Preservation Kentucky

06/04/2026

🇺🇸 🐎 3 June 1781 - Today in Kentucky history 🕯️🇬🇧

06/03/2026

𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒❗🎉 🎪 SAVE THE DATE ! ✅ 🗓📌 ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ ⭒ 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒 𓈒
🎡 🍭 🍰 Enjoy a fun summer festival in a Kentucky Main Street community! 🍧 🍕 🍔 🧀 🌭🍺

It’s THAT time of year again, warm weather is here, festival season is in full swing, and you already know what that means… it’s time for the Beer Cheese Festival 🧀🍺

Mark your calendars for Saturday June 13th and get ready for one of the BEST days of the summer. We’re talking cheesy samples on repeat, ice-cold beer, live music all day, food trucks, local vendors, and nonstop good vibes.

📅 Saturday, June 13th
📍 Wi******er, KY

Grab your friends, bring your appetite, and come ready to eat, drink, and have a GOOD time. This is your official excuse to spend the whole day outside having fun, don’t miss it. Save the date!!!

Let’s make it the cheesiest one yet 🧀🔥

******erKY

05/20/2026

📣 🏆 🌷 Congratulations to our friends Jess and Angela Correll for receiving the 2026 Lifetime Service to Preservation Award from the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation! Their tireless dedication to historic preservation has made an impact throughout the Commonwealth, especially in the charming historic town of Stanford. Special shout-out to architect and Preservation Kentucky board member Garlan VanHook, AIA, whose talent helped transform Stanford's historic properties into new treasures with new purpose! ⭐

The Bluebird The Stanford Inn at Wilderness Road Wilderness Road Hospitality Kentucky Soaps and Such Stanford-Lincoln County Tourism Lincoln County Historical Society Mama DeVechio's Pizzeria Esther's Wellhouse First Southern National Bank Angela Correll Kentucky Heritage Council - SHPO AIA Kentucky Kentucky Tourism The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation

05/15/2026

🍽️ 🌾 🧺 Check out this fabulous dining guide from our friends at the Kentucky Heritage Council! The Kentucky Historic Dining Guide features locally-owned restaurants housed in buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places where you can enjoy time-honored recipes in settings that connect you to the stories of our past 🏛️

🍲 👨‍🍳 🍳 From historic downtown cafés and old roadside diners to grand hotel dining rooms and lovingly preserved taverns, each stop in this guide invites you to experience Kentucky’s rich cultural tapestry through its culinary traditions. Whether you're a traveler seeking authentic local flavor or a Kentuckian rediscovering your roots, this guide is your invitation to explore the Commonwealth’s past—served fresh daily 🍎🥩🥕🍗🥓🌽

Make sure you're following Kentucky Tourism so you don't miss out on the historic restaurants they'll feature each week!

👩🏻‍🍳 For the full guide, visit ➡ https://heritage.ky.gov/historic-places/diningguide/

05/02/2026

🐎 🐎 🐎 Horses, Horses, Horses 🐎 🐎 🐎
The Louisville Jockey Club, Home of The Kentucky Derby

🔸 This is Churchill Downs' original Louisville Jockey Club, which officially opened in 1875 and began its tradition as the "Home of the Kentucky Derby" — the brainchild of 26 year old Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., whose European tour of prominent racetracks inspired the development of Churchill Downs to showcase Kentucky's breeding industry.

🔸 "Lutie," as Clark was called, was the grandson of explorer and territorial governor Gen. William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His parents were Major Meriwether Lewis Clark, an architect, civil engineer, politician and military officer in the Mexican-American and Civil Wars, and Abigail Prather Churchill from one of the first families of Kentucky. His great uncle was George Rogers Clark, a Revolutionary War Hero who founded Louisville.

🔸 Lutie had horse history in both of his bloodlines. On his mother's side, his Churchill relatives, who moved to Louisville in 1787, bought 300 acres of rural land south of the city that would eventually be donated for Churchill Downs. Lutie's grandfather, Samuel Churchill, was one of the founders and first president of Louisville's 1830 Oakland Race Course.

🔸 On his father's side, the Clark family's passion and respect for horses also had a long history. It was horses that would take Lewis & Clark on their great expedition and carry them and their supplies over the Rocky Mountains through the Western Frontier all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

🔸 In a family 1850 genealogy, Lutie's father listed all 25 horses he owned, most of them by name — Bolivar (a blood bay raised in Clay County, Missouri), Saladin, Palestine, Troubadour, Hector, Sally, Tom, Charley and Old Joe among them, along with the years they were foaled, how they were obtained, what they were used for, their color and markings, pedigree, and where they were raised: Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Six of Lutie's father's horses were purchased for use during the Mexican-American War.

🔸 It was Lutie's uncles, the entrepreneurial Clark brothers Henry and John, who provided the financial backing for the track. Lutie was the first president and on-site manager. His contribution to American horse racing is noteworthy. In addition to developing Churchill Downs and originating the Kentucky Derby, he wrote many racing rules still in force today. He promoted a uniform system of weights and pioneered the stakes system, creating the Great American Stallion Stakes on which the present-day Breeders' Cup is modeled.

🔸 When he returned from his European travels studying horseracing in 1873, Lutie outlined a plan for a series of races with the most prestigious purse and quality of horses being the "Kentucky Derby." The plan was adopted, the Louisville Jockey Club was formed, and the track and grandstand erected on the Churchill owned land south of town in 1875 became known as the tradition run every year and celebrated today as the Kentucky Derby—the most famous horserace in the world and one of the most recognizable works of architecture, the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs.

🏆 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🏆

Photos courtesy The Courier-Journal and The Filson Historical Society

05/02/2026

🏇 🌹 🏆 Panoramic view of a crowded Derby 1921 (top), held Saturday, May 7, and a 1901 photo postcard (bottom) featuring a horse-drawn carriage along the track in front of the grandstand on Monday, April 29, before the first Saturday in May tradition.

Behave Yourself won the 1921 Derby, and His Eminence won the 1901 Derby. 🏆 🏇

🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎

Both photos courtesy The Library of Congress: 1921 from a Caufield & Shook Collection, and 1901 photo postcard from a Churchill Downs Detroit Publishing Collections.

05/01/2026

🐎🌹🏆 A colorful Caufield & Shook postcard of the Clubhouse Grounds at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby. James Caufield and Frank Shook founded their popular photography studio in Louisville in 1903 and became the official photographer of the Kentucky Derby in 1924. While the postcard isn't dated, the clothing looks 1940s.

🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎

Source: WKU Special Collections Library

04/30/2026

🏇 🏆 👒 First Saturday in May, 1914. Churchill Downs Clubhouse 👒 🏆 🏇

🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎 🌹 🏇 🌹 🐎

Photo Courtesy University of Louisville Photographic Archives R. G. Potter Collection

04/29/2026

⚠️ How you can help protect and preserve an important historic American building, the Eisenhower Executive Office Bldg (EEOB) in Washington DC, by preventing its beautiful granite facade from being painted, which would cause irreversible physical damage to this important structure‼️

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 | Members of the public have the opportunity to provide input on proposed alterations to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), including a plan to paint the historic granite facade in bright white, causing irreversible physical harm to this important structure.

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is scheduled to review the project and hear public comments on plans for the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Thursday, May 7.

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗼-𝗗𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁:

1. 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿: Protecting the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Irreparable Harm on Thursday, April 30 at 3PM ET for an urgent conversation with David Scott Parker, FAIA—member of the National Trust Board of Trustees—and Rebecca Miller, executive director of DC Preservation League, about imminent and irreversible harm to this National Historic Landmark. Register for this free webinar: https://ow.ly/wCpT50YQQU1

2. 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗖𝗣𝗖. The deadline for public comments is Wednesday, May 6 at noon ET and we encourage you to submit early: https://ow.ly/1LPQ50YQQU0

3. 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 to join the NCPC meeting on Thursday, May 7. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building will be on the agenda. Visit https://ow.ly/zqbm50YQQU2 for details and the final agenda.

The EEOB is a National Historic Landmark and a contributing element of the Lafayette Square National Historic Landmark District that has been preserved, un-painted, since its completion in 1888.

The subtle appearance of granite walls, slate roof, and cast-iron detailing are integral to its architectural significance and are character-defining features.

Painting the exterior now would obscure the EEOB’s historic appearance and undermine its character-defining features. Coating the surface with an impermeable layer of paint would trap moisture within the masonry, and accelerate the building’s deterioration.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/hngu50YQR2o

Photo by Joel Sartore Photography

04/25/2026

🌲 ⛰️ Historic Downtown Pineville 🏫 🏛
🌿 Pineville is one of Kentucky's oldest settlements, dating to 1781. Originally named Cumberland Ford, it was situated at a shallow crossing on the Cumberland River at a gap in Pine Mountain called The Narrows. Although not as well known as nearby Cumberland Gap, The Narrows was also a key passage on the Wilderness Road--the route blazed by Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap that allowed early settlers from the east to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, and eventually played a crucial role in Kentucky becoming he 15th state.
🌿 The area saw significant development after the Civil War and Bell County's formation in 1867, and in 1870, the settlement was renamed Pineville.
🌿 Historic buildings featured in downtown Pineville include the 1904 Bell National Bank Building, 1919 Bell County Courthouse, 1921 Masonic Temple, and 1939 Bell Theater.
🌿 The New Deal helped revitalize the community after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Today, efforts are breathing new life into historic buildings like the Bell Theater, which played a significant role in the revitalization of Pineville's Main Street district with help from the Kentucky Main Street Program administered by the Kentucky Heritage Council. Main Street Pineville is one of 22 Main Street Programs in Kentucky and one of 1,322 throughout the United States.
🌿 Pineville is also the home of the annual Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival established in 1931 and held each May to celebrate Thomas Walker, the first European to find the Cumberland Ford.