Sitting on the corner of St. James Court, at its very entrance way, is the Conrad-Caldwell House. Here, according to the website, is its history…. “Surrounded by a beautiful courtyard neighborhood at the center of the largest collection of Victorian Homes in the US, “Conrad’s Castle” featured all the latest innovations of its day, including interior plumbing and electric lighting. Known for its beautiful woodwork and parquet floors, this massive Bedford limestone home, covered with gargoyles, beautiful archways, and elaborate... Read more

While some of these old homes seem reasonably normal in size and design….. And there is even one three story apartment building (the first of its sort in any proper neighborhood in the town) which was built to house various WWI soldiers recuperating from the ravages of war… This is hardly the ‘normal’ house on these streets where nothing succeeds like excess. The nouveau riche of Louisville loved turrets and towers and elaborate stone tracery work. They liked etched glass,... Read more

In 1873, Louisville, trying to improve the visibility and status and commerce of its city held a gigantic Southern Exposition. This continued to happen well into the 1880s, and the piece of land at which the giant exposition building was built (see below) was in due course turned into stately homes of the Victorian sort. We went to see the neighborhoods of St. James Court and Belgravia Ct. in eastern Louisville, and in particular to go and see the Conrad-Caldwell... Read more

Call me a sucker for old southern ways and charm, but the Storybook Inn run by Ms. Elise Buckley is a trip back in southern time. This house is really quite amazing. It has bedrooms named My Fair Lady, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, and it looks like something out of Gone with the Wind. It is located on Highway 62 on the edge of Versailles, and it’s impressive. Set up as a bed and breakfast, complete with friendly cats... Read more

I’ve spent a lot of time on the coasts of North and South Carolina. Most of the last 65 summers I’ve been down there. But one thing I have never done, until last June, was take the ferry and go visit Bald Head Island. In the 60s, back at the dawn of time, when I was in high school, I was in an environmental group called ECOS. We wanted to prevent the development of various of our pristine barrier islands,... Read more

Somewhere in the 1880s, about 1884 a woodworking factory in Louisville, owned by an immigrant family, the Hillerich’s, turned mainly into a bat factory, home of the Louisville Slugger. The reason for this transformation was because of the local budding baseball team, which in due course was to move and to become the Pittsburgh Pirates. And then there was, just up the road the Cincinnati Redlegs as well. Bud Hillerich, the son of the owner created a bat for Pete... Read more

This is the cathedral of Bede’s burial, and St. Oswald, of St. Cuthbert, of the Lindisfarne Gospels, of Lightfoot, and Westcott, and Moule, and yes Tom Wright too. It’s always a blessing to visit this sanctuary. Here is the tomb of Bede, and two of his famous writings. Bede’s most famous work, The Ecclesiastical History of England, is actually what determined for the West the date when it was assumed Christ was born, the dividing line between B.C. and A.D.... Read more

The greatest Norman cathedral in the world, built in the late 11th century, is Durham cathedral— hands down, no debate, it is the greatest. It sits on top of a hill on a peninsula hovering over the river Wear and the city of Durham. First of all, here’s the river- And here’s the view from the river…. Here’s the pathway up to the cathedral from the river… How many pilgrims since 1070 have trudged up this hill to receive a... Read more

Those of you who read my blog will know I’ve been working hard on getting published the sermons of a great Durham scholar and Methodist, C.K. Barrett, and his father Fred Barrett, in a series called Luminescence, of which the first volume is available on Amazon, and the second is on the way. Ann and I returned to Durham where we lived for three years in the late 1970s (B.C.— before cellphone, B.C. before computers). I was the last doctoral... Read more

You’ve heard of haunted castles, how about haunted cathedrals? The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Drogheda is very large indeed, and includes, in a glass case, the head of a martyred saint—Oliver Plunkett, who was martyred at Tyburn in 1681. The shrine contains the preserved head of the saint. Another showcase displays his shoulder blade and other bones as relics. Also on exhibit is the cell door of Newgate prison in which he spent his last days. So, let’s get this... Read more