Ginn's Furniture Store
Coordinates: 38 ° 43 ′ 28.6 " N , 85 ° 22 ′ 10" W.
Ginn's Furniture Store is a historic commercial building in the center of Milton , Kentucky in the United States . Built in the late 19th century, the building has survived multiple flood disasters and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since July 21, 1983 .
Historical context
Milton and the surrounding parts of Trimble County form a hilly landscape on the Ohio River . The first settlers of European descent arrived in the area in 1785 when it was still part of Virginia . Four years later, Milton was incorporated. Trade on the river has always played an important role in the local economy, and on the opposite bank in Indiana lies the city of Madison, which was economically important for the state at an early stage . A ferry linked the two cities from 1804 and the Milton-Madison Bridge opened to traffic in 1929. In the mid-19th century Milton's prosperity was evident in its commercial operations, which included a factory, two blacksmiths, a hotel and several grocery stores. After the Civil War , economic growth was stunted; the advent of rail traffic reduced shipping on the river, but Trimble County lacked rail links . This resulted in economic weakness including a distillery , the county's only industrial operation.
Despite the economic weakness, Milton residents built a surprising number of new buildings towards the end of the 19th century. These were mostly typical vernacular buildings that contrasted with the classicist buildings that were built before the civil war. Unlike in the previous decades, these new buildings were provided with a wide variety of - often prefabricated - decorative elements; Ginn's Furniture Store is a typical representative of this style. The building has smaller ornaments on the windows and one of corbels supported cornice on. Most of Milton's historic buildings from that time are no longer preserved today. Significant floods flooded the city several times in the late 19th century, and almost everything in downtown Milton was destroyed in the process.
architecture
Ginn's Furniture Store was established at a time no longer known today in the last quarter of the 19th century. Consisting of brick -built building sits on a foundation of limestone and is one of two historic Backsteingewerbebauten that exist in Milton until the present time. The two-story building has six bays on the narrow side and has a facade with large windows on both floors, which are fitted between the lintel and the window sill made of limestone. The long windows are divided into eight bays, with large windows only on the upper floor. Access to the building is possible through two doors on the narrow side or three doors on the side; these were later provided with side windows. The building is covered by a gable roof , which is broken at both ends by a chimney . Inside the building, the ceiling made of pressed sheet metal stands out in particular; this is original.
Monument preservation
In the early 1980s, the Kentucky Heritage Council in Trimble County conducted an inventory of the older buildings. As a result, 33 buildings and one Historic District were nominated for the National Register of Historic Places as part of a Multiple Property Submission , all but one property listed in 1983 and 1984. At the time, there were only six pre-1937 commercial buildings in downtown Milton, one of which was Ginn's Furniture Store. This structure was included in the register on the one hand because of its status as one of the few early buildings that existed in the floodplain of the river, on the other hand it was considered one of the most architecturally significant structures not only in downtown Milton, but in the entire city .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b Entry in the National Register Information System . National Park Service , accessed June 12, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j William Gus. Johnson: National Register of Historic Places Inventory / Nomination: Historic Resources of Trimble County, Kentucky ( English , PDF; 953 kB) National Park Service . November 1982. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ A b c Johnson, William Gus. National Register of Historic Places Inventory / Nomination: Ginn's Furniture Store. National Park Service, 1982.