OLDHAM COUNTY, Ky. — Some people in Oldham Co. are now trying to save the old courthouse in La Grange.
The county’s Project Development Board recently voted to demolish it and build a new one.
Some residents are doing what they can to fight the decision.
Barbara Manley Calloway grew up in Oldham County. The courthouse has always been a symbol of town and county pride that, in part, has existed for more than a century.
“It has stood here as the anchor to this town,” Manley Calloway said.
When she found out about plans to demolish the courthouse, Manley Calloway formed a plan of her own.
“Somebody’s got to do something and I thought well, you know, if not me, who else?” Manley Calloway said.
She started a Facebook page to save the courthouse that got 1,700 likes in its first week.
Manley Calloway asked Preservation Kentucky and The Heritage Council of Kentucky for help.
But, it might not be enough.
No matter how many likes, comments, or shares the page gets, Judge Executive David Voegele says the courthouse is just not salvageable.
“You can’t even raise the facade, it might fall apart,” said Voegele.
He says efforts to save the building are misinformed.
“People don’t know what’s behind the walls, they don’t know what’s in the ceiling,” said Voegele. “They don’t know what’s underneath it. They just have a knee jerk reaction to a circumstance that they don’t like.”
Voegele asked a restoration expert to examine the building and he agrees - nothing can be done to save the building.
But the vote to demolish the building won’t stop Barbara Manley Calloway.
“My momma always told me, and the one lesson I learned from her is, never let anybody tell you no, you can’t do something,” Manley Calloway said.
Voegle will publish an article in Wednesday’s Oldham Era, debunking some misconceptions about the courthouse and the project.
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