Went away sometime this summer. Feel uncompelled to tell when, excepting to say we survived.
So if it implies that we snuck away in the heat of a pandemic, well...let the words speak.
It wasn't something we preplanned, in fact, all that we preplanned went haywire as we counted down to our "abnormal vacation." This was cancelled, that was cancelled. This may reopen, that may not.
The constant was that given the date of our travel plans, the air networks were a go. They were still letting you choose, but the delay/refund was no guarantee and seemed pretty confusing. So we chanced it.
Where did we go? Kentucky
Why did we go? To sleep in a meteor crater of course.
'Cuz that's what we do.
That was our anchor stop and the abnormal vacation grew around it.
So here we go.
We flew in to Lexington after a few hops on small'ish planes where I swear I held my masked breath for 1.5 hour stretches. I was so excited to have survived and made it to land, I wanted to kiss the statue. Please take notice, that d/t Covid, I gave an air kiss instead.
On the road to the state capitol. Just look at those rock walls! Not the destination or road cuts we came for, but still pretty cool.
Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Had it not been in the news shortly before we headed out, we likely would have never given the place a look-see.
But it actually was an adorable little city.
Neat, well cared for and NOT McMansion stock of housing near the capital center.
Frankport is known for having one of the most beautiful Capitol buildings in the USA. It is housed in a small city, approximately 30,000. I learned a new factoid here= the Bluegrass State is also a Commonwealth like MA.
The Governor's Mansion is situated on the East lawn of the State Capitol grounds on a bluff high above the Kentucky River in Frankfort. Built in 1912, The exterior was modeled after the Petit Trianon, Queen Marie Antoinette's villa on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles.
The entire campus was eerily quiet when we visited. This was pretty incredible to see given that there had been protests here just days before we arrived. Was this the remnants of the effigy that protesters hung? Also, notice the construction truck in the background? If you glance at the article, you find out why. Historic times we are living through.
It certainly is a well-kept area. I can not imagine it filled with protesters.
With quite the view from the top! We had come in hopes of visiting the Kentucky Women Remembered exhibit, but alas, like many things in 2020, the building was closed to the public (sob, sob).
The governor's mansion was the real focus of the demonstration. Apparently it got ugly and scary, and as a result the airwaves/news stories of the day were all about the new fencing to be built to:“maintain the integrity” of the mansion’s exterior.
The spring demonstration was billed as a rally in defense of constitutional rights, including the right to bear arms. It turned into a protest against coronavirus restrictions and Beshear’s administration. Beshear is a democrat.
Like other governors, Beshear took steps to loosen virus-related restrictions as the economy reopened. But with coronavirus cases on the rise in Kentucky, Beshear issued a recent order requiring most Kentuckians to wear face coverings in public places. Hence the meaning of the rock left.
I enjoyed the yarn bombing!
Time and further travel would tell how well Beshar's mandate was holding up.
What a sweet sweet bungalow.
Next stop, Lexington. This is the oldest house still standing in Lexington (317 South Mill Street).
An interesting tidbit about Lexington= it was named after the opening battle of the Revolutionary War in our lovely state of Massachusetts!
Why this house? Well, along with the tie-in to name and place, Lexington KY is also where heroic black abolitionist Lewis Hayden escaped from slavery and ultimately ended up living in Boston Massachusetts.
Hayden's first enslaver was the preacher dude, Rankin. What a life this man had. Ties to him surround my travels this odd summer of 2020 (see the "Boston Abnormal Vacation" Post). Rankin sold off his siblings and eventually traded Lewis for 2 carriage horses.
The Fayette county seat in KY is Lexington. In 1830 Lexington had 15 black slave owners and almost 1/4 of the population were slaves (majority of slaves concentrated in Louisville and Lexington). By 1860, 5% of slave population were free, and in fact, some of the former slaves also had slaves themselves (shows how complex the situation was). This population of freed blacks were present in the downtown "Cheapside" area as early as the late 1700's. Cheapside was also were slave selling happened. I didn't visit the marker for the slave market on the site of the whipping post d/t fragile emotional state and awful construction in the downtown area (history vanishing- for good or bad, you decide).
I came here for the Rankin house site and its relation to MA, but there were other sites of interest, so bopped around for a bit here. I guess it means something to me and my personal history to see that blacks achieved middle class status, such that my father's family did as well.
A good listen if you have the time:
Was glad to see this marker, and it added a few other houses to check out!
331 South Mill Duplex- although not on the street marker, this site was said to be a stop along the Underground Railroad.
I loved the mixture of housing types in this neighborhood. Once considered the "outskirts" of town, now this mostly residential area is more in the downtown area.
333 South Upper Street. This site, also not on the historic marker route, is also steeped in history. It was first the site of the extended Lancastrian Academy (started across the street), then the Lexington Female Academy (1824), which changed its name in 1825 to Lafayette Academy after a visit and address made there by famous French military officer Marquis de Lafayette.
All of the above was not my interest in the site. It was the fact that Delia Webster, a New Englander of note (and a Kentucky Women Remembered person whose exhibit we did not see), worked here at the Female Academy. She was a co-founder of the elite Female Academy. However, in 1844, she took a break from the school to make her own historical mark. It is a fascinating history and it ties her to Lewis Hayden. All of this paints the picture for me of very complex times and the righteously brave folks who took stands on the highly controversial practice of the times= the enslavement of humans in our nation.
https://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2015/01/delia-webster.html
The quick (her)story: Delia Webster was a teacher and abolitionist in Kentucky, where she was a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Tried and convicted for helping runaway slaves in their escape to freedom, she was the first woman imprisoned for assisting fugitive slaves. Webster was also an artist, writer, and an independent woman, unusual for her time.
I have romanticized her life, or at least the part about her meet-up with the young minister and fellow abolitionist Calvin Fairbank, but will leave my sordid made-up tale in my brain for now, and only give the historical facts.
I lift directly from the above noted site:
Hayden Escape
Webster called Fairbank’s attention to the plight of the slave named Lewis Hayden and she may have financed their joint venture. On September 28, 1844, Webster and Fairbank left Lexington in a carriage. They then picked up Hayden and his wife Harriet and their young son Joseph. The boy was hidden under the carriage seat in times of danger, while his parents disguised themselves by covering their faces and hands with flour.
The Haydens eventually made their way to Canada before settling into Boston, MA.
Delia and Calvin were caught, tried, and this is where Delia gets her infamy=
- She was sentenced to two years at hard labor in the state prison at Frankfort, which she entered on January 19, 1845.
- Delia Webster was the only female prisoner in the penitentiary. She was housed in a wooden cottage in the center of the prison yard.
- She became the idol of Frankfort society and was visited by leading ministers and most of the state legislature when it was in session, while James Greenleaf Whittier and others eulogized her in the North.
I have no historical info on this place, but doesn't it look hauntingly inviting?
346= rental property for Free Blacks and 344= Free Black's Michael + Hannah Clarke
Michael and Hannah Clarke built 344 South Upper Street, left, in about 1818. He was a waiter and carpenter; she a laundress and seamstress.
I also did not know the history of this house, but the standing wooden sign caught my husband's eye.
Not sure of the meaning of this, but it gave us a chuckle!
275 South Limestone Street (Building #140) This ostentatious Italianate house was constructed by 1871. In the early-20th century,
it was connected in use as a hotel, the Kimball House, with the house to the north
and the three houses to the south. Two of its early residents were W. H. Newberry,
blacksmith and wagon-maker (1887-1890), and William P. Kimball, lawyer and
County Attorney, for whom the hotel was named (1902-1907). I imagine this building's walls has quite the stories to tell. I wish I could look at buildings and be gifted with some of their stories (that's how much I love 1. Driving around and looking at stuff, and 2. Stories connected to the landscape.
Further down South Limestone, heading toward the true downtown, sits this adorable, immaculate house at #245. Yes indeed it was black-owned.
Sad that the historical marker has no information on this, perhaps most well known black-owned house. It was built in 1835 by Samuel Oldham (don't you just wonder where that last name came from? I do). Oldham was a barber who bought himself out of slavery in 1826, then earned enough to free his wife, Daphney, and their two sons. He operated barbershops and a spa, helped other blacks with legal issues and bought freedom for several slaves. Quite the man, right!? The house almost was demolished as it fell into neglect and disrepair (? Gentrification by neglect?). Thankfully, it was restored in 2007.
521 South Upper Street. I know little else about this home, except that, to them, Black Lives Matter!
Meanwhile in other parts of this historic, mixed race neighborhood, other things matter. Kentucky, along with many states by mid-July 2020, had begun to open up some businesses to stimulate the economy (and help people with important things like maintaining proper hair color).
Essential workers near the University of Kentucky South Limestone Street
I was hoping that they masked up in public and were only unmasked for a break. This division (masked/unmasked) seemed to change as we headed into Southern Kentucky. Let's just say my wishes did not come true.
Next stop(s)= It's Plantation time.
This site was the only place I could find one of the newest tour promotions, "slave tours." As this NYT's articles says, "Tours of historic houses in the South used to focus on the fine furniture and design. Now, some are talking about who built them."
This site now proudly embraces its terrible past of enslaving black folk and offers a "Traces: Slavery at Ashland" tour for $25. Yes we did it. And yes it was a dry old white man with a revisionist narrative hardly believed by the three folks on the tour (which was 1.5 black folk full).
Leader of the Whig party and five times an unsuccessful presidential candidate, would you think him a winner or a loser? I think it may come down to who you are politically and/or who you are in terms of race.
This is what history has to say about him on slavery:
"Although a slaveholder, Clay disapproved of slavery as a system; he advocated gradual emancipation and the resettlement of the freed people in Africa."
Now how the heck can the above statement make any sense? We heard similar words at Jefferson's Monticello and other Southern plantations (heck even in upstate New York, Rhode Island, and all around New England if I was counting). This revisionist stuff is made up by historians trying to justify our ugly history.
Most of this place was indeed definitely about nostalgia for the antebellum South days.
Waiting for the tour to start.
They even had a place for you to stand. And a whole lot of rules. It was not a pleasant trip, fun tour, and in my opinion a contrived piece of crap tour to suck $25 out of sucker tourist like me. No extant slave quarters, we were directed to this stuffy, small garage type place for 90% of the very boring oral tales.
We had a better time hanging out with Mr. Turner after the tour and he told us a bit about his own personal history of being black in Lexington Kentucky both now and from his relatives perspective as well. It was an awesome treat to meet and hang with him. Forget about the dry-assed historian!
A telling of the times will now go down in my own personal history through this post.
We next went to Waveland Historic Site, a former plantation now run by the state as a comparison place. Antebellum house with three original outbuildings - slave quarters, smokehouse and ice house. Not a large place and also not open when we got there.
The theme of the Waveland State Park is to depict Kentucky life on a Kentucky plantation during the 1840s. Interestingly enough, on the state parks website they do not call the quarters "slave," but instead use "servants" quarters.
Waveland was supposed to be a "showplace" of central Kentucky. I found it unappealing. The information put out by the Waveland Museum was also incredulously misguided and unbelievable, especially in the 21st century. The narrative is literally painted with rose-tinted glasses:
"After the Civil War, the slaves did not leave their plantation because they were treated that well. No records were found of slaves being whipped, being beaten, or running away. The conditions of Waveland were livable and suitable for their slaves. Those conditions helped their work ethic and increased the productivity and quality of their work."
Some historical perspective for the time:
In the first half of the 19th century Kentucky was primarily a state of small farms rather than large plantations and was not adaptable to extensive use of slave labor. Slavery thus declined after 1830, and for 17 years, beginning in 1833, the importation of slaves into the state was forbidden. In 1850, however, the legislature repealed this restriction, and Kentucky, where slave trading had begun to develop quietly in the 1840s, was converted into a huge slave market for the lower South.
The Waveland Museums almost laughable revisionist, benign account of the enslavement and use of humans for inhumane purposes is what is wrong with some of the history in this country. Take a read and form your own impression:
"Many profitable and successful achievements were made in the early years of the estate. When the slave trade increased, the estate developed slave quarters for their workers to live. The plantation life, compared to various other slave states and plantations, could have been worse. The estate was a small town in itself so it had a different atmosphere. Having workers on this plantation was just another extravagant thing the Bryans owned during the 19th century."
...and of course this benevolent revisionist website would have this to add:
"The slave quarters at Waveland had a definite size difference, as they were larger and had better living conditions than most slave quarters seen in the Deep South."
This just made me laugh. The truth about the southern institution of slavery I do believe will always be peppered with untruths and half-truths for the real truth is too hard for some to deal with. I left with no big revelations or admittances, and for that I am sad.
Heading out into Nature!
Pineville, KY Chained RockPineville sits in a narrow valley on the old Wilderness Road, beneath a high cliff and a big rock. Local lore tells the story of how the rock got its name:
Local children were fearful that the rock would roll down Pine Mountain and flatten the town. The adults of Pineville would say there was no need to worry; the rock was safely anchored to the cliff by a chain.
That was a lie. There was no chain. But in 1933 some men were sitting around ruminating on lying to children and decided to put a chain on the rock that could be seen by the townsfolk below. They knew of a chain from a wrecked steam shovel so big that it could be bolted to the rock, so with all kinds of help including the Civilian Conservation Corps (Yeah for the CCC!), mules and human muscle, a chain over 100 feet long and 1.5 tons was anchored to the rock with 30-inch bolts!
Beautiful views from the top.
Chained Rock is a relic from an earlier time of no-safety-barrier tourism -- because there are no safety barriers. There's nothing between you and a 2,000-foot drop except your muscles and sense of balance. A good gust of wind could topple you to your doom.
The rock -- 200 feet long and 75 feet wide. There was only one other couple and their small, but very agile daughter up on the mountaintop when we were there. They easily passed us as we huffed and puffed and sweated our asses off! Well worth the intense half mile hike.
Many incredible outcrops and overhangs= easy to feel Indigenous history all around, even if it is scantly mentioned.
Rock hounding.
Sandstone?
There is a great deal of mention of Daniel Boone and the Pioneers traversing these mountains to get to the Bluegrass State and homestead, while leaving out the original trailblazers and their history. Makes me sad.
Looks to be a CCC project. I love these structures!
I had never heard of a "State Resort Park." Billed as Kentucky's first state park, this park also brags about an 18 hole golf course (which we did not visit).
How many stupid tourist pics did I make hubby take on this trip? Your guess is as good as mine. I so enjoy making him do this though, it is a huge part of the fun of vacationing.
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park spans a prominent V-shaped notch in the Appalachian Mountains that is known as the first gateway to the West. In 1750 the pass was "discovered" by white men searching for a settlement beyond the mountains. Twenty-five years later, a group of investors looking to colonize the Kentucky region hired Daniel Boone and 30 men to create a trail later known as the Wilderness Road. Long used by Native Americans, the path became the main artery for 300,000 pioneers who migrated west over the next 50 years.
The National Park Service (NPS) established the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in 1940. The 24,000- acre park tracks the Cumberland Mountains along the borders of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia for 26 miles.
There are about a bazillion things named "Daniel Boone" in the region. Talk about stretching the legend, geesh!
Bronze-Relief Mural- Cumberland Gap National Historic Park public art without any word of the creator of said art. Couldn't find anything on the internet either. Sad. Just sad. It was a very cool mural.Still providing stunning views after all these years!
Yet another "Resort Park." This one, Cumberland Falls State Resort Park is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest.
This Park, known as the Niagara of the South, has one of the few moonbows in the Western hemisphere, a huge tourist attraction. Even though we were not here on an observing night (when light refracting off the water droplets create a rainbow-like moonbow which occurs during the full, or almost full, moon), the place was a tad too mobbed with unmasked tourists. We literally gulped down our pizza and fled.
Here is the waterfall video:
Now, at the bottom of Cumberland Falls and Cumberland Gap lies a valley of a sort. But a very special valley and the reason for our abnormal vacation. I have grown used to these trips, but engaging in one during a pandemic was incredibly different.
We came to Kentucky for this southeastern small town of Middlesboro.
Pay attention to the mountains surrounding the town. This is an important feature.
We arrived at dusk and it was a pretty awesome sight to look all around at the "walls" of the town.
Not sure if I captured it or not, but this town of approximately 10,000 folk was built in the center of a meteor crater! Yup, old is what this town is. AND Geologically special, especially to geeks like my beloved!
The Middlesboro crater is an astrobleme that is approximately 3 miles wide and its age is estimated to be less than 300 million years old. Not sure what the estimate means as it only says less than and no range given, but I would go toe-to-toe with any Kentucky Creationist to argue that its age is more than a million years old.
But I was not there to argue with any Kentuckians, in fact I was a tad scared being in Middlesboro looking the way I did with the frizz fluff flowing (more on Middlesboro to come...), we were there to....
Hunt for meteorite remnants of course! Hubby did his homework, had the game plan, and I was once again the assistant extraordinaire (unpaid muscle, hauler, etc...). We set up shop in a local joint that just happened to be located next to a place to hunt at.
Early in the morning we headed out on our most excellent adventure (a tad bit of snarkyness added here).
The days got oppressively hot rather quickly there in KY. and we mostly were directly out in the open sun= not so fun.
It wasn't the prettiest of views and the rock was really crumbly.
Peter was much more persistent than I.
He looked...
...and looked.
This is mostly what he/we saw. Yes, this could possibly be a shattercone, but any attempt to extricate would crumble into nothingness. Very frustrating.
So I instead marveled at the almost perfectly preserved road kill. The hubby and I have such disparate interests.
After all that talk of NOT going to golf clubs in the resort parks, here we were at the avowed "oldest continuously played golf course in the US."
So according to hubby this was ground zero for the hunt (and also the place where zero was found that we could keep). Off we went!
After the wonderfully kind groundskeeper gave us the okay to scout around, somebody badgered someone else to procure a cart for our journey b/c the view was very FAR and WIDE.
We looked here...
We looked there...
From a 360 view you could get the feel of being in the center of a crater. It was pretty cool.
I was happy to just be riding around in the little cart!
Finally! Peter found shattercones.Isn't it beautiful? Too bad we couldn't collect. But... now we have this wonderful picture to document our discovery.
And there was more of the uncollectables!
MEANWHILE...
I was finding cool stuff on my own, like...
critter holes and cool leaves!
...and painted rocks with weird symbols (hubby thought biblical?).Signs of ageing of the facilities... (cuz I like decay)
We looked up high on the little mound at the back of the course...
...and while it afforded us some nice meteor crater views...Alas, there were no great finds for Peter. I on the other hand, walked away with a little bag of nature goodies! Oh yeah, AND a commemorative golf ball for Petie!
To brighten hubby's day, we made a very, very exciting video about where we were. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
"We are not Sheldon and Amy Farrah Fowler, although there was a Big Bang Here!"
So that most EXCITING part of the Abnormal Vacation was over, but we weren't done with Middlesboro, Kentucky just yet. Peter quickly took to his Geology Guide Book (of course every vacationer travels with one of these, or they are not cool kids like us!) and directed the car in continued search!
Our last gasp was a bit spooky. It was a Sunday, yet the parking lot was deserted (some Covid mandates were being followed), but I felt like someone was going to pop out with a shotgun and shoot us dead. I was the look out while Peter scurried up a hill behind the joint.
Now I must side track and explain my unfounded fears. I did a little research myself when I heard of our upcoming next adventure. Middlesboro, Ky evoked a vague memory. First glance gave me that it was the birthplace of Lee Majors. Surely you all remember "The Six Million Dollar Man."
It was when looking for the BBC Series on the Solar System (which did a piece on Middlesboro) that I stumbled upon this:
And if you guessed this bizarre stuff was happening in the place we were visiting, you would be right! Dig this:
"In 1995 28-year-old Melinda Brown, of Parrottsville, Tennessee, died after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake at Coots' church."
I know your next question and the answer is "no." The name of the church is Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name, and it looks like this:
There were other curios to visit, so we bebopped around a bit before saying goodbye.
We all know I am a sucker for these historical markers and sights! In case you need it pointed out- yes it does state THE BRICKS WERE MADE FROM CLAY BY SLAVE LABOR!!!
This country was made on the backs of my ancestors- this I believe as hard, hard truth.
Which led us on another side search. The town has gone through many changes, starting with inhabitation once by The Shawnee. After Daniel Boone trekked through and pioneer settlement happened, this little spot in middle Appalachia
as the sign so aptly points out had a slave population.
By 1800, a few years after statehood, with a population of about 220,000 of which some 40,000 were slaves. Almost a quarter of the population back then.
The stats for the county:
1870 U.S. Federal Census1880 U.S. Federal Census- 99 Blacks [the majority of whom were born in Virginia]
- 76 Mulattoes
1900 U.S. Federal Census- 1,552 Blacks
- 256 Colored
- 2 Mulattoes
From another of my side interests=
SLAVE NARRATIVES OF KENTUCKY
Interviews with former Slaves
by the Work Projects Administration
Washington, DC; 1941
BELL CO.
(Nelle Shumate)
Mandy Gibson:
There were auction-blocks near the court houses where the slaves were sold to the highest bidders. A slave would be placed on a platform and his merits as a speciman of human power and ability to work was enomerated the bidding began. Young slave girls brought high prices because the more slave children that were born on one's plantation the richer he would be in the future. Some slaves were kept just for this purpose, the same as prize thorough-bred stock is kept. In many instances slaves were treated like brutes and their places to sleep were like barn sheds with only a little straw, on which to sleep. Mrs. Neikirk's mother said that she distinctly remembered that the slaves she knew of had only the roughest of food such as: corn bread molasses, and scraps from their owner's table. Their clothing was such as their owners saw fit to give them and the cheapest.
An old negro woman, Aunt Mandy Gibson by name, died last month, Sep. in Middlesboro and I have heard her tell about coming here from Alabama when the town of Middlesboro was first founded. When asked about her old home people she would go to great lengths to explain about her people having been slaves, but she would always add that they did not mind slavery as they at that time knew nothing of the outdoor life and therefore desired nothing better. She also said that the family that owned her was a kind nature and was good to slaves.
Some of the citizens of Middlesboro today can recall stories that their parents told them about the days when slaves were bought and sold in the United States. Among these is one Mrs. Martha Neikirk, a daughter of an old Union soldier now deceased. Mrs. Rhuben Gilbert, Mrs. Neikirk's mother said that: "Once my mother and I were out in the woods picking huckle-berries and heard a noise as of someone moaning in pain. We kept going toward the sound and finally came to a little brook. Near the water was a negro woman with her head bent over to the ground and weeping as if her heart was broken. Upon asking her what had caused her agony she finally managed to control her emotions enough to sob out her story. The negro woman said then that her master had just sold her to a man that was to take her far away from her present owner and incidentally her children. She said this couldn't be helped but she could ask the good Lord to let her die and get out of the misery she was in.
Hard to imagine this, but in 1940 colored citizens paid taxes that supported the public library for whites but were denied access to the public library. So they went about creating their own.
Onward we searched and searched, circling the downtown area several times."The library was placed in the Johnson, Baker, & Mitchell Funeral Home at 415 Nineteenth Street," I only had that to go on.There has always been a small black presence in the town (less than 5%), and like many other places they are relegated to a rather run-down section near the downtown. This was all we found near the site:
I looked at this video:
despite finding Lee Majors, I was unsuccessful in finding brown folk, unless you count this (which is a horrible observation to make, but I couldn't help myself):
The rest of downtown:
This was to be the "Pittsburgh of the Appalachians." Ben Harney invented Ragtime music here between 1890 and 1893. In 1902, the notorious Quarterhouse Battle erupted nearby, pitting city folks against mountaineers and coal miners. During the period that followed, Middlesboro became known as a "Little Las Vegas." Al Capone's arch rival, Jack Zuta, lived and worked in Middlesboro before moving to Chicago around 1915. Gambling, boddy houses, and even an Opera House all were here. Heyday came and went and now it is pretty deserted. Sadly, the historical society and museum was also closed due to the Pandemic.
This is largest town in the county and so yeah... Appalachia can be a bit scary.
On a brighter note were a few neat "viewables."
It's a combo attraction! On the left is an outdoor museum (f-Covid, we are going museuming!), and on the right is the unique Chamber of Commerce.
The Coal House
Built in 1942, this structure is built entirely out of bituminous coal and serves as home to the Bell County Chamber of Commerce while offering an exhibit on coal mining.
Doesn't he look like he could have stepped right out of a mine some 100-200 years ago!?
Final leg of the Abnormal Vacation brought to an almost ghost town. It isn't always like this. In fact, this place would be absolutely mobbed were it not for the dreaded Pandemic/Covid-19.
This funky little college town in Madison County has both a history of Arts and integration of black and white folk and has long been on my list of "to visits." I once had fantasies of going to college here, a Cooper Union-like Liberal Arts college in the South. 4 years of tuition-free to every accepted student! Berea College is known for being the first interracial and coeducational college in the South.
Some nifty info about the college:
The community’s history is intertwined with that of Berea College, founded in 1855 by an abolitionist minister as a model for educating men and women of all races. After 1904 the college largely served Appalachian students, charging no tuition and requiring all students to work in a college industry. Fireside Industries, Berea’s student craft business, began in 1883, and thus began Berea’s reputation as a center of craft tradition and production. Today, through Student Craft Industries, more than 200 students and craft professionals in the community produce weaving, woodcraft, needlecraft, ceramics, broomcraft and wrought iron products that are marketed internationally. Berea is also home to the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen.
College Square and Chestnut Street have many shops featuring art and craft as well as restaurants. Berea Arts Council presents visual arts exhibits, workshops, literary readings and summer art camps. Open artist studios and shops selling hand-crafted products abound in Old Town, where you can watch the artists at work. Berea’s Festival of Learnshops presents hands-on art workshops twice a year. Participants can choose from dozens of sessions and work one-on-one with professional artisans.
Learnshops is what we were signed up for, along with a stay at historic Boone's Inn. All cancelled, but we passed thru anyway. Of course we stopped, lunched, and shopped!
These are a few of the dozen fiberglass hands, some with bizarre decorations, that stand at various points around town -- survivors of a 2003 "Show of Hands" public art project.Odd to see the name Cassius Clay right? You do know that Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, was from Louisville, Ky. Also, as we learned earlier in the trip, there was a prominent family in KY named Clay that were slave owners. This Cassius Clay did come from that same family, and his family did also own slaves, but what a character was he!
"
On October 19, 1810, Green Clay, cousin of former Senator Henry Clay, and Sally Lewis welcomed their son, Cassius Marcellus Clay, into the world. Little did they know how colorful a character their son would become.Clay—featured on the National Constitution Center’s American National Tree, part of its main exhibit—was born in Kentucky and resided there for most of his life. Although his family had owned slaves, Clay became an abolitionist early in his life after hearing a speech by William Lloyd Garrison while at Yale in 1832. He eventually founded the abolitionist newspaper True American.
In 1835, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, and was reelected three more times, despite his abolitionist beliefs. He was one of the first members of the Republican Party, eventually currying favor with President Lincoln.
While in the Kentucky House, Clay was not the most popular man. On two occasions, he was nearly killed for being an abolitionist. The first attempt occurred during a political debate. The story goes that political enforcer Sam Brown was hired to take Clay out; he walked on stage and promptly shot Clay in the chest. But Clay did not go down, and instead struck Brown multiple times with his Bowie knife, ultimately cutting off Brown’s nose and ear.
The second attempt was an ambush by the Turner brothers, whose father was a proslavery politician. They surrounded Clay and proceeded to beat and stab him to near death. But Clay, never one to go down without swinging, once again used his Bowie knife to injure his attackers, and eventually ran down the eldest brother, Clay Turner, and stabbed him to death, according to The Worst Case Scenario Almanac: Politics."
The name Ali inherited from his father — Cassius Marcellus Clay — was in fact given to his dad in honor of Cassius M. Clay, the fervent abolitionist who lived in Berea!
I was thrilled to see a mixed-race couple among the scant visitors we saw around town.
It really was sad to see the deserted craft center.
The Berea Story is a fascinating one to me.
Rev. John G. Fee started a one-room school in 1855 that eventually would become Berea College. Fee, a native of Bracken County, Ky., was a scholar of strong moral character, dedication, determination and great faith. He believed in a school that would be an advocate of equality and excellence in education for men and women of all races.
Fee’s uncompromising faith and courage in preaching against slavery attracted the attention of Cassius M. Clay, a well-to-do Kentucky landowner and prominent leader in the movement for gradual emancipation. Clay felt he had found in Fee an individual who would take a strong stand on slavery.
In 1853, Clay offered Fee a 10-acre homestead on the edge of the mountains if Fee would take up permanent residence there. Fee accepted and established an anti-slavery church with 13 members on a ridge they named “Berea” after the biblical town whose populace was open-minded and receptive to the gospel (Acts 17:10).
Berea’s first teachers were recruited from Oberlin College, an anti-slavery stronghold in Ohio. Fee saw his humble church-school as the beginning of a sister institution “which would be to Kentucky what Oberlin is to Ohio, anti-slavery, anti-caste, anti-rum, anti-sin.” A few months later, Fee wrote in a letter, “we…eventually look to a college — giving an education to all colors, classes, cheap and thorough.”
Fee worked with other community leaders to develop a constitution for the new school, which he and Principal J. A. R. Rogers insisted should ensure its interracial character. It also was agreed that the school would furnish work for as many students as possible, in order to help them pay their expenses and to dignify labor at a time when manual labor and slavery tended to be synonymous in the South.
Sadly, Berea’s commitment to interracial education was overturned in 1904 by the Kentucky Legislature’s passage of the Day Law, which prohibited education of black and white students together. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Day Law, Berea set aside funds to assist in the establishment of Lincoln Institute, a school located near Louisville, for black students. When the Day Law was amended in 1950 to allow integration above the high school level, Berea was the first college in Kentucky to reopen its doors to black students.
This is why I desperately wanted to go to this school when I was younger!
Originally known as the “Log Palace”, the present-day Log House Craft Gallery is a 68 x 40-foot plantation-style structure built in 1917 to honor the revival of colonial arts in the Southern Mountains. Another missed visit= it was closed :(
This sixty-eight by forty feet log structure, ready for use in September 1916, and dedicated on May 2, 1917, "was erected for promoting the revival of the colonial arts in the Southern Mountains" and as a "gift to the mountain women who weave to educate their families." It was designed in a Palladian symmetrical plantation style, with classical portico, and was equipped with steam heat and electricity. Tulip poplar logs, prepared during the summer of 1915 (PCM, May 26, 1915), were chosen as the building material because the wood and building process "represented" Appalachian mountain traditional crafts.
Thankful for the few stores that were open! I sure hope the town still embodies this principal.
The remaining pictures are from our drive around the integrated neighborhood on Center St. near the college. Center Street was originally settled under Fee's plan for racial interspersion in housing where blacks and whites would have each other as neighbors.
It is a lovely neighborhood of all differing styles of housing. I fantasized myself living here and it was a nice thought dream.
I explained myself and asked this nice man if I could take the picture. I almost asked him if I could be his neighbor, lol!
And finally, this one was a stumper. Some sort of college housing? Yes it is, sort of. It also is available as a rental to employees of the college, now how cool is that?
And then it was time to get on the plane and head home again. I was sort of glad we went. Plus I got two books for my memory stash! This is about the only normal thing out of the whole vacation in the Shitty Summer of 2020.
Bronze-Relief Mural- Cumberland Gap National Historic Park public art without any word of the creator of said art. Couldn't find anything on the internet either. Sad. Just sad. It was a very cool mural.
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