Residents concerned over future of historic Eastern Ky. community center after flooding
A month on from record flooding in Eastern Kentucky, some buildings at a historic community center have not been cleaned and there are concerns about the future of the structures.
High water damaged several buildings at Homeplace Community Center, which overlooks Troublesome Creek in Perry County, including the gym, the community building, the caretaker’s home, a former shop and a two-story log house more than 90 years old.
The board that oversees Homeplace said in a notice published Aug. 18 in the Hazard newspaper that it was in the process of cleaning and restoring some buildings and “preparing to demolish and rebuild some buildings” on higher ground.
People in the community don’t want to see any of the historic buildings demolished, said Greta Combs, who was born at the hospital that once stood at Homeplace and lives nearby.
“We love them and we want them there,” Combs said.
Homeplace traces its roots to the early 1900s, when Cincinnati businessman E.O. Robinson and a partner bought about 16,000 acres in Perry, Knott and Breathitt counties and began cutting the timber.
The operation employed hundreds of people at its peak — making Robinson very rich in the process — but the company had logged out the land by the early 1920s, according to an abstract by Berea College of Robinson’s papers and a National Register of Historic Places application for his home.
Robinson donated the land to the University of Kentucky for research and reforestation and endowed the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund, with the goal of improving the general welfare and education of white residents of the area, a racial provision that was later dropped.
The hospital closed in 1968 as other healthcare options in the region improved, and public education and expanded social services reduced the need for some programs.
But Homeplace has been an important institution in the community for decades. It has a walking trail and facilities for basketball, baseball and meetings, which people use for a variety of get-togethers.
Many residents have memories of playing sports at Homeplace, going to the doctor there and attending weddings, birthday parties and reunions.
The basketball court was once in a barn where the roof was lower on the sides, so players had to be careful about not shooting high shots from near the sidelines that could hit the ceiling, said Chad Allen, who grew up in the community and still lives near Homeplace.
Crystal Chaney Deaton said in a letter that as an adult, she has taken her child to the playground at Homeplace that she used as a girl.
“This is what generation after generation of people in the area have experienced, and it’s what makes Homeplace so special,” Deaton wrote.
Deaton and others said there’s been no effort to clean some buildings at Homeplace since the flood or salvage items from them. Members of the community have offered to help with the work but the offers have not been accepted, Deaton said.
Juanita Stollings, a Lexington resident who is secretary-treasurer of the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund board, said the board understands the concern over the future of Homeplace.
The board approved having the gym cleaned and damaged material taken out at a cost of $90,000, Stollings said.
However, Stollings said the board was still trying to get estimates on other work.
She declined to specify whether the estimates were to clean buildings or tear then down.
But she said the board is committed to ensuring the center will live on.
“There will be a Homeplace for them to come to,” Stollings said of community members. “We’re looking to the future. We want the very best for the community.”
In an email sent to some residents, the chairman of the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund board, Paul Thornsberry, said the board had weighed every option on what to do about the damage, including rebuilding in a flood plain, and found no alternative to taking down the log home.
That “careful and selective” process will include salvaging everything possible for use in a new building.
Thornsberry said that the board would not be fulfilling its financial responsibilities by using money intended for scholarships and grants to rebuild in an unsafe location.
“It is with great regret but firm resolve that we will be moving forward with plans to take down some structures at Homeplace and begin to rebuild,” Thornsberry said.
Allen said he’d like to see Homeplace restored in a way that would boost tourism.
“These buildings are part of history,” he said. “We have the heritage. We need to build on that.”
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
