Whitesburg, Kentucky
Whitesburg is a city located in Letcher County, Kentucky. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 1,600. It is the county seat of Letcher CountyTemplate:GR.
Geography
Whitesburg is located at 37°7'4" North, 82°49'16" West (37.117867, -82.821068)Template:GR.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²). 8.0 km² (3.1 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 1,600 people, 642 households, and 412 families residing in the city. The population density was 199.3/km² (516.9/mi²). There were 733 housing units at an average density of 91.3/km² (236.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.19% White, 0.62% African American, 0.00% Native American, 2.62% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.06% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.56% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 642 households out of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.6% were married couples living together, 12.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 34.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.21 and the average family size was 2.82.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.6% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 24.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females there were 79.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 76.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $28,750, and the median income for a family was $35,714. Males had a median income of $31,339 versus $25,478 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,202. 23.1% of the population and 22.0% of families were below the poverty line. 27.2% of those under the age of 18 and 13.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
Culture
Whitesburg is home to Appalshop, a multi-disciplinary arts and education center founded in 1969 which produces original films, video, theater, music and spoken-word recordings, radio, photography, multimedia, and books. WMMT 88.7 FM (Mountain Community Radio), also located in Whitesburg, was founded by Appalshop in 1985.
Whitesburg's major newspaper is the Mountain Eagle. The Mountain Eagle has been directed by the Gish family of Letcher county for almost 50 years.
Whitesburg is known for its ubiquitous cut stone. The city was home to a community of Italian stone masons who moved there with the coming of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1911-1912. Those masons left their mark on the city and the surrounding county of Letcher. The city includes numerous ashlar stone retaining walls, foundations and bridge abutments, as well as several buildings covered entirely in sandstone pulled from the Kentucky River.
One of its best-known features is an arched stone bridge built in 1938 across the North Fork of the Kentucky River. The downtown historic district includes many buildings built between 1914 and 1925, a time of incredible expansion in the town. By 1921, all of the pre-Civil War buildings had been razed to make way for new, brick-and-stone edifices. Among the oldest commercial buildings are the former Lewis Wholesale building, built in 1914, which is now used as City Hall; the Fields Building, built 1911-1914, which now houses a restaurant, bookstore and law offices; and the Daniel Boone Hotel, a fine brick building with stone foundations and pressed metal cornice thought to have been built about 1915. It includes several distinctive residences such as the Judge Ira Fields home (1897); the cut stone Palumbo House, and Italian villa-inspired house built by master stone mason John Palumbo; the stately Salyers House Bed and Breakfast, built for Confederate States of America Col. Logan Henry Neal Salyer in the early 20th century; and a Dutch Colonial style home ordered from the Sears Modern Home Catalog and delivered to its owner, in pieces, by railcar in 1928.
Whitesburg's streets were paved for the first time in 1924 and some of those original concrete streets are still in use. Broadway, one of those streets, is marked with the hoofprints of a cow, the footprints of chickens and of a barefoot child who ran across the street while the concrete was still wet.
Famous residents
- Harry M. Caudill (author, historian, professor, lawyer, legislator, and environmentalist, 1922-1990)
- Emery L. Frazier (Mayor, state representative, Chief Clerk of the U.S. Senate, Secretary of the U.S. Senate, 1896-1973)
Events
- Seedtime on the Cumberland - Festival of arts and crafts held annually in early June. The festival is centered at Appalshop and focuses on traditional music, art and crafts. It includes old-time music concerts and jam sessions.
- The Mountain Heritage Festival - Fall Festival held annually the last weekend of September. The festival features talent shows, concerts, arts and crafts, food booths, a parade, and window display competition.
- The Heritage 2KX Car Show - Custom and antique car show held annually in early September. The event attracts hundreds of show cars from around the region, and features a police-escorted drag through Whitesburg.
- Country Music Highway Road Rally - This antique car rally begins at Greenup, Kentucky, traverses the length of U.S. 23 in Kentucky, and ends at Whitesburg. Held during the peak color season in October, the rally draws sightseers from around the nation. Every county along the route is the home of at least one country music artist.
- Cowan Creek Mountain Music School - A set of week-long intensive classes in banjo, guitar, fiddle, square dance, storytelling and singing. The school is held in late June at the community of Cowan and in Whitesburg. It is open to children and adults.
Humor and Odd Facts
Whitesburg is known to the people living there, most prominently people 12-21 as somewhere with nothing to do. Whitesburg at one time had a two screen movie theater, however it was closed and purchased by a church.
Whitesburg has long been a bird sanctuary. Visitors will notice that there are several roadsigns around town featuring the silhouette of a mother duck with a string of ducklings behind her, along with the legend "Duck Xing." The signs were commissioned by local radio host Jim Webb, who at the time hosted a show under the alias "The Ducktor." Webb appeared in newspaper photos publicizing the placement of the signs while wearing a rubber duck mask.
Whitesburg's oldest continuously operating radio station, WTCW-AM/WXKQ-FM, is actually located several miles outside the city near the community of Thornton. Radio station WIFX-FM, which is licensed for Jenkins, Kentucky, (13 miles away) and Pound, Virginia, (about 20 miles away) is located in downtown Whitesburg. The public radio station licensed for Whitesburg, WMMT-FM, is located at Appalshop in downtown Whitesburg.
Local legend has it that billiards great Minnesota Fats once played an all-night game of pool at what was then the Southern Hotel in Whitesburg, a 1940s era bootleg, gambling and prostitution joint.
The tongue-in-cheek reason often given as the origin of the city's name is that surveyors laying out the town in 1842 showed up during a heavy snow storm and therefore named the town Whitesburg. It was actually named for state Rep. Daugherty White of Clay County, who championed the creation of the new county. The town of Summit City was selected as the county seat and renamed for White.
The city's longtime tourism slogan, now adopted by the county, is The Heart of the Hills. The slogan was coined by Emery L. Frazier and is a reference to the novel of the same name by John Fox Jr., which was written about the area around Whitesburg.