My husband spent some happy years in Caneyville, Kentucky and around the Falls of Rough. We go down there occasionally to revisit some of the old haunts.
First, we looked in at the old church, which has a lovely front even though it’s looking a little dilapidated.
Here’s a better picture of the door with my husband (in tan slacks) and his friend peeking in.
The reason we looked at the church is that it’s next to the rectory where Charlie’s parents were married.
Then we walked across the footbridge.
The plaque says it was originally built in 1872.
Here’s what the old grist mill looked like the first time we went back to visit. The Greens ran it.
But they — whoever “they” are — decided to restore it.
Just beyond the mill is the Cheap Cash Store. Charlie remembers it well. The Greens ran this, too. Alas, it has since burned to the ground.
And here’s the Green mansion. Charlie’s father helped in the garden as a teenager. None of the family of three boys and a girl married, so it isn’t in the family now. It’s a bed and breakfast.
My mother’s mother was a Green, and she came from around there. I’m just sayin’.
This has been part of Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors link-up. Go over there and click on the link and find more doors from around the world!
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Where, specifically, did your main character grow up?
MA
Dan
February 4, 2016 at 7:04amIt’s nice to go back and visit and revisit the old haunts. It’s interesting to see the changes and the things that don’t change much over time. Great selection of doors and buildings and a nice bit of history. Thanks!
Marian Allen
February 4, 2016 at 7:38amI grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, so I don’t share those Grayson/Breckinridge County memories, so I especially like to tag along when Charlie and his sibs go down there, so I can eavesdrop on the “remember when”s. 🙂
joey
February 4, 2016 at 8:51amFascinating. The buildings are interesting enough on their own. I mean, that church is charming like whoa! But a family with four kids and none of them married? That’s truly peculiar. Makes me wonder what life was like for the Greens…
I love that footbridge, too.
Great post 🙂
Marian Allen
February 4, 2016 at 9:49amThe scuttlebutt around town was that, if they married, they were disinherited, but Charlie says that was just a dramatic rumor. They ran everything around there, so it’s possible they thought they were above everybody. Or they just may have felt complete without life partners. It is unusual for the whole generation to live and die single, though. Lots of story possibilities. ~grin~
norm2.0
February 4, 2016 at 8:57amI just love it when someone takes the time and effort to put some tlc into historic old buildings. It’s so important to preserve parts of our past, and to go back and visit them from time to time.
Marian Allen
February 4, 2016 at 9:51amI love that, too, Norm, although disrepair is wonderfully picturesque. I think that’s one reason I love Storybook Style architecture so much; some iterations of it mimic disrepair just for the odd beauty of it.
Jane
February 4, 2016 at 10:03amI once met a lady on the bus who knew all about a mansion back in the Edith Lane area to which huge amounts of the surrounding land used to belong. I later went back those winding roads and found it, very small amidst the encroaching houses and streets, but well hidden by trees and such. I had never spotted it driving around until I went looking for it. Hmmmm…
Marian Allen
February 4, 2016 at 10:07amDo I scent a story element brewing? ~grin~
Deborah aka CircadianReflections
February 4, 2016 at 6:19pmWhat a lovely walk down memory lane! How lovely that someone restored that building.
Marian Allen
February 5, 2016 at 8:12amIt was much more picturesque before, but it would have fallen down completely if it had gotten much more photogenic!
jan
February 4, 2016 at 7:53pmIt could use a paint job but at one time, it must have been charming. Love the name Falls of Rough. About says it all.
Marian Allen
February 5, 2016 at 8:15amJan, the “falls” are just barely steep enough turn a mill wheel. I wanted to include a picture of the mill run, but I already had so many pictures in this post I left it out. Falls of Rough is short for the Falls of Rough River. 🙂
Deb
February 4, 2016 at 8:02pmJust love these old Gothic churches!
Marian Allen
February 5, 2016 at 8:16amI do, too, Deb. Gothic arches always seem like shorthand for “church” to me, whether they’re stone or wood.
janet
February 4, 2016 at 10:40pmThe church appears to be sinking very gradually to one side.
janet
Marian Allen
February 5, 2016 at 8:17amI thought so, too! Glad it’s not just me, sinking very gradually to the other side. lol
Shelly
February 5, 2016 at 12:41amI love old buildings! I’m really fascinated with old houses.
What a cool old bridge!
Marian Allen
February 5, 2016 at 8:21amOld buildings and old houses, built in the day when architectural and decorative detail was the norm, give me such deep pleasure. You know that comic strip, The Family Circus? I used to wonder why looking at it made me grind my teeth, when the content of it often tickled me. Then I realized that the house has absolutely no detail to it, not even window casings!
Jesh StG
February 5, 2016 at 10:25pmSome coats of paint do a lot of good:) None of the Green’s kids got married? As a retired psychologist I immediately wonder what the reasons could have been that four kids never married …(a plot for a novel? Am not serious, but I couldn’t resist:)
Marian Allen
February 6, 2016 at 8:12amYou’re right, Jesh StG — There’s any number of plot possibilities there, from darkly unhappy to weird to childlike happiness. Or a mixture! Or more! 🙂