Martha, Kentucky, WPA School and Downtown Martha

Martha, KY WPA School--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Today, June 29, 2019, my wife and I took a drive in the country to buy produce from one of our Mennonite friends in Keeton, Kentucky, on the Johnson and Lawrence County line.  A few months ago, I had driven further in that area without  a camera and had made a mental note to return with a camera and shoot some photos of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) school in Martha, Kentucky, which is one of those wonderful cut stone schools which the WPA built all across the country during the Great Depression as Franklin D. Roosevelt, our greatest president, fought to save the nation from the economic disaster of the Hoover Administration.  Between 1938 and 1943, as the nation recovered slowly, the WPA built thousands of projects from sea to shining sea and many of the older schools in Kentucky are WPA schools although most of them are no longer in use, at least not as schools.  Their stonework is phenomenal and worthy of preservation for all time both from a craftsmanship and a historical perspective.  I have written earlier on this blog about the former Morgan County High School in my hometown of West Liberty which has been remodeled, survived a disastrous tornado which demolished much of the town around it, and now functions as our Court House Annex and houses several county offices and a gymnasium.

Ricky Skaggs--Photo by Ricky Skaggs Official Website

The Martha Kentucky WPA school is now privately owned, seriously dilapidated, and in desperate need of restoration and preservation. Many of the windows are broken and the building is being used for hay storage.  I did not enter the building but suspect that the interior is probably not much better than the exterior. I am glad I shot these photos before it can succumb to even worse fates.  It sits on a slight rise above the north side of Kentucky Highway 32 at the junction of Kentucky 32 and Kentucky 469.  The school also has a somewhat interesting place in the history of Bluegrass and Country music since it was the grade school which Ricky Skaggs attended as a child.  I have been told by the current owners of the school that Ricky himself has also shot photographs of the school.  During my visit today I suggested to the current owner, who insists they will never sell the building, that they consider renovating it and turning it into a bed and breakfast.  She seemed only mildly interested in that idea.  But the school is located only 20 miles from Yatesville Lake State Park; 18 miles from Paintsville Lake State Park, the Kentucky Mountain Homeplace, and the US 23 Country Music Highway Museum, all of which are in Paintsville, Kentucky; 40 miles from Jenny Wiley State Park, Dewey Lake, and the Mountain Arts Center, all of which are in Prestonsburg, Kentucky; 50 miles from the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Kentucky; and about 50 miles from Greenbo Lake State Park as well.  The school is also only about 25 miles away from US23 which is otherwise known as the Country Music Highway.  This wonderful old WPA school is also only about 25 miles from Van Lear, Kentucky, which is the home of the birthplace of Loretta Lynn.  With this kind of central location to so much country music history, fishing, hunting, and artistic showcases, the school would draw fans of several different forms of entertainment to the bucolic crossroads of Martha. If you ever take a drive to Martha, stop at the combination country store, sporting goods store, and emporium across the highway from the school and reinforce for the owners, who also now own the school, that it would make a wonderful and profitable bed and breakfast.

Abandoned Building At The Intersection of KY 32 and KY 469--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Martha, Kentucky, and the intersection of Kentucky 32 and Kentucky 469 are not only bucolic.  Martha is tiny.  The store, the school, an abandoned old home or one room store building across the road, and what appears to be an equally abandoned Holiness Church beside the store are all there is in Martha.  It is a quiet, dusty crossroad in the heart of Lawrence County farming land with hay, cattle, and corn cropping up all the way around.  The US post office is located about a half mile south of the intersection on the east side of the road.  If the school were a bed and breakfast, it would be a wonderful place for people seeking country solitude for a weekend or a week within driving distance of entertainment.  I do apologize for the poor quality of my photographs from this particular day.  The sun was beaming down on a cloudless 90% day and I had no sunglasses and could not see the viewfinder.  I will try at some time to return and shoot better photos to update this post.

Abandoned Holiness Church, Martha, Kentucky--Photo by Roger D. Hicks

The abandoned old building at the intersection would be a blast to explore but I chose to not take any chances on vermin or an angry owner.  Judging by the sign nailed to the porch post, I am guessing it was probably the first country store in Martha although it could have been a home.  I love abandoned buildings and this is a fine example of such things in the South and Midwest.

Beside the actual operating store sits what appears to be an equally abandoned Holiness Church.  It does not have a sign with any particular church name but the sign above the door quotes Isaiah 35:8 and reads "And It Shall Be Called The Way Of Holiness".  That is a partial quotation of the verse from the King James Version of The Holy Bible.  The complete verse reads: "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."  In my opinion, the best, most quotable section from that verse for a sign at the Martha intersection would be "It Shall Be For Those, The Wayfaring Men (AND WOMEN)!".  Now wouldn't that be a great quotation to use to advertise a bed and breakfast in the Martha Kentucky WPA School?

Sign On Abandoned Martha Kentucky Holiness Church--Photo by Roger D. Hicks