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New brochure and signage developed for Maysville tour
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By DANETTA BARKER Staff Writer
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The history of Maysville's buildings tell the stories of movie stars, Supreme Court Justices, pioneers and the industries that made the town a thriving river port.
To bring that history to the public, the Maysville Tourism Commission has developed a new brochure and signage for the popular walking tours. Tourism Director Duff Giffen and Assistant Director Marla Baxter worked for nearly a year to make a colorful, informative and entertaining guide to Maysville's and Old Washington's historic districts.
"Marla did a lot of research on this project," Giffen said. "We wanted to make sure we had the facts."
The homes of Rosemary Clooney and Stanley Reed along with a log cabin of George Mefford, are just a few of the historic places highlighted in the brochure.
The tour of historic Maysville begins at the same place pioneers began their journey into Mason County, Limestone Landing.
"We start at the murals," Baxter said. "The murals tell the history of the area in four centuries and the four seasons."
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| Maysville City employees Ed Simms and Ronald Burton positioned a new sign on Washington Hall recently. Most of the signs within the city limits are made by city employees. Many of the signs are used to mark the path for walking tours. Terry Prather/Staff
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The winter scene depicts pioneers and Indians. Spring brings pioneers to the woods, summer shows how the port has grown from a wide spot on the bank to a place where long boats can dock. Fall shows more progression of the pioneers who settled the area.
"It was an enthralling, perilous era, one of personal hardship, challenging expansion and a rugged frontier," the brochures states. "Down the Ohio River floated canoes, rafts and flat-bottom boats carrying settlers, pioneer scouts and even foreign nobility to a landing at Limestone, known as the Northern Gateway to Kentucky. A landing cut into the wilderness by migrating buffalo from Ohio traveling to Blue Lick for salt."
Many of the pictures of buildings are familiar to those who drive or walk Maysville's streets, but there are little known facts that make a building look new. What is now the Maysville Conference Center was once the Montgomery Ward Building. In 1928 when the building was built, Ward's had 500 retail stores.
"See the figure on the building," Baxter said as she pointed to a floating image of a Grecian-like woman. "Through research, I found that she is "The Sprit of Progress," a symbol that Ward's used."
Baxter didn't want a simple description of the building, such as 1928, Art Deco. She wanted something about the building that would make people stop and look -- a name to the figure so familiar to many Maysvillians.
Signs, such as the one on the corner of Hendrickson's Block, are as famous as the buildings. The sign is the world covered in red paint, the symbol of Sherwin Williams Paints. Frank L. Hendrickson established a paint, wallpaper and home furnishings business there in 1908. The family operated a business at the location until 2004.
But the history of the building found in books doesn't include one of Maysville's best kept secrets, the magic window.
Baxter and Giffen included in fun facts Hendrickson's Magic Window, where a person can stand at the corner of the display window, center the body on the corner of the window, raise an arm and leg nearest the street and see the mirror image reflected in the plate glass. The game is fun and astonishes tourists, Baxter said.
Old Washington, which is in the city limits of Maysville, tells the story of pioneers trying to escape the Indian raids near the river so settled inland. The town was once the second largest in Kentucky. As the threat of Indians was lessened, people began to settle closer to the river.
New signs in Old Washington guide the tourist from historic building to historic building. Match the green footprints on the brochure to the green signs in the town and follow the history of an independent and rugged people.
Simon Kenton's store is at one end of the town, while the cabin Mefford constructed from his flatboat is at the other end. In between is a mix of architectural styles and businesses to delight and entertain.
"Our goal was that we wanted to take our marketing material and create a much user friendly brochure," Giffen said. "We wanted tourists to look at the picture and know they were at the right place."
Brochures can be found at Maysville City Hall, the Welcome Center and the Visitor's Center in Old Washington.
Contact Danetta Barker at Danetta.Barker@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 272. |
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