|
Picture it. Perryville, Kentucky—1862.
A bustling strip of mercantile buildings—general
stores, a post office, drug store and doctor’s office;
parents and children crossing the street; farmers loading
wagons with supplies; the picture of a healthy, yet vibrant
agrarian community. Substitute the wagons for cars and pave
the roads. The picture of Perryville, Kentucky–2002–is
not much different. The same quaint, wooden buildings continue
to house a variety of consumer shops. The noise of children
playing can still be heard along the Chaplin River, and the
sight of local residents bustling along the street is still
an everyday image.
Merchants’ Row has long been a
cornerstone of life in Perryville. Indeed, many of these buildings
played a significant role in the aftermath of the Battle of
Perryville. The unique blend of civilian and military stories
found in this town makes Perryville’s history standout
nationally. In addition, Merchants’ Row is one of the
only, intact 19th-century mercantile districts
in the nation. As such these treasured structures, each with
an amazing story to tell, are at the heart of the PEP’s
restoration efforts.
Brinton House
The Brinton House, located at the
corner of Buell (Highway 68) and Second Streets (Highway 150),
was probably constructed in the 1840s. The home, an excellent
example of Federal style architecture, was damaged during
the Battle of Perryville when a cannonball crashed through
the roof and an interior door. Following the battle, the home
was used as a hospital.
Purchased by the PEP in 2000, the
Brinton House is the first building on Merchants’ Row
that will be restored and is the future site of the PEP offices
and town welcome center. Work on this site will also include
the construction of a period outbuilding to house public restrooms
and vending machine facilities as well as the completion of
additional parking space on the top section of the corner
lot.
The Opera House
The building located just to the
right of the Community Center and the first building of Merchants’
Row proper is commonly referred to as the "Opera House."
However, nothing in the building’s deeds reflects an
official use as an opera house. As such, it is assumed the
building was used at one point by traveling musicians and
performers, hence its popular name. There is historic documentation
that early in the 20th century, the second floor
was used for entertaining. Following the advent of the automobile,
local proprietors, faced with the growing attraction of weekend
entertainment in larger towns like Danville and Harrodsburg,
began showing silent movies on Friday and Saturday nights
for an admission of five cents.
In addition to playing home to various
forms of entertainment, the Opera House also held a number
of businesses. The first floor has been a poultry house and
general store with the second floor holding, at various points
in time, a photography studio and a Masonic Hall. There is
also historic reference to the structure housing the city
Post Office for a period of time.
The Opera House, the PEP’s
most recent Merchants’ Row acquisition, was purchased
in 2001. Following restoration, the building will serve as
either commercial/retail space or museum space.
Parks Store
The Parks Store, once located in
the building adjacent to the Opera House, was built in the
mid-1800s. At the time of the Battle of Perryville the general
store was owned and operated by J.A. Burton. In 1874, Mr.
William Huston Parks purchased the store, which his family
then operated for nearly one hundred years.
The dry good store sold a variety
of items from boots and shoes to groceries, flour and cloths.
During the 19th century, area residents lived much
farther apart than we do today; as such they rarely came to
town. Shop patrons would often buy enough supplies to last
several months to a year. Almost all the supplies were bought
in large quantities–nails by the keg or flour by the
barrel. In addition to serving as a dry goods retailer, Mr.
Parks wrote wills, sharpened tools and repaired shoes. During
the winter months one could often find a group of male customers
gathered around the pot-bellied stove playing cards and trading
tales.
In 1918, Mr. Parks’ daughter,
Lora, began working in the store, despite her father’s
opposition to women holding public employment. In April 1932,
following both her parents’ deaths, Miss Lora, as she
was affectionately known, bought out the remaining heirs and
continued to operate the store. Miss Lora kept the store open
until just before her death in 1972 at the age of 85. During
this time Miss Lora befriended many of the area residents.
Miss Lora once told the story of a man that came once a year
to purchase supplies. The gentleman always had a pocket full
of different length sticks, each showing the size shoes and
boots he needed for his children and neighbors. On one such
trip he bought fourteen pairs of shoes.
The Parks’ family holds a prominent
place in the history of Perryville, and the PEP is grateful
to own the store and all the merchandise that was in it when
it closed to business. The collection of merchandise includes
items spanning more than a century. Moreover, the Parks family
was notorious for keeping everything; as a result the collection
includes a number of handwritten notes and store ledgers that
tell amazing tales of historic life in Perryville. Following
the restoration of the Parks’ Store, the PEP will return
the collection to the store’s shelves and use the building
as a museum depicting a 19th-century store.
The Green Drug Store
This structure, located almost dead
center on Merchants’ Row, was owned and operated as a
drug store by Dr. Wallace Green from 1866 to 1933. Born on
April 30, 1843, Dr. Green clerked for Perryville’s original
pharmacist, Dr. Walker before buying him out. Green married
a local girl, Hallie V. Karrick and became brother-in-law
to his best friend, W.H. Parks who married Hallie’s sister.
Dr. Green was twenty when the Civil
War disrupted life in Perryville. He recalled hearing the
"roar of the cannons and rattle of musketry and cries
of wounded and dying men as they were carried through Perryville."
One day "One Armed" Sam Berry of Sue Munday’s
guerrilla gang rode his horse through the drug store doors
and demanded money from the cash register. Quick-thinking
Dr. Green claimed to have already been robbed. Berry shot
several bottles off of shelves and countertops but left without
Dr. Green’s money.
Dr. Green worked in the store for seventy
years and never missed a day of work. He never hired any clerks
claiming he had "no reason for assistants–I’ve
always done my own work." During this time, Green became
a prominent citizen in Perryville. Perryville’s first
phone was installed in Green’s store and the second in
his home. Green served from time to time as the town’s
deputy sheriff and helped found the Perryville Bank.
Green’s Drug Store was a popular
stop in town. People often stopped in to gossip and sample
the "local beverages." As Dr. Green once commented:
"the merchants keep a barrel of liquor on hand in the
rear of the store and customers could go back and get a drink
for free anytime."
At the time of his death on January
7, 1933, Dr. Green was the oldest active businessman in Boyle
County and the oldest druggist in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Following restoration, the PEP will either use the building
as a pharmaceutical museum or as retail space.
Dr. Polk Office and House
The buildings commonly referred
to as Dr. Polk’s home and office are located on Buell
Street across from the Green Drug Store. Dr. Jefferson J.
Polk was Perryville’s primary physician from 1837 to
1866. During his career Dr. Polk attended to 14,000 ill patients
and delivered 825 babies. In addition to practicing medicine,
Polk served as a local minister, delivering 1,560 sermons
that included temperance lectures and political speeches.
Throughout the Civil War, Polk remained
a staunch Unionist. When the war reached Perryville Dr. Polk
was forced out of retirement, despite what he called "a
severe bronchial affection [sic]," to care for the 7,500
wounded and dying soldiers. Dr. Polk’s accounts of the
battle’s aftermath are chilling: "The first hospital
I entered was Mr. Peter’s house. Here were about two
hundred wounded soldiers, lying side by side on beds of straw.
Notwithstanding they were wounded in every possible way, there
was not heard among them a groan or complaint. In the orchard
close by a long trench had been dug, in which to bury the
dead; about fifteen were lying in a row, ready for internment."
Following the war, Dr. Polk served
as a claim agent for the Union Army and as the local postmaster.
Always political, always devout, the coughing and stooped
Dr. Polk died on May 23, 1881. He is buried in Perryville’s
Hillcrest Cemetery with is wife and a number of his nine children.
After restoration work is completed,
Dr. Polk’s office will likely be used as interpretative
space. A use for the home has not been determined but will
likely be filled as museum or retail space. The PEP maintains
the period medicinal and culinary herb garden located between
these structures.
The Karrick-Parks House
Located at the end of Merchants’
Row on the corner of Buell and Fourth Streets, the Karrick-Parks
House was home to one of Perryville’s most prestigious
families. The original structure was enlarged and a second
floor added in 1850. The walls are 15 inches thick and no
ceiling is less than nine feet. Total, the home has five chimneys,
ten rooms and three halls. The home’s interior features
stand as proof of the family’s prominence as the doorways
are all painted with faux wood graining and the entrance hall
floor is a hand-painted floor cloth–both expensive decorating
touches of the 19th century.
In 1856 James Vance Karrick bought
the house from Squire Robards and moved in with his wife,
Harriet Skinner Karrick, their eight children and 15 slaves.
Karrick was originally attracted to Perryville because of
it was home to several good schools and offered excellent
educational opportunities for his children. Four years after
moving in, James V. Karrick died leaving his wife and eight
children in the house at the time of the Battle of Perryville.
On October 7, 1862, the night before
Perryville’s famous battle, Confederate troops arrived
at the house. Officers, most likely from General Benjamin
F. Cheatham’s division, slept inside the home while other
soldiers slept on the walks outside. The next morning, with
sounds of the battle echoing through town, the troops advised
the Karrick family to leave town for their own safety.
Taking their jewelry, silver and bedding
the family and slaves left Perryville on a two-horse wagon.
They camped four miles outside of town, returning the next
day to find their house ransacked. Many of the Karrick’s
clothes were torn into strips to be used for bandages. Trunks,
drawers and closets had been emptied, their contents piled
in the middle of rooms. Luckily, little was missing. It is
presumed soldiers searched the house for food, salt, coffee
and money.
The family moved back into the house
on October 10, but shared the structure with Union officers
and doctors for over six months. The structure was one of
the few buildings in town not used as a field hospital following
the battle. In 1866, Rebecca Karrick married William Huston
Parks. Parks purchased the home from his in-laws in 1882 for
six hundred dollars. The Karrick-Parks home remained in the
Parks family until 1972 when W.H. and Rebecca’s daughter,
Lora, died.
Following restoration, the Karrick-Parks
house will be opened as a house museum or used as retail space.
The PEP is fortunate to have a number of pieces of furniture,
dishes and other items original to the structure.
The Cave
Located behind the Karrick-Parks
house, this cave was the site of Perryville’s original
settlement, Harberson Station. Named for its founder, James
Harberson, the fort built here was settled just after the
American Revolution. Harberson and the group of Pennsylvanians
traveling with him chose this location because the cave housed
a natural spring and was situated on the banks of the Chaplin
River.
When trouble with local Native-Americans
arose, the settlers would flee across the water and into the
cave to seek shelter from attack. One day James Harberson
failed to reach the cave in time. Local legend holds that
Harberson disappeared. His head, however, was later discovered
about a mile from the fort. Dr. Jefferson J. Polk recalls
in his autobiography that Harberson’s wife then "took
the head and managed to keep it in a complete state of preservation
for many years."
In 2007 the Enhancement Project, in partnership with the Dry Stone Conservancy and the Kentucky Heritage Council, began a major reconstruction and interpretation of the cave site and the stone walls. The goal is to stabilize the site and make it more visible and accessible to visitors. Work is expected to be finished in the spring of 2008.
|
Home | Contact Us | Media Center | Membership
