Four years ago the future of the St. Elmo Homemakers Club Barbecue — not to mention the old schoolhouse that served as the backdrop to the big annual event in South Christian — looked uncertain.
Barbara Wilbur, one of only a few longtime members still affiliated with the club at that time, had the sad task of announcing there wouldn’t be a barbecue in 2018, and perhaps not ever again. One of the county’s oldest rural traditions had sputtered out after a 65-year run.
“The biggest problem we have is the lack of community,” Wilbur told the Kentucky New Era that year. Many of the people who supported the barbecue and tried to maintain the St. Elmo schoolhouse as a community center on Bradshaw Road had died or moved away, she explained.
It seemed the tight-knit community had scattered. Or was it just in a slumber waiting for a new crew to come along?
I’m guessing that no one is happier now than Wilbur that the homemakers club, the schoolhouse and the barbecue have attracted the next generation of stewards.
The club that had seen its membership dwindle down to four women in 2018 now has more than 25 members. They range in age from about 25 to 87.
And Thursday evening they brought back St. Elmo’s barbecue in grand fashion with more than 500 tickets sold to patrons who ate heaping plates of pork and burgoo at tables covered in red gingham cloths on the schoolhouse grounds. Mindy Hargrove, of the Bar-B-Que Shack, catered the meal. The club provided desserts.
St. Elmo probably owes its revival to the picturesque schoolhouse.
Mona Bolinger lives near St. Elmo and she passes the schoolhouse almost every day on her way to and from town. As the building began to show more and more signs of decay, she worried about what would be lost if the community let it degrade too far. Someone should do something, she told her husband. He responded, OK, why not you?
Bolinger started sounding the alarm among friends and relatives who had a connection to the South Christian community. They asked for help, and three farmers in the area paid to have a new roof installed at the school.
Meanwhile, the homemakers club grew and they made plans to revive the barbecue. Many of the members grew up attending the barbecue in the days when it was a must-show event for politicians.
Following tradition, they scheduled the 2022 barbecue for the second Thursday in July.
A silent auction was added to the event — and the family of a St. Elmo stalwart, the late Rosemary Pace, helped by donating some of her old furnishings and framed art prints.
Built after the Civil War for grades one through eight, St. Elmo School was enlarged to three rooms around 1916 to add space for high school students. The school closed in 1949.
Dean Norfleet, who grew up in that area and attended St. Elmo, told me that the school system sold the property to three men in the community, including George Turner and R.E. Pace Sr. They in turn transferred to the deed to the homemakers club for $1, she said.
Wilbur, like Norfleet, was among the last students who attended St. Elmo.
The school had no plumbing or electricity, Wilbur said when I called her last week. One of her dearest memories of St. Elmo was the trek back and forth from her family’s farm a few miles away on Millers Mill Road. When the weather was nice, her father let her ride a pony to school.
“What 11-year-old would ever be allowed to ride a pony to school anymore?” she said.
Indeed. (I wish I could have experienced that.)
Bolinger said the club will keep raising money to fully restore the schoolhouse. Much of the interior needs work, including flooring that has rotted out. Some of the windows will need to be replaced.
A very rough estimate of the restoration cost is $100,000, she said.
“We felt if we were going to restore this building, we needed to make sure it went into the next generation at least,” Bolinger said.
When the building is restored, it can again serve as a community center. The club is interested in renting it out for events like parties and bridal showers.
“So many times, people bulldoze things down. I think it’s important we save these places,” Bolinger said.
In addition to saving the historic building, renewed interest in the club has stoked connections among neighbors, she said.
“It’s creating a camaraderie.”
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
