Smiths Grove City

Warren County, Kentucky

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Smiths Grove City Hall is located at 146 South Main Street, Smiths Grove, KY 42171.
Phone: 270‑563‑4014.

Beginnings [1]

Located in the midst of one of the richest agricultural sections of the county, Smiths Grove is presently [1978] the county's second largest town. It is 14 miles northeast of Bowling Green on the Nashville line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The town's period of greatest growth was between 1859, the year the railroad was completed, and about 1920. The Smiths Grove Historic District consists of four buildings located at the town's main intersection of streets, First and Main Streets. The three adjoining commercial buildings in the district are located on the north side of First Street and face both the L & N Railroad tracks and the informally-planned town square. They illustrate three different building materials (frame, brick and stone) and three different approaches to style in late nineteenth and early twentieth century commercial buildings. The most significant of the three is the former Farmers Bank, a small stone structure with considerable architectural pretensions and one of the few stone structures in the county outside the county seat. The fourth structure in the district is the William H. Cooke House, located on the east side of Main Street behind the three commercial structures. The brick house was based on the popular T-plan form, and its exterior detailing is largely intact. Built in 1885, the Cooke House is perhaps the earliest of the four structures in the district. The central location and generous siting of the house give it a manorial character in terms of its relationship with the surrounding town.

  1. Dr. Kenneth T. Gibbs, architectural historian, Jayne C. Henderson, historian, and Lee D. Walker, historian, Kentucky Heritage Commission, Warren County Multiple Resource Area, Warren County, Kentucky, nomination document, 1978, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

Nearby Towns: Oakland City •


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