ANCHORAGE, Ky. — She's a local pediatrician whose interest in historical homes brought her to Anchorage, Kentucky. Little did Dr. Heather Felton know when she moved in, she'd be taking on the same role the original homeowner had more than a century ago.
Dr. Felton lives in a city rich with character and rooted in history. Her home to this day is still called the Winston House, nestled along Ridge Road.
Its history seems to be repeating itself, as the days of the global pandemic continue.
For the last couple of weeks, Dr. Felton has worked remotely, seeing patients from her Norton Children's Germantown office from home. This form of telehealth is her new normal, like so many doctors who’ve had to work around the self-quarantines and isolation, but not so new for the century-old home she’s lived in the last 5 years.
“I do have the original blueprints of the house. There are these old books…that mention Dr. Winston and his wife. He was a volunteer firefighter at the Anchorage Fire Dept. His wife played organ at the church just down the street," Dr. Felton said.
Records show Dr. Joseph Winston hired a well-known Louisville architect to build a home with a very short commute to work.
“The house was built so the front of the house was the residence part. But on the side, there’s a door with his nameplate on the side. That’s where patients would enter. The room off the hallway was his office," she said.
It's the same room Dr. Felton now calls her office - when her kids aren’t using it as a playroom. She hadn’t thought about the irony until her husband mentioned it a few days in.
“He said to me, 'do you realize it’s been about a hundred years and we’re seeing patients out of the Winston house again?' I was like, 'you’re right.' I didn’t even think about it, but it was pretty cool," Dr. Felton said.
“[Dr. Winston] would never have been able to imagine I would be sitting here seeing patients on my laptop," she laughed. "It's just something you never would have envisioned happening again. But it’s something you can take out of all this, saying you know, it wasn’t all bad. There are little positive things you can hold onto.”
Contact reporter Brooke Hasch at bhasch@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter (@WHAS11Hasch) and Facebook.
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