The Blacksmith
Shop
The old Herdt Blacksmith Shop on
Central Avenue
The Blacksmith Shop is
mentioned in two of the Little Colonel books:
The Little Colonel's Hero,
published in 1902, and
The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation, published in 1905. Excerpt from "The Little
Colonel's Hero,"
Chapter XIII, "The Rescue of the Princess Winsome:"
"Next morning at
the depot,
the post-office, and the
blacksmith shop a sign was displayed which everybody stopped
to read. Similar announcements nailed on various trees
throughout the Valley caused many an old farmer to pull up
his team and adjust his spectacles for a closer view of this
novel poster."
Excerpt from "The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation,"
Chapter
VII, "Humdrum Days"
"ALL through the
rest of that week, and through New Year's Day, Lloyd managed
to keep her resolution bravely. Even when the time came for
the girls to go back to school without her, she went through
the farewells like a little Spartan, driving down to the
station with tearful Betty, who grieved over Lloyd's
disappointment as if it had been her own.
When the train
pulled out, with the four girls on the rear platform, she
stood waving her handkerchief cheerily as long as she could
see an answering flutter. Then she turned away, catching her
breath in a deep indrawn sob, that might have been followed
by others if Rob had not been with her. He saw her clench
her hands and set her teeth together hard, and knew what a
fight she was making to choke back the tears, but he wisely
gave no sign that he saw and sympathized. He only
proposed a walk over to the blacksmith shop to see the red
fox that Billy Kerr had trapped and caged."
"Historic Pewee Valley," page
13, notes that there really was a blacksmith shop in Lloydsboro
(Pewee) Valley during the time the Little Colonel stories were
written:
"Pewee Valley had one small
manufacturing concern, Jacob Herdt's carriage and wagon
building business, which evolved from a blacksmith shop and
wagon-building concern on Central Avenue in 1895. In 1910,
Herdt built a new structure on LaGrange Road to accommodate
his growing business. About 1924, as carriages were
gradually being replaced by automobiles, he added a garage
onto the building and became the community's Ford Motor
Company dealer."
On the
Pewee Valley map, the original
blacksmith shop would have been located near the edge of the W.
D. Gallagher property ("The
Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow") The
1924 building, which was constructed during the time Annie
Fellows Johnston was living at The Beeches, is still standing on LaGrange Road and many of
Jacob Herdt's descendents continue to make Pewee Valley their
home today.
Herdt Motors as it looks today
where the original blacksmith shop
stood as it looks today
Page by Donna Russell
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