WARSAW HISTORIC HOMES
1966) and was also a six-term member of the Kentucky legislature. When the Ohio River flood of 1937 washed away most of the riverfront housing, Tinsley was a driving force in the establishment of Warsaw’s Red Cross Ave. On September 19, 2004, the church celebrated the modernization of its historic building. Bogardus, Carl R., Sr. The Story of Gallatin County. Ed. James C. Claypool. Cincinnati: John S. Swift, 2003. Spencer, Mrs. Earl, and Mrs. E. C. Threlkeld. Manuscripts and notes from original church records, Warsaw Christian Church, Warsaw, Ky.
Bernie Spencer
WARSAW FURNITURE FACTORY. The Warsaw Furniture Factory was the pride of Warsaw, employing almost 200 persons at its peak of production. Trained craftsmen manufactured its handsome furniture in a collection of styles out of beautiful, highly polished woods. These pieces were sought after not only throughout the South, but also at furniture markets in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and New York City. The factory was established by Owen Arthur Bogardus Sr., who arrived in Warsaw with his wife Nancy Ballard Bogardus on a riverboat from Cincinnati in 1902. Under his guidance the company became one of the leaders in the manufacture of fine furniture, and Warsaw became known as a furniture center. At the beginning, designs were purchased. To these were added Bogardus’s own designs and those of his eldest son, Claude Bogardus. Other sons, O. A. Jr., Carl, and Jim, all took their turns working on the factory floor, although as adults they moved on to other professions. The making of complete dining suites was divided between two factories. One plant made buffets, china closets, and serving tables; the other made dining tables and chairs. The most frequently used woods were butternut and mahogany. Cata logs compiled in the 1930s show the furniture to be of high quality and sophisticated design. The factory’s noon whistle was the signal marker of the day in Warsaw. At the time of his death in 1947, the factory’s founder had become a man of means, and the name of Bogardus continues to be revered in Gallatin Co. In 1969 the factory was sold to Barry Brown, who became its manager. He later sold the factory and its grounds, and a BP gasoline station was built there. The factory was torn down in March 1995.
Bogardus, Carl R., Sr. The Story of Gallatin County. Ed. James C. Claypool. Cincinnati: John S. Swift, 2003.
Steve Huddleston
WARSAW HISTORIC HOMES. When the town of Warsaw was nominated as a National Register Historic District in 1982, it was described as one of the best-preserved 19th-century Ohio River towns in Kentucky. It was compared to Petersburg and Augusta, river towns bypassed by newer modes of transportation that have, as a result, retained a small-town charm that resides to a great extent in original historic buildings. The first settlement in the Warsaw area, called Great Landing, consisted of log buildings situated near the river. The one that remains, the Yates House, constructed in 1809, was the home of one of the men who subdivided and platted the streets of the community by then named Fredericksburg. The structure stands at the axis of the historic district, covered in wood siding, its interior walls revealing the original logs. The town was laid out on a grid plan, and the first street built up from the fall line of the valley was High St., where 16 of the 60 historic buildings remain. Standing as sentinels on either end of the street are the John Payne House, an 1822 Virginia Tidewater with a Greek Revival portico, and the Captain William Payne House, known as Seven Pines, built in 1840 with an added Victorian veranda; both are sited to face the river. The Lucy Dupuy Montz House, home of Kentucky’s first woman dentist, is an example of a Greek Revival I-house. Several painted-brick Federal houses still stand on High St. and one block south on Main. These houses, built in the 1830s, were the homes of the first residents who prospered as the town grew up from the busy river highway. Many of them were built by Willis Peak, whose name is retained in the names of several old homes in Warsaw. The second, and most often used, part of the houses’ names refers to either the original or the longest-
Bogardus, Carl R., Sr. “Family Memoir,” Gallatin Co. Free Public Library, Warsaw, Ky. ———. The Story of Gallatin County. Ed. James C. Claypool. Cincinnati: John S. Swift, 2003.
Denny Kelley-Warnick
WARSAW HIGH SCHOOL. Warsaw High School was established in 1913, under the tutelage of Professor C. S. Joseph. The curriculum included four years of mathematics and Latin and two years of German. Warsaw High School was consolidated into Gallatin Co. High School for the beginning of the 1935–1936 school year.
Hawkins Kirby House.
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term owner. One of these Peak-built homes is the Peak Corkran House, mentioned below. In 1831 Fredericksburg became Warsaw; in 1838 Warsaw was named county seat of Gallatin Co., and a courthouse was built on the public square at the junction of High and Main Cross. One of the oldest in continuous use in the state, the Greek Revival courthouse first faced the river but was remodeled in 1933 with a portico opening onto Main St. when Main St. was rebuilt as U.S. 42. With its painted white brick and two-story square columns, the courthouse is the county’s landmark building. Another Greek Revival building, outside the district but a landmark to those entering the town from the east, is Heritage Hall, a private home built in 1869 on the river side of the road, part of the Hill’s Nursery property (see Gallatin Co. Plant Nurseries). Warsaw was built largely between 1840 and 1900. The earliest commercial buildings still standing, a post office and a grocery, now jointly house Maines Hardware, which retains the look of an old-time store. These buildings east of the courthouse and those south of it have ironwork facades and decorative tie rods and are built flush with the street. The south buildings were the first on Main Cross as it was built up, turning into the Sparta Turnpike. The only other original government building stands at the curve in the Sparta Turnpike. It is the county jail, built in 1880 and is, like most other county buildings in the district, a two-story brick painted white. The Yager Gutting House, next to Maines Hardware, had its second story removed by a former owner and now houses two county offices. The five churches in the district span this time period, from the 1851 Presbyterian Church, which is now the Second Consolidated Baptist and once housed a private school on its second floor, to the Warsaw Methodist, built in 1901, with its Gothic Revival accents. Included are the Italianate Christian Church and the St. Joseph Church, both built in 1868–1869 and with historically sensitive recent additions. The Sunday school building is all that