LEXINGTON, Ky. - Two buildings owned by the University of Kentucky, a vacant bus station and courthouse, two churches, several historic houses, and a building more than 200 years old make up this year’s list of endangered properties highlighted by the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation. The annual “Eleven in Their Eleventh Hour” list was announced Thursday.
- Old Fayette County Courthouse
- Greyhound Bus Station on Loudon Ave
- Willis Green House (Danville, Ky)
- Good Shepherd Church (Frankfort)
- First Baptist Church (W. Main St, Lexington)
- 658 S. Limestone (Ligon House - UK Campus)
- 660 S. Limestone (Mathews House - UK Campus)
- 151 Constitution St
- 601 Boonesboro Ave
- 412 W. Third St
- 445 W. Second St
“We spend a fair amount of time researching them and trying to look at the community, the area as a whole. It sheds some light on these very historical, aging, and neglected properties and hopefully lets somebody see an opportunity for a solution,” says BGT Board President Linda Carroll.
The 2013 endangered properties list also includes the Kentucky Palisades, which the Blue Grass Trust say are threatened by the proposed 1-75 connector in Jessamine and Madison counties.
Some properties have been on the endangered list before. For a variety of reasons, BGT board member Bill Johnston says the properties aren’t maintained and are threatened by new development and demolition.
“In several of the cases here with these endangered houses, the people have wanted to buy them obviously because they bought them. But then they never do anything with them and they fight trying to sell them and they pay their fines.”
The Trust has seen some recent success stories, however. Two homes that were once on the endangered list, the Buford-Duke House in Scott County and 543 West Third Street in Lexington, have both been restored.
