History

Every year when summer comes around, they stretch a banner 'cross the main street in town. You can feel something's happenin' in the air ... getting ready for the county fair. -Bruce Springsteen

March 11 marks the 70th anniversary of the death of Paducah's own Irvin S. Cobb, and by the time of his passing he had amassed a stunningly prolific and varied resume: author of over 60 books and 300 short stories, newspaper columnist, World War I correspondent, screenwriter, actor in 10 films, and host of the 6th Annual Academy Awards

If you look at the empty lot on the corner of 9th and Broadway, you can see the ghost of a library. You can see it in the steps leading up to Grace Church. You can see it in the big black mailbox at 215 Ridgewood Avenue, and in the empty fountain that now calls the Jefferson Street median its home. You can see it, too, in the garden of the McCracken County Public Library in the two columns that recently made their way back from the garden of Mrs. Olivia Cave.

When you step into Harper’s Country Hams down in Clinton, KY, the aroma is overwhelming. Overwhelming in the most pan-fried, Southern, throwback-to-your-childhood, “Wake up! Mama’s makin’ breakfast!” kind of way. It’s the same aroma Curtis Harper smelled as a kid when his parents cured and smoked their own meats on their farm in Hickman County.

On the spot where the McCracken County courthouse currently stands once sat a rotary jail. Yes, a rotary jail! Not many have heard of such a thing, much less that Paducah had one, and if you're anything like me, the first thought that popped in your head was, “We must've had a lot of naughty Rotarians if they needed their own separate slammer.” Nothing like that at all.

April 1, 1892 – July 26, 1979

Old 9, 137, Oak Grove Cemetery