Where art and history meet in downtown Hopkinsville

Two outdoor paintings — one new and one that brings an old commercial sign back to life — were completed this week on a Hopkinsville Water Environment Authority building that previously was part of the Ellis Ice and Coal Co. plant.

HWEA hired Christian County High School art teacher Paula Gieseke to repaint an Ellis sign on the building at 11th and Clay streets. The sign is closer to the railroad tracks than to Clay Street, and Gieseke believes it was originally painted there so train passengers could see it.

The new mural on another portion of the same building is a large American flag. It is much more visible on the downtown landscape, especially to motorists on both Clay and Liberty streets between 10th and 13th streets.

Gieseke painted both murals from a mechanical lift over a period of several days An umbrella attached to the railing provided shade in the heat of midday.

Working first on the Ellis sign, Gieseke told Hoptown Chronicle that she enjoyed researching details of the old company and the artistry of the advertisement. It includes a hand pointing toward Clay Street.

Ellis family patriarch William Ellis, a Maryland native, came to Hopkinsville as a tailor in 1840. According to his obit, he began operating a flour mill in 1878. When the mill burned about 10 years later, Ellis Ice and Coal was established on the same block.

The company remained in the Ellis family until the mid-1960s, columnist James B. Coursey wrote for the Kentucky New Era in an October 2019 article.

The owners took advantage of “a deep well of pure water on the property” when they decided to construct an ice manufacturing plant, according to a survey conducted in 1978 for the Kentucky Historic Resources Inventory database.

Many homes in Hopkinsville took delivery of blocks of Ellis ice on their back porch, especially in summer, and then coal in cold months.

“The Ellis Ice & Coal Company had 12 horse-drawn wagons to deliver their products to the residents of Hopkinsville. On site, stables were required, of course, for the 12 horses. Later, the 12 wagons were replaced by four trucks, which were either GMC or Ford models,” Coursey wrote.

While the Ellis mural preserves a piece of the company history, a large building on the lot was demolished this year when HWEA could not find a use for it.

The tall brick building, roughly a century old, had the look of “a city power substation, an equipment plant for a hydroelectric dam or one of the old direct current buildings in New York City,” Coursey wrote.

HWEA general manager Derrick Watson told me the top the structure was damaged in the tornado that struck downtown on New Year’s Day 2022. The utility chose to demolish the building rather than attempt repairs because there wasn’t a way to use the building.

The interior was configured without a floor on the second level, said Watson.

“We want to keep as much history as we can,” Watson said, referring to the mural project. “I think that is a neat aspect to that building.”

Gieseke’s has several public art pieces in Hopkinsville, including student projects she has led for the Pennyroyal Arts Council. She also painted the bell hooks mural that was dedicated in August 2022 on the side of the Christian County Historical Society building on Liberty Street.