR ANOTHER VERNACULAR POST OF FOLK HOUSING CLICK BELOW:

FOLK HOUSING -- TENANT OR SADDLEBAG?

HISTORIC BOX CONSTRUCTION

APPALACHIAN FOLK ARTIST -- EDNA SIMPSON

COTTON PICKING DAYS
First painting of two found in the last month.

Always a delight to find another naive folk art painting by Edna Simpson. In this case, not one but two were found in about a month. Cotton Picking Days and Times Gone By were bright and spontaneous, full of action and great displays of cultural landscapes from the past.

CLOSE UP SECTION OF COTTON PICKING DAYS

I talked to Miss Edna several months ago for the first time. I asked where she gets her ideas for her paintings. Her response was that it is mostly from her memories from the past. Edna lives in Kentucky country, is 63 years old and celebrates life with friends and relatives. With a lively voice, she is full of stories of her life and her paintings. She has dabbled in painting for about 20 years. Once she attempted to take painting lessons with her daughter and she only lasted for three classes before she went back to painting in her own distinctive style.

CLOSE UP SECTION OF COTTON PICKING DAYS
Lots of naive detail.
Measures 24 X 17.

TIMES GONE BY
Second painting found in the past month.

This Simpson piece is titled Times Gone By on the bottom of the painting. It measure 201/2 X16 and is dated 2004. It is on wood and is medium in size compared to Cotton Picking Days above.

CLOSE UP SECTION OF TIMES GONE BY
To view another Edna Simpson folk art painting
click here