HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (WTVF) — It truly is staggering to think of the history a lone brick building in one city's downtown has seen. Recently, the landmark structure's future was in question, but something is giving preservationists hope.
Tammie Van Buren and Alissa Keller are part of the Hopkinsville Historic Community non-profit. They sat on a bench just up the street from a two story connection to Hopkinsville's past; 521 Weber Street.
"All records indicate it was built in about 1839," Keller said.
Keller believes this is the second oldest building in downtown Hopkinsville.
"This is where people were moving for westward expansion still," Keller said of Hopkinsville in 1839. "In the next 10 or 15 years, a doctor owns the house, and he has a doctor's office in there. Dr. Augustine Webber."
The building has also been office space for judges and attorneys.
"In the 1930s, there was a restaurant on the first floor called The Coffee Pot," Keller continued. "The restaurant had two fires in eight days! Old newspapers tell you a lot."
521 Weber was bought by the county in the 1960s. It's now vacant and has been condemned.
"It definitely has issues," Keller said. "There's been some shifting of some masonry."
"There's a little bit of termite damage," Van Buren added.
Van Buren and Keller believe the building can be rehabilitated. They reached out to Christian Country Fiscal Court after the building was declared surplus.
"They were in the process of getting bids for demolition," Van Buren remembered. "They said, 'we'll wait. We'll put a pause. We'll put together an opportunity for bidders to purchase the building.'"
Christian County Judge Executive Jerry Gilliam said while the building's owned by the county, it's not in the tax payers' best interest for them to pay for its rehab. With a new owner now a possibility, Gilliam said, "We'll do what's best for tax payers and the history of Hopkinsville."
"I'm so glad we have a pause so we can try to figure that out," Keller said. "These historic buildings shape our community's sense of place, who we are as a people, where we're rooted. It makes us Hopkinsville."
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