A Quarterly Publication of the Hardin County Historical Society, a Bits and Pieces Non-Profit Organization Originated in 1931 OF HARDIN COUNTY HISTORY www.hardinkyhistoricalsociety.org VOL. XXVVIII NO 1 ISSN 1536-1667 WINTER 2014 Elizabethtown News J.C. Jennings Staff Photo Courtesy of J. R. Lay The Hewitt-Lancaster home on West Dixie Avenue during demolition in January 1966. Today WQXE Radio occupies this site once was home to one of the town’s first schools and school master. There Goes the Neighborhood ERASED LANDMARKS EXPLORED ONCE MORE OWNERS OF LASTING SIGNIFICANCE REMEMBERED By Susan McCrobie, newsletter editor Early 1966 proved to be a turning point in the over 100 years fell victim to progress and landscape of Elizabethtown’s West Dixie Avenue. commercial growth. Grand old homes that had stood along the road Let’s look back at a few of the casualties of the leading from the center of town northward guard for town’s 1966 historic home razing and their owners. Photos Courtesy of HCHS Richerson - Jones Collection This front and rear view of the Robert Hewitt residence and school located at 233 West Dixie Avenue was taken by Margaret Richerson as part of her work on a countywide Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory. 233 West Dixie Avenue The families were also bound by their service to When the newspaper announced the end of this old the South during a dark period of National conflict. two-story brick residence, in January, it also During the War Between the States, Dr. Samuel B. significantly noted that the home was the fourteenth Young served both the Northern and Southern on West Dixie Avenue between Mulberry and Miles soldiers in his much sought after medical capacity to be torn away and replaced by business. and by so doing was accused of being a spy. Lucky The news reported that the owner, Mr. B. L. enough he was warned of the impending dangers at Bogue, was planning to build a storeroom on the site the hands of the Union by a grateful brother of a girl for Noon ‘Til Nine. The appliance store eventually patient whom he had cured of a chronic case of made its appearance in town but at the end of scrofula. To escape capture and capitivity, Young Houchen’s Plaza. closed up his home and fled with family and one Along with a photograph taken by Elizabethtown faithful slave to Lake Providence, Louisiana. He was News staff photographer J. C. Jennings of the house welcomed there with open arms by the town’s people being dismantled the short article also stated that living sans doctor. Bogue had purchased the home from the heirs of Young later served as a Cotton Agent for the Mrs. John Lancaster. It went on to further add that it Confederate Government and he lived in Louisiana was once home to Mrs. Lancaster’s mother and sister, until the end of the war. Mrs. Eliza Young and Miss Alice Young. Following the end of the war he once again Mrs. John Lancaster, the former Mary Young, and returned to Kentucky and established his practice in her sister Alice were the daughters of Dr. Young. medicine. Dr. Samuel B. Young’s father was Dr. W. S. Young, Dr. Samuel B. Young died on May 20, 1877 in his uncle Dr. Bryan R. Young, and his aunt Elizabeth Elizabethtown at the age of 53. Dr. Young’s wife, Young Brown the mother of Kentucky Governor Miss Eliza, died in 1905 at the home. John Young Brown. Even before the Young’s called 233 West Dixie Dr. Samuel B. Young was born in Elizabethtown home, another great family that would be tied to the on August 20, 1824. He was well situated in life with Confederacy made their home at this address. a good education and great connections though his The Hewitt House prestigious family. In fact after his marriage to Miss Robert Hewitt, principal of the town’s academy Elizabeth Miles, the young couple spent part of their was the first to live in the 233 West Dixie house. grand wedding trip at a plantation in Biloxi, Along with him and his wife there were four sons and Mississippi owned by brothers Joseph Emory and a couple of female relatives living in the house and Jefferson Davis. The Davis family and Young family helping with a school also operated there. were bound by blood. The oldest Hewitt son, Lafayette, enjoyed his studies and by the age of sixteen had finished his in defense of the South. college curriculum only to become head of the When the Postmaster General of the Confederate household and principal of the town’s academy when States learned of his whereabouts, Hewitt was sent to his father suddenly died. Montgomery and put to work for a time before After eight years caring for his family and duties eventually joining the Confederate army and rising to of the school, Lafayette Hewitt spent a coupled of the rank of Captain. years in Louisiana for health reasons before being After the end of the war, Hewitt returned to his old appointed by U.S. Postmaster General Joseph Holt Elizabethtown home and served as the principal of for a position in Washington, D.C. He resigned in the Elizabethtown Female Academy until the March 1861 and traveled to Virginia in order to enlist expatriation laws were repealed. ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ Elizabethtown News J.C. Jennings Staff Photo Courtesy of J. R. Lay In 1966, James Bobo owned this house that once was the home of Jane Wintersmith, the daughter of Horatio Gates Wintersmith. Today the Red Cross occupies the 405 West Dixie Avenue site. 405 West Dixie Avenue it fell victim to progress. Readers of the Elizabethtown News heard about Mr. Gaither was one of the trustees of Lynnland the plans for the destruction of another Elizabethtown College, south of Glendale. He is credited with the residential landmark in January 1966 making way for naming of the institute situated on the “No Lynn a modern furniture store to be occupied by Al & Cal River.” Furniture. Gaither’s Station, three miles south of It wasn’t long until the Green Gables Furniture Elizabethtown on the L&N Railroad derived its name Store was open to customers and the Gaither from a branch of this family and Mrs. Gaither was residence a thing of the past. Miss Ann Bland before her marriage. The two-story brick house, once home to Jane After the Gaithers died, the house was home to Mr. Wintersmith and generally known as the J. R. Gaither and Mrs. J. P. Todd and later, Mrs. Lou Bobo and her residence was believed to be over 100 years old when sister, Miss Nan Horn. Photos Courtesy of The Elizabethtown News March 31, 1966 Elizabethtown News J.C. Jennings Staff Photo Courtesy of J. R. Lay Twelve hundred persons attend the Sunday opening of The Carriage House in October 1965 to shop in an historical atmosphere and take a look at the first class decorator service offered by Homer Benningfield, Jr. 334 West Dixie at the corner of Maple Street On March 31, 1966 the newspaper told of another demolition on Dixie just diagonal from the former Gaither home place site. The casuality was a two-story frame residence owned by Rufus Brandenburg. The home had been remodeled in October 1965 and opened as The Carriage House, a showcase for decorative Colonial furniture and accessories under the ownership of Homer Benningfield, Jr. Long before its use as a commercial operation, the large frame house was known as the Warfield house. Dr. Elisha Warfield was not only a fine physician, but was also considered the best chemist in the Louisville region. His Elizabethtown drug store was destroyed in the big August 1869 fire that swept up the Dixie (Main Cross) to Mulberry. Folling the devastating fire, articles such as the following appeared in the first issue of the Elizabehtown News on August 12: “E. Warfield, Agent and G. V. Matthis have rented the store room of Stephen Elliot opposite the Eagle House and on the alley next to Dr. Slaughter’s residence where they have removed what medicines, drugs, etc., saved from destruciton from the late disastrous fire and are now offering them for sale to their old customers and friends. E. Warfield occupies for the present one side, and G. V. Matthis the other side of the house.” The house mentioned here and used by Dr. Warfield was the Patton House, the site of the marriage of Thomas Lincoln to Sarah Bush Johnston. Dr. Warfield died January 18, 1897. Early Town Maps Available PROVE MOST VALUABLE TOOL FOR RESEARCHERS By Susan McCrobie, newsletter editor Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in cities across the United States. The earliest of the large-scale lithographed street plans, at a scale of 50 feet to one inch drawn on 21 by 25 inch sheets of paper, were first published in 1867. The 1907 Elizabethtown Sanborn Maps found at the Brown-Pusey House are certainly a well-documented window into the past and of great value today in the understanding of urban growth as well as an aid in genealogical research and historic preservation. These maps clearly mark the shape of all brick and wood structures, names of streets and allies, and even the uses of some of the buildings. The size of a lot is also recorded. After reading a newspaper clipping about the great number of houses demolished along the 200 and 300 block of West Dixie, once Main Cross, I just had to count the number of houses that once graced the residential arm extended from the business hub of the town’s public square on the Dixie.