The history of downtown development

This sto­ry was first pub­lished by the Winchester Sun in January 2017. Some of the projects men­tioned have been com­plet­ed, some remain on the draw­ing board, and one (the Sphar Building ren­o­va­tion) has, sad­ly, failed. 

A whole gen­er­a­tion has grown up in Winchester since the icon­ic White Way was recre­at­ed in 1983. Little do they know the five-globed Main Street light was an orig­i­nal Winchester cre­ation long before Ale‑8 or beer cheese.

The light fix­ture was designed by Warren Elkin, a drafts­man at the Hagan Gas Engine and Manufacturing Co., and fab­ri­cat­ed by Eagle Casting, both local com­pa­nies on East Washington Street at the viaduct. Those orig­i­nal lamps were set 50 feet apart along Main Street, cir­ca 1913.

Before that, the only light on Main was a lamp hang­ing at mid-block. While it is unclear as to who actu­al­ly paid for the lamp­posts, I believe the prop­er­ty own­ers did, as they paid for the brick street paving that same year. As a side note, the ele­va­tion and grade of Main Street were changed, and the high side steps were also con­struct­ed about that time.

At the 1958 ded­i­ca­tion of Winchester’s pub­lic library, Jesse Stuart read from his poem “Up Silver Stairsteps,” “Higher we climb until the lights below are gold­en eggs down in a vel­vet nest,” cap­tur­ing his reac­tion to the lights as he flew over Winchester one night on his way from Knoxville to Chicago.

The 1913 lamp­posts were removed in 1952 due to dete­ri­o­rat­ing com­po­nents and the need for improved Main Street light­ing. Adjacent prop­er­ty own­ers were giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to keep their lamp­posts. Today, two of those along Main are originals.

The new lamp­posts were repro­duced by Spring City Electric in Spring City, Pennsylvania, from an orig­i­nal donat­ed to the relight­ing project by the heirs of James Love, own­er of Eagle Casting/Love Foundry. That pro­to­type stands today at the rear of the Clark County Courthouse. Arnie Westlund, an engi­neer at Osram Sylvania with ties to that area in Pennsylvania, worked tire­less­ly to facil­i­tate the repro­duc­tion, and Oliver Trucking han­dled the trans­porta­tion to and from Winchester. At a cost of $1,545 per street­lamp, 39 were pur­chased through dona­tions from indi­vid­u­als, busi­ness­es, and civic groups.

The Bluegrass Area Development District and the CSX rail­road (as reprisal for the demo­li­tion of the Union Depot in 1981) also con­tributed to the project.

To ensure the plan suc­ceed­ed, prop­er­ty own­ers first relo­cat­ed their building’s elec­tri­cal ser­vice to the rear. Kentucky Utilities then installed new cobra-head lights on alu­minum poles and removed the over­head wires and old wood­en util­i­ty poles. The City of Winchester Public Works Department com­plet­ed the instal­la­tion of the new orna­men­tal light­ing sys­tem just in time for the 1983 Christmas parade.

The 1910s were a boom­ing era down­town, with the White Way, brick streets, high side steps, a new coun­ty jail, a post office, and city hall.

The 1980s (actu­al­ly 1979–92) were also a dynam­ic time, with a revived White Way, a new jail, improve­ments to City Hall, a major cour­t­house addi­tion, and a new Winchester Municipal Utilities office build­ing. The Leeds Theater was restored, as well as the Opera House and Brown Proctor Hotel. A new post office was con­struct­ed on North Main Street, and the old 1912 Post Office was trans­formed into a judi­cial center.

Thus far, this decade is on track for more activ­i­ty and revi­tal­iza­tion with the rebuild­ing of Depot Street’s brick, recon­struc­tion of the City Hall tow­er, and the recent start of the Leeds Center for the Arts renovation.

The future includes an upcom­ing rehab of the cour­t­house bell tow­er, the Sphar build­ing project, and the com­ple­tion of the Downtown Master Plan.

Let us build on our past, strive to imple­ment the Master Plan, and cre­ate an improved and more vibrant down­town Winchester for future generations.