History of the Kerr Building and Eclipse Mills, Winchester, Kentucky

The Kerr Building encompasses two separate buildings: the S. P. Kerr Business Block and the Eclipse Mills. George Taylor and Leslie Webster put up the Eclipse Mills in about 1867. Smith Kerr erected the Business Block in 1889. After serving as a prominent business house in Winchester for over a century, in the late 1990s the Kerr Building fell into disrepair and was in danger of being razed. The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation placed the Kerr Building on its 1999 list of most endangered buildings in the region, what it called "11 in their 11th hour." Mayor Dodd Dixon, deciding something needed to be done, obtained two grants from Renaissance Kentucky totaling $500,000. Mark Bailey & Associates of Louisville purchased the building, restored the exterior and renovated the interior for commercial space on the ground floor and senior citizen housing above. 70 pp, illustrated