Remember “The Alamo” On Princess Hill

In about 1930, on the very top of Princess Hill a very unusual house for the area was constructed.

This house was built by Caruthers “Colonel” Coleman (1894-1992). Caruthers was the co owner, with his sister Ruth Coleman Gay (1889-1958), of the Big Run Coal and Clay Company. The company mined coal, clay, and operated the brickyard at Princess.

Note that this family of Coleman’s is not related to myself. Having the same last name is pure coincidence without connection.

In a recent interview^{PColeman Interview} with Caruthers Coleman’s eldest son, Pope Coleman (born about 1927), Pope indicated this house was designed and constructed by his Father, a MIT educated civil engineer. The design of this house was strongly influenced by New Mexico designs popular and prominent in that day. High profile architect Frank Lloyd Wright was an influential proponent of this New Mexico style. The house was constructed after a frame house the family lived in burned.

Pope had lived in this New Mexico style house with his family for a few years when he was very young, but the family moved to the Lexington, KY area where he grew up.

This house would have had a spectacular view of the Williams Creek Valley at Princess.

Pope indicated the construction techniques were likely not well suited for Northeastern, KY and likely lead to the reasonably rapid deterioration of the house. The house had a basement, which would have been reasonably unusual for the area in that time frame.

This house must have been a very unusual sight for the local residents and ultimately spawned the name of “The Alamo” used by many locals.

Roy Cline, son of the superintendent at the Princess Brickyard, Dewey Cline (1908 – 1984), and later a joint owner of the Princess Brickyard Plant with the Cline Family, indicated that his aunt and uncle, Willard (1893 – 1964) and Lizzie Adkins Collins (1907 – 1986) had lived in this house for several years after the Coleman family moved to Lexington.  This was Roy’s mother, Ada Mae Adkins Cline’s (1911 – 2013) sister.

In the mid to late 1950’s, Solomon Xerses Marcum (1886 – 1971) and Daisy Brewer Marcum (1888 – 1960) lived in this house. Joe Marcum, their grandson, stayed with his grandparents frequently and has a keen memory of the house. Joe kindly provided this nice image of the house.  Joe, his father Don Marcum (1918 – 1991), his granfather Solomon, and his sister Donna are in this image. Click on the image for a much larger version.

Joe’s Grandfather, Solomon, and his Father, Donald, ran a small lumber operation and provided timbers for use in the coal and clay mines of Big Run Coal and Clay Co. Solomon rented this unusual house from Big Run Coal and Clay for $4.50 a month. Typically these company owned houses were reserved for direct employees, but evidently they made an exception for their mine timber provider.

Joe indicated the house had these features:

· Natural gas in every room
· 2 full baths with porcelain fixtures including porcelain bathtubs
· Copper backed ceramic tile on all floors, these were smaller tiles (1 or 2 inch squares)
· Cistern water with electric pump. The pump did not function when the Marcum’s lived there so they carried water for domestic use.
· Picket Fence
· Catalpa trees
· Underground area not directly under the house but still connected – sort of a bomb shelter like structure.
· Two car detached garage
· Telephone pole like roof supports
· Mahogany wood ceiling
· Very high end finishing throughout house
· Recesses in exterior for gas lights (later kerosene lanterns were used)

In my own personal visits to “The Alamo” in the mid to late 1960’s, the basement was all that was left of the abandoned house. Local teenagers frequently held rather boisterous parties at “The Alamo” after it was abandoned as a domicile.

This image is from a 1955 aerial view of Princess Hill, if you look very carefully you can see “The Alamo” near the center of this image. Both the curving US 60 and the railroad tracks just emerging from Princess Tunnel can also be seen. Click on the image for a much larger view.

Remnants of the house can still be seen in current Google Maps aerial views (GPS 38.385944, -82.740167).

Just click on this link for that mapping, the red teardrop is in the center of where “The Alamo” was located.

A big thanks to Joe Marcum, Roy Cline, and Pope Coleman for their kind contributions for this article. And, to Curtis Crye for his timely help in obtaining the scan of the 1955 aerial image of Princess Hill.

Next Article – The Williams Creek Basin Interactive Map

Previous Article – Lithograph of Scenes In And Around Ashland, KY

References:

“Aerial Photographs of the Ashland Quadrangle, Kentucky–Ohio.” U.S. Geological Survey, 1955 1954.

Coleman, Pope. Pope Coleman Interview – Big Run Coal and Clay Company, March 30, 2015.

Cline, Roy. Roy Cline – Princess Brickyard and Vicinity Interview, January 2, 2015.

Marcum, Joe. Joe Marcum – Alamo House and Princess Area Interview, May 29, 2015.