Why This Work Matters – How an Eastern Kentucky Downtown Has Become a Preservation Success Story

Part of our Better Block team. From left to right: Jon Rollins, Rob Dinsmore, Jimmy Piper, Della Rucker, Vicki Birenberg, Kitty Dougoud, Isaac Kremer, Charles Leachman Judy and Larry Grandey (knelling), and Joe Bird.

Here is a simple question for the over 15 million supporters of preservation out there. If you could have any one thing to help with a preservation project what would you want most: a) $1,000 dollars, b) 30 gallons of paint and brushes, or c) 100 hours of volunteer time.

Of course anyone is preservation would recognize this as a trick question because the answer is “all of the above.” Without money you probably won't have materials, and without volunteers no amount of money or materials will help you do all the work that needs to be done. At a more basic level, preservation is about telling a story that inspires people to action. The surest way to realize success in preservation is to enlist the support of your friends, neighbors, and community members. For that reason volunteers and their time are the most precious resource that we have in preservation today.

In May 2014 Downtown Middlesborough demonstrated to the world how a small town can get preservation going in 48 hours or less during our Better Block Middlesborough event. Dozens of residents were joined by experts in preservation, architecture, environmental cleanup, landscape architecture, and community and economic development. The possibility of long term change was demonstrated through carrying out tactical interventions together. Here's a quick summary of what we did.

The Elks Home, ca. 2012.

Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Home

This building was constructed in 1911 as a convalescent home for the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Subsequently it served as the Middlesboro Hospital through the 1950s before the hospital moved to larger quarters. Dallas Shackelford donated the building to Discover Downtown Middlesboro, Inc. in December 2012. Ever since then efforts have been made to evaluate the building and lay the foundation for its restoration. Grants have been applied to from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection. If funded, this will provide $250,000 to remove documented hazardous materials including lead, asbestos, and mold. Unemployed coal miners will be given valuable skills through partnerships providing job training through Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College and the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program.

Meanwhile, the project recently has received grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Kentucky Heritage Council to perform architectural and structural engineering services. These will result in a historic structures report - one of the fundamental pieces of any preservation project. Detailed drawings and specifications will be created for how to stabilize portions of the building that have deteriorated.

While the complete restoration of the Elks Home will likely cost around $10 million dollars, last weekend volunteers were able to plant the seeds for this bigger project. Unsightly storefronts were cleaned up. Details about the restoration project were put in one. An exhibit on Ben Harney, the father of Ragtime music who lived in Middlesborough from 1890-1893, was placed in another. There are two other storefronts awaiting further work. Inside, volunteers were able to remove non-toxic debris. Metal will be sent to the Bell County Recycling Center. 

During the lead up to Better Block Middlesborough the Kentucky Heritage Council announced their My Old Kentucky Home Photo Contest. Discover Downtown Middlesboro was well positioned thanks to over a year of advocacy for this project and a robust social media presence, so it was relatively easy to  recruit hundreds of supporters to vote for the Elks Home in the photo contest. What started with a picture taken with the half dozen or so members of our Design Committee has led to over 400 votes in this contest. Presently Middlesborough has the top two vote getters and is leading the the competition from the southeast corner of the Commonwealth. (Hint: You can still vote here for your favorite places every day through May 23. We appreciate your support for this important project!")

Alley just as work on the pop-up park started last week.

Pop-up Park

A few storefronts down from the Elks Home is the location of the former Sports Center. This is where Lee Majors (then Harvey Lee Yeary) hung out while a young man living in Middlesboro. The building was destroyed by a fire in the 1980s and had to be taken down. During Better Block this vacant alley was transformed. Several visiting Episcopal priests painted a tree on the ground near the entrance based on the famous "Tree of Life" design from the Rookwood Pottery Company out of Cincinnati. Rhododendron were suspended from the steel beam, ala the MassMoca hanging tree installation. Planter boxes, pallet chairs, and benches were added to give a sense of home to this previously vacant space. The surest sign of the success of these interventions was when high school students heading towards prom decided to do a photo shoot while work was underway.

Makers Market

We started the Makers Market in April in a vacant storefront just a few down from the Elks Home and our new pop-up park. The building it is located in an 1890s building that formerly housed the Palace Saloon over 100 years ago and the popular T.H. Campbell that sold clothing and shoes. While the store had been closed for several decades, this was a natural place for our Makers Market to get started. Here local artists, crafters, food producers, and musicians have been invited to share their work. The project was funded by am Appalachian Regional Commission Flex-E-Grant through the Kentucky Department for Local Government and administered by the Brushy Fork Institute of Berea College. Flex-E-Grant funds are made available to distressed ARC counties in Kentucky for projects that are designed to build capacity in these communities. Already nearly a dozen makers are represented at the market. The hope is to continue and expand the market even after the grant that funded it runs out. A recent campaign through power2give.org and Fund for the Arts out of Louisville helped us to raise an additional $5,000 with matching funds from the Humana Foundation.

The Makers Market is a Kentucky Proud and Appalachia Proud location, certified by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. During Better Block the Ag Department joined in the act providing food tastings of Kentucky made products. Kentucky prawns, kale, squash, and greens were just a few of the highlights. We are grateful to Angela Caporelli for coming all the way from Frankfort to take part in this event.

"Why This Work Matters"

This brings us back to our original question about what it takes for preservation to be successful and to make communities better. The most critical ingredient is participation of citizens, business owners, and residents. Coordinating volunteer effort with leaders in the public and private sector is crucial. We were fortunate to have Della Rucker from The Wise Economy Workshop and author of The Local Economy Revolution present during this Better Block event. Throughout the course of the day she shared many insights with participants about how we can strengthen civic participation, and how this will help us to achieve our economic and community development goals.

Recently Rucker was involved in publishing a book with essays titled Why this Work Matters: Wisdom from People who are Making Communities Better. While there are many lessons to be taken away from the thoughtful and insightful essays in the book, perhaps the greatest lesson is this. The critical ingredient to the success of any community or economic development effort is people who care. Sometimes caring is not enough. Care needs to be followed up by action.

So next time you wonder how things are going for preservation today why not head to the mountains and visit some special people in Eastern Kentucky who are working to transform their downtown, their city, and their region for the better. You might even get some inspiration to help with preservation in your town.