Kentucky County Seats: Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Kentucky is the county seat of Whitley County and lies along Interstate 75 and US 25 near the Tennessee border. First known as Spring Ford after a nearby crossing over the Cumberland River, a town was established when Samuel Cox donated the land for a courthouse in 1818 at what became Whitley Courthouse, and later Williamsburgh and Williamsburg. The town prospered first around its three fresh water springs and then by coal and lumber industries.
The first
Whitley County courthouse and jail were constructed not long after the county was formed. A second structure was finished in the 1880s, which was remodeled and enlarged in 1931 following a fire. The third courthouse iteration was declared unsafe in 1969 and the facility was remodeled in 1971. It saw further additions and a renovation in 1989.
The
Whitley County Judicial Center is located at 100 Main Street. Construction was authorized by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2006 and funding was granted two years later with a budget of $17.1 million. By the time groundbreaking ceremonies were held on April 24, 2009, the cost had increased to $18.9 million. The 58,728 square-foot, three-story facility was designed by Murphy & Graves of Lexington and constructed by Codell Construction of Winchester.
Construction was completed in September 2011 and was dedicated on November 2. It houses the Circuit Court, District Court, the Office of Circuit Court Clerk and ancillary services.
Below: A view of 3rd Street and Main Street in downtown.
View: Main Street between 3rd and 2nd streets.
Below: The Masonic Building, at 2nd and Main streets, was constructed in 1916.
Below: The southeast corner of 3rd and Main streets.
Below: Commercial buildings along Main Street between 3rd and 4th streets.
Below: A view of Main Street between 4th and Depot streets
Below: The historic Louisville & Nashville Railroad depot.
Below: The Farmers National Bank Building was dedicated on May 23, 1966. The two-story building, now home to Community Trust Bank, was designed by Donald B. Shelton and constructed by Y&S Construction Company.
Below: The Williamsburg Post Office Building was designed by Louis A. Simon and constructed in 1938 at 3rd and Sycamore Street.
The
University of the Cumberlands is a private, liberal-arts college and has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 students. It is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
At an annual meeting of the Mount Zion Association in 1887, representatives from 18 eastern Kentucky Baptist churches discussed plans to provide a school for higher education in the mountainous parts of the state. Planning for a college began shortly after and the Williamsburg Institute was incorporated by the Kentucky state legislature on April 6, 1888 and founded on January 7, 1889. In 1907, Williamsburg Institute purchased three buildings of the neighboring Highland College, and in 1913, the school changed its name to Cumberland College and stopped offering bachelor degrees.
The college began to offer bachelor degrees again in 1959, and on January 7, 2005, Cumberland College was renamed to University of the Cumberlands and began offering graduate and professional programs.
The university is strictly conservative and has been marred in controversy in recent years. In 2006, a student was forced to withdraw after revealing his sexual orientation - gay, on MySpace. He was told by university officials that they did not approve of his "lifestyle," and all of his grades were downgraded to "F." The student handbook, revised a year prior, noted that students could be removed for "participating in pre-martial sex or promoting homosexuality," although the legality of the notation was questioned as the university received funding from the Kentucky state government. A settlement was later reached where the student was allowed to complete his coursework and his grades were restored.
In
Bob Jones University v. United States, any university receiving public money may not discriminate, which was affirmed by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education that explictly prohibited discrimination against protected classes. Money was withheld for a new pharmacy school for the campus.
Roburn Hall was constructed in 1888 as the first building of the Williamsburg Institute. The land was purchased for $800 and the structure was constructed by J.A. Cooley. The $12,500 building served 200 students and held its first class in January 1889. It was renovated in 1928 to serve as a female dormitory and named Roburn Hall. It was extensively renovated in 1993 and was later named after Dr. E.S. Moss after "a good friend and supporter."
The university campus has a similar architectural style dominated by cupolas, or as they refer to it as, steeples.
Below: Siler Hall is a junior and senior male residence hall.
Below: Boswell Campus Center
Below: O. Wayne Rollins Athletic Center, with its many outward facing clocks tacked on.
Below: Nicholson-Jones Building. It appears that many of these buildings were given facelifts later in their lifespan to incorporate a more traditional and cohesive architectural style to varying degrees of success.
The Bennett Building was constructed in 1906 at a cost of $20,000 and was known as the Reuben D. Hill Building. The name was changed to the Gray Brick Building when it was purchased by the Williamsburg Institute in 1907 from Highland College. Administrative offices were moved from Roburn Hall to the Hill Building in 1921 and were located inside until 1955. The building has been used for classroom space from 1922 to the present.
In 2000, the structure was renamed the Clyde V. and Patricia Bennett Building after "a good friend and supporter."
Below: Dr. A. Gatliff Memorial Building
Below: The
John T. Luecker Building was dedicated on March 21, 2011 after "a good friend and supporter." Originally used as a Williamsburg city school building, it was constructed in 1928 to replace the original school building from 1909 and destroyed by fire in 1926. An annex was constructed in 1967. In 1983, the university acquired the buildings for $700,000, and a new city school complex was constructed at Main and 10th streets.
Prior to the dedication, the buildings were known as the Andersen Building and the Andersen Annex, named for the Andersen windows installed during the renovation. It is home to the Art, Education and Health Exercise and Sport Science departments, the Development office and the J.M. Boswell Art Gallery.
Below: Taylor Aquatic Center
Yes, those are international clocks draping the side of the building.
Constructed in 1893 and dedicated on February 11, 1894, Johnson Hall was named after Williams James Johnson, the college's first president. It was a female dormitory during its first year and was a male hall from 1895 to 1913 before becoming a female hall. The structure also housed a cafeteria until 1958.
Johnson Hall was enlarged in 1913 thanks to a gift from Dr. Ancil Gatliff at a cost of $20,000. The structure was last renovated in 1994-95 and renamed Gillespie Hall in honor of Charles Gillespie.
Below: The President's Home.
Did you know that the university has openly
copied Monticello in Virginia? It is implied loosely. The
Ward and Regina Correll Science Complex is a $20 million facility that houses the chemistry, physics, biology and math departments. The 78,000 square-foot structure was partially funded with a $1 million donation from Ward and Regina Correll of Somerset, and was opened in January 2009.
The building was designed after Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, and was noted as "a perfect example of how Cumberlands reveres the past and honors the patriots who dreamed the dream of a United States of America, yet stands firmly facing forward into the 21st century."
Whatever.
The Terry & Marion Forcht Medical Wing of the new science complex was dedicated on October 15, 2009.
And what about Independence Hall? The
Edward L. Hutton Building houses the Business Administration department. The structure, completed in 2004, was designed to replicate Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The grounds surrounding Hutton include "Patriot Park," a permanent location for a World Trade Center memorial, and replicas of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Liberty Bell.
It's a hot mess.
The university "feels a little like Israel being surrounded by the Arabs with so many students, faculty and staff located on such a small amount of Williamsburg land." And "the campus is unsurpassed with steeples sweeping up to the glory of God. At times clouds almost seem to surround the campus."
I kid
you not.