my mom was from mt. vernon. her cousin Glenna and her husband Herbert had Coffey´s furniture store. Many years ago my mother´s uncle Bill Taylor´s wife (can´t recall her name) worked at the Hen House Cafe. My great grandfather was a judge, many many years ago, Thomas Jefferson Taylor.
I was born in Mt. Vernon 66 years ago last week and moved away when I was 7. While my memories are very faint I can remember my parents owning the town florist in the first portion of Main Street that was shown. My uncle was the town dentist down towards the other end of that block.
Good to shed light on this small town. There has to be several in the mid west, south east, etc etc similar situations. Maybe we the people can get ahold of this country again, and show what we common folk are made of.
The town has lots of potential. And 20-25 years ago several of those buildings had mom and pop stores in them that had been there for generations. We had a 5&dime store (similar to a general store), a hardware and tool store, a few other things I was a small child hard to remember now. The large building on the corner near the train tracks use to be a hotel long before my time. The Mexican restaurant is nice but it's not nearly as large as the paint on the building makes it look, and they definitely do not have upstairs seating. Would love to see more business in my hometown but unfortunately as another person has stated the elders on the town board of the community have refused to allow any new opportunities to come into the town. Several times we've had a larger business such as Walmart propose to develop here and the elders vote it down. Thankfully there is starting to be some newer, younger members on that board and maybe fingers crossed some good will come from that!
Unfortunately, those buildings have been empty for years. It had nothing to do with the pandemic. I doubt anyone will invest the money to revive those beautiful buildings again. It was very different just 20 years ago but so much has changed.
The homeless shelter there doesn’t actually help anyone. They told me if I wanted to stay there I had to drop out of highschool. So I stayed on the street and Graduated with my class and won’t ever live in Rockcastle again 🤓 They have three rooms. One for a single person. One for mom and child and one for a small family.
I hate to blame somebody, but I’m going to go ahead and say that the county has done a pretty horrible job of keeping this community alive. It’s either the county of the city but it’s definitely government’s neglect. There is so much potential here, but most of the buildings in downtown are neglected horribly. If the government stepped in and started issuing fines, that would make the landlords have to fix things, but I just think they have just written everything off. I’m sorry you’re seeing this the way that it is. I hope you can subscribe and really appreciate your comment.
I was born in Mount Vernon and the plan DEMIC had nothing to do with how it is now oxycontin and opioid,drugs did that. I moved last year with my son it's been consistently going down hill
There’s plenty they could. Even just minor things. That water tower is in really bad shape. Thanks for the comment. I hope you can subscribe to the channel.
It’s a city with a great deal of potential. I was very unimpressed with what I saw. I hope you can subscribe to the channel. Can you maybe tell me a story or two about the city when you live there? Thanks 😊
