The postcard collection at the Bluegrass Heritage Museum has two items by a local entrepreneur, E. E. Kidwell. These are interesting not only due to their rarity but also to the scenes they present.
Eugene Emmitt Kidwell (1881−1975) came to Winchester from Pendleton County. In 1907 he opened a drug store in the Brown-Proctoria Hotel and built a thriving business. Sadly, by some means he fell into debt and in 1910 declared bankruptcy. Kidwell sold his home on Burns Avenue and moved to Mason County, where he went to work for his father-in-law.
Kidwell’s postcards bear the logo of the American News Company, one of the largest companies in the business. They specialized in producing cards for small publishers—like Kidwell. The company’s cards were printed in Germany. Since Kidwell was only in Winchester for a short time, it seems safe to say that the postcards were printed in the period between 1907 and 1910.
Both postcards show recent additions to the Winchester landscape: Union Depot, the L&N‑C&O terminal completed in 1905, and the Brown-Proctoria Hotel, opened in 1906. The Union Depot is of special interest, as it displays a seldom-seen view of the station. Most photographs of the depot show the handsome front, the side that passengers approached from the street. Kidwell’s view depicts the back side, where passengers boarded the train. One can see the unusual crossing tracks, one for the L&N and one for the C&O. Jerry Cecil confirmed the identification of Union Depot, and added the following:
“The white framed windows are for the station master and the ticket master. The doors to the left and right of the windows are where the passengers entered the platform to board the train. The door on the left was for the ‘colored passengers’ and right door was for white passengers. The freight room is to the left in the photo. The freight building for transiting freight sat to the left of the depot building.”
The Brown-Proctoria Hotel was regarded for many years as the most elegant establishment in the region. According to one architectural historian, the hotel is “a massive block of Indiana limestone and granite brick trimmed with Colonial Revival detail. The structure strives toward a Beaux Art contemporary ideal of power and easily dominates the Lexington-Main intersection.”
There were several examples of business advertisements in the postcard collections. One of the earliest was for G. Lee Wainscott’s Roxa Cola grape soda, featuring a cute little girl sipping pop from a very large bottle. It was postmarked 1917 but could have been printed several years before. The postcard came off the press of the Beckner Printing Company. William M. Beckner was the long-time publisher and editor of the Clark County Democrat. The paper’s presses also did private printing.
The museum collection also includes postcard advertisements for other Winchester businesses: St. George Hotel, Madison Laundry, Pound Furniture, Old South Inn, Thoroughbred Motor Court, Barn Dinner Theatre and others.
