Two western Kentucky sites have been added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places.
Hickman County’s First Christian Church dates to 1899 and is the only instance of Romanesque architecture in the county, according to owner Sarah Bowman and Kentucky Heritage Council’s Marty Perry.
Paducah’s California Apartments is a private neighborhood of Gunnison Home duplexes, or prefabricated houses, constructed in 1952. The neighborhood was built with approval from the Atomic Energy Commission and financed by the Federal Housing Authority for workers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Paducah Main Street’s Melinda Winchester, who nominated the site, says there was a housing shortage at the time.
“This was a way that new developers could work with the city housing planning commission to develop a housing complex that could, one, go up quickly to accommodate the workers," Underwood said. "But, two, also meet certain criteria that the city wanted at the time.”
Winchester says there are several Gunnison Homes around Paducah but California Apartments is the only known neighborhood of such prefabricated houses in the state.
*Correction: Andrea Underwood was previously reported as part of Paducah Main Street. Underwood is the spokesperson for Paducah Power System.
