Tell Me About….My Hometown
Our bloggers group prompt this month is to write about our hometowns (or home towns, depending on where you live…) I’m delighted to write about my town, as I’m so proud of it!
My hometown is Versailles, Kentucky. And no, not like the Palace of Versailles in France – we pronounce it VER-sales. Yup. Before you snicker, I ask you, do you call the French capital PAIR-iss, or pear-EE?!?!? Do you say “Vee-EH-nah”, or “VEEN” like the locals would? My point is – you don’t pronounce places like the people who live there do, either! The “dad joke” here is “Our town was founded in 1792, and the French have been mispronouncing it every since…”
Note: the land was originally occupied by Cherokee and Shawnee peoples, before they were forced from their lands.
We go a bit pumpkin-mad here in the fall…
My family moved to Versailles the summer I turned 6, and I lived there until I was 22. I moved back 20 years later, and have been here ever since. Our population is a little over 10,000, but as we’re only 15 miles to the city of Lexington, it has more to offer than if it were in the middle of the boondocks…
I actually live on a farm a few miles out of town, but this is “my town”. Lexington is known as the “horse capital of the world”, and we’re its next-door-neighbor. How ’bout some statistics? The county is 189 square miles, and 43% of it is pastureland. There are approximately 700 farms, and the average size is 163 acres. We’re also 3rd among counties in the US for $$ sales in horses (and I actually thought that would be higher…)
The old bank building is now everyone’s favorite coffee shop/boutique/bourbon bar, The Amsden.
Like most Kentucky counties, the county seat is the biggest town. We have one high school for both county and city – the same one I attended, although a replacement is under construction. I had 2 good friends in high school, was not on any sports teams or in the band, and went to 2 dances – it was not my social pinnacle, to be sure.
Our downtown is quaint and tidy (do I sound like the Chamber of Commerce yet?) Historic buildings have been well-preserved and put to modern uses.
The boom times of the 1890’s provided plenty of beautiful old homes, which have been lovingly preserved. The house in the large photo below was built in 1888 by a rock-star horse trainer, with the best of everything of its time. Cut up into apartments and neglected, it was recently renovated and is now for sale for just under $1 million (hey, it’s almost 4,000 square feet…)
Modern houses in town look like this, and would cost more like $300,000.
While I’d like to sound welcoming, I’m a preservationist who is fighting hard against farmland development. We have some of the most precious and fertile soil in the world, and we do not not need it paved over for more subdivisions and strip malls. So please come visit, leave your money and not your litter, don’t get mad if you’re driving behind a tractor, buy some bourbon and have a safe trip home – cheers, friends!
Read about my blogger group friends’ hometowns around the world here, and I’d love to hear about yours in the comments.
Marsha in the Middle: even though this month’s prompt was Marsha’s idea, she wasn’t quite sure what road to follow. She decided to just meander her way through memories and places from her hometown.
The journey of Suzy @ The Grey Brunette from Rotherham to Portimao, her cozy Portuguese hometown, unfolds a tale of seafront serenity and the vibrant life of Praia da Rocha, offering a slice of Algarve charm. See her post.
Penny from Frugal Fashion Shopper lived in 3 very different places in childhood, and shares what she remembers of them. Read her post.
Gail from Is This Mutton tells us about Plymouth, Devon, and why she’s a “Janner”. Read about it here.
Australian blogger Debbie from Deb’s World lives in a very small rural town in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW Australia, with the captivating name of Tumbarumba. She’s made the town her home, with her husband and three daughters (now grown up and flown the nest), for over 30 years and is almost considered a ‘local’. There is a poem all about Tumba-bloody-Rumba…Read more.
Leslie from Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After says her heart is breaking for her hometown. “From the moment I drove into El Paso, Texas on Thanksgiving weekend, 1988, I felt like I was home. The Franklin Mountains tower over this big little city and divide the town in two. The people are humble, hardworking and friendly; accepting of all cultures and ethnicities. But this jewel in the desert southwest is being crippled by the incredible number of people crossing into this border town and impacting an already financially strained and impoverished community.” Read her post.
14 Comments
jodie filogomo
Your chiropractor is in an old church? How cool is that?
I loved reading about this and seeing all of the great architecture and small businesses.
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
mkmiller
They did a fabulous job of keeping all the stained glass and woodwork intact, and setting up as a free-standing space inside. It’s such a peaceful place to have bodywork done!
Penny
What a lovely post with great photos and I totally get the pronounciation and why you do it! Some of those houses are really beautiful. It all sounds so very nice and I can see why you live there.
mkmiller
Thanks, Penny! I had a lovely sunny afternoon to shoot…
Mike Stanley
Thanks for your blog, can’t wait to visit you and see your town. It sounds amazing.
mkmiller
Thanks, Mike! I’m looking forward to showing it to you. It’ll remind you of a dozen small towns in SW Va…
ratnamurti
Such a picturesque town. The photos reminded me of the American Small Town movies etc that I’ve watched. Totally charming
mkmiller
We’ve had many a movie filmed here! Here’s the latest: https://www.lex18.com/news/covering-kentucky/film-crew-sets-up-in-downtown-versailles-coffee-shop-to-film-new-romantic-comedy
hena
Thanks for sharing your town with us.
mkmiller
Thanks for reading, Hena!
Debbie Harris
This was so interesting MK and those houses are lovely, so much history there. Thanks for the ponounciation I would never have thought of saying it that way but now I know! You are right to be proud of your hometown and I don’t blame you for not wanting the land to stay as farming land rather than malls and housing developments. It was a great prompt for us all to share and learn about our home towns!
mkmiller
Thanks for the kind words, Debbie. It’s been a whirlwind month for me, and I still haven’t had time to read everyone’s posts, but I’m looking forward to it. It helps me remember who folks are by being able to visualize where they are on a map!
Leslie Clingan
Verailles, Kentucky…I know that little town fairly well. My brother, (former) sister-in-law, niece and nephew lived there for many years. Both children graduated from Woodford County High. Had senior pictures taken at Keeneland. My brother lives in Lexington now. My mother was in Lexington for more than 15 years until her death in 2022. An absolutely BEAUTIFUL area. I appreciate your efforts and interest in preserving the pastureland. It is deserving of preservation!! One summer we stayed in a very quaint B&B that was a working farm in Versailles. The kids loved being around the farm animals. The proprietress baked absolutely fabulous breakfast pastries for us each morning. It was a wonderful trip and the last time we were all together before my nephew died of cancer about a year later.
Thank you for sharing your hometown with us. And for reminding me of some very happy times.
mkmiller
What a great connection, Leslie! I was born in Lexington, and my family lived there until I was 6. It’s a small world around here, and it seems the blogging world can be, too! Thanks for your response.