Morgan County Kentucky Court House Annex--WPA Construction

Morgan County Courthouse Annex Front (East) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

The Morgan County Kentucky Courthouse Annex is for all intents and purposes the actual Morgan County Courthouse since what is known as the courthouse is actually leased to the Appalachian Regional Healthcare System.  It holds the offices of the County Judge Executive, the County Clerk, the Sheriff, the Property Valuation Administrator, and meeting rooms for the Fiscal Court composed of the County Judge Executive and the Magistrates.  There is also a gymnasium on the ground floor and the basement is leased to a day care program.  This building is the most historic building in the county.  It was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the heart of the Great Depression and originally served as the local high school.  It was dedicated by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Kentucky Governor Happy Chandler.  There is a large bronze plaque in the main hallway discussing this historic building and its history.  I will add photos of the interior and the information on the plaque in a few days.  I shot these exterior photos on Sunday, November 18, 2018, in order to do it at a time when there were not large numbers of cars in the parking lots or heavy passing traffic.  The photos are not perfect and I apologize for that.  When I can locate better photographs by other people and gain permission to use them, I will add those.

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (Northeast Corner View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

The building is an excellent example of Depression Era stone work by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which was one of the many New Deal programs instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to bring the country out of the Great Depression which had been caused by the economic mismanagement of the Hoover administration.  These WPA stone buildings were built all over the southeastern United States where local stone was available of acceptable quality.  They are rapidly disappearing and all of them which are still in useful condition need to be restored and saved.  Thanks to some interesting circumstances and the high quality of the stone work this wonderful building has survived and remained in productive use almost every day since the day it was opened.  

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt Photo by Yousuf Karsh

President Roosevelt issued an executive order on May 6, 1935, which established the Works Progress Administration (WPA) at a time when the national unemployment rate was 20%.  The WPA was the greatest infrastructure operation in the history of the country.  It employed several million  previously unemployed people and in the eight years of its existence it built more than 4,000 new school buildings, 130 new hospitals, 9,000 miles of storm drains and sewer lines, 29,000 new bridges, 150 new airfields, paved and repaired more than a quarter million miles of roads and planted 24 million trees.  Many of those schools, hospitals, sewer lines, bridges, airports, and roads were in areas which had not had such infrastructure previously and many of them are still in daily operation today in one capacity or another whether or not they are being used for their original purposes.  The Morgan County High School, now known as the Morgan County Court House Annex was simply one small project among thousands of others nationwide which the WPA was building at the time.  In June of 1943, the WPA was disbanded after national unemployment had  dropped to less than 5% as a result of the economic recovery and the effort to build war time armaments.  But it will always be one of the most important economic and infrastructure programs in the history of the country. 

Photo of Kentucky Governor Albert B. "Happy" Chandler Photo by Murat Shrine

On March 2, 2012, the town of West Liberty, Kentucky, was literally destroyed by a major tornado but the Court House Annex withstood the blast which killed six people in the county and destroyed nearly every other major public building within the city limits.  I am adding two photos from the aftermath of the tornado to show just how clearly the town was destroyed around this magnificent building.  But the WPA stonework withstood the tornado with some damage to roof and windows which was easily repaired as the effort to rebuild the town began.

Downtown West Liberty After The Tornado Photo by CNN

Gas Station Across Street From Courthouse Annex After Tornado Photo by Flickr

The two photos immediately above were taken by professional photographers in the next few days after the West Liberty Tornado in early March 2012.  So far, I have been unable to locate a photo of the Court House Annex taken immediately after the tornado and will continue to search for one and post it when I can. It appears that since the building withstood the tornado with little damage the professionals were looking for "real disaster" photos and did not focus on the Court House Annex But the first photo immediately above of the gas station directly across the street from the Court House Annex shows some of the damage in the immediate area.  The sidewalk visible in the foreground of the photo is directly in front of the Court House Annex.  The photographer would have been standing in the edge of the small parking lot beside the Court House Annex.  The old wood sided Morgan County Board of Education building which stood directly to the south of the Court House Annex was immediately destroyed as was the John F. Kennedy Public Library which stood directly to the north side of the parking lot from which the photograph above was shot.  Diagonally across the street to the northeast, the building in which a physical therapy facility was operated and had originally been an automobile dealership was also completely destroyed.  Diagonally across the street to the southeast, a Dollar General store was totally destroyed.  Without the high quality stonework of the WPA, the Court House Annex would not exist today.   

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (North View) Photo By Roger D. Hicks

This historic WPA building still functions perfectly well as the primary site of Morgan County Kentucky government operations and is likely to continue to do so for many years in the future. It deserves to be added to the National Register of Historic Places and I will begin to work in the near future to see if I can facilitate that along with help from as many citizens of Morgan County and the general public as can make a phone call, sign a petition, write a letter, or send an e-mail to the appropriate agencies and people to support the effort.  Placement on the National Register would further guarantee for the foreseeable future that this wonderful, iconic, and historic WPA project would be protected, honored, and preserved as it should. 

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (Northwest Corner View) Photo By Roger D. Hicks

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (West/Rear View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (South West Corner View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (South View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (Southeast Corner View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Morgan County Courthouse Annex (East/Front View) Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Hiking At Broke Leg Falls On Labor Day!

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

On Labor Day, Monday, September 3, 2018, my wife Candice & I traveled about 30 or so miles from our house to Broke Leg Falls County Park in Menifee County, KY, between Ezel and Wellington right on US 460.  Since Candice is in a wheelchair, she could not hike or even easily access the handful of available picnic tables since there are either steps or rough routes across grass to all of them.  She gracefully had come up with the idea for the trip so I could get some hiking in and continue my daily exercise routine.  She took a book and her reading glasses and found a shady spot in the edge of the parking lot to read.  I took our camera, which is possibly on its last legs.  I do not waste my time, money, or effort on an I-Phone since I really do not care to see the majority of people with their faces stuck in their phones in a multitude of places where they should either be paying attention to those around them or the scenery. I sure as hell have no intentions of becoming a part of that rampant desocialization of America.  I also somewhat despise the practice of taking selfies and have never done that and never will.  I use the internet every day of my life but last October on a 26 day road trip vacation across the south and southwest I was probably not on the internet five days total for any amount of time and did not miss it. But, anyway, I took some photographs of the area around Broke Leg Falls and will add some of them here.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

Broke Leg Falls has a long and interesting history and I am certain that it extends well into prehistory as well. Since I am not very well versed in geology, I am uncertain just how far back in prehistory the area was formed. There are several commonly used travel and hiking websites which have pages devoted to the falls and I have provided links to two of those above. The website KYHomeTownLocator is one to which I have not bothered to provide a link because of their erroneous and condescending decision to list it as Broken Leg Falls which is not and has never been the correct name of the site.  It has always been and will always be Broke Leg Falls.  Enough said about that website and their condescending ignorance.  For many years, Broke Leg Falls was under private ownership and for awhile you had to pay ten cents to see the falls and there was a restaurant beside the highway run by the owners.  Then for  a few years, it was leased by the Kentucky Parks Department and operated as a state park.  Then, presumably because of low traffic and/or money losses, it was allowed to revert to private control.  Eventually, a few years ago, Menifee County bought the property and returned it to use as a county park.  The tornado which destroyed West Liberty, KY, on March 2, 2012, ravaged the trees around the falls and they are still not fully recovered.  The county wisely, and partly due to the difficulty of the geography, decided to leave most of the down timber around the falls to lay where it fell but cleared the paths and steps down to an area below the falls, built two picnic shelters, and set up a few other picnic tables after the tornado.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks

No one knows exactly how Broke Leg falls got its name but it is safe to assume that some person or animal most likely suffered a broken leg in the area in the early days of white settlement.  I have never seen or heard any claims as to any Native American name the falls might have had.  But I am certain that the tribes which commonly hunted in the area before the white settlers came had to have a name for such a unique place.  The major waterfall is somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty or sixty feet high with a narrow, damp, and slick rock overhang which must have been used by both Native Americans and settlers at times. The overhang is not deep or dry enough to have been a long term living situation for either of those groups.  But I am certain that it has provided brief shelter in bad weather for thousands of years. The stream which runs over the falls is small and in places can be jumped across above the falls and most probably below also although I have never hiked the downstream area.  The stream flows from a small hilltop not far to the north of the falls and drops over a few small riffles until it arrives at the major fall.  There are a few pools of water which might be knee deep at times but are still not filled with fish, frogs or turtles.  The only wildlife I saw while I was there was a skink but there were several people in the area and some wildlife might have disappeared to avoid the noise and foot traffic.  But I also suspect that the falls are too high and the stream too small to support much wildlife of an aquatic nature or to allow it to return to the area after washouts.

Broke Leg Falls, Photo by Roger D. Hicks

  

Broke Leg Falls is a beautiful spot in Northeastern Kentucky, not far from Natural Bridge State Park, the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Red River Gorge, and Cave Run Lake and is well worth spending an hour or two hiking or having a picnic.  I actually met a couple from Northern Indiana who were on a motorcycle trip who had stopped to see the falls.  Visit it whenever you are in the area.  But be aware that there was no Porta-Potty on site and you would be well advised to go to the bathroom before you arrive.  There is also no overnight camping, no food available, and the area is thinly settled, but in a nod to modern business practices, there is a Dollar General Store at Wellington, KY, about three miles away which has a public bathroom and everything else you need to avoid starvation.

Broke Leg Falls Photo by Roger D. Hicks