State-Journal.com - Crestwood: One big happy family

Photo By Photo submittedChildren walk in a field on the site of the first home of Crestwood Baptist Church. The church bears the same name of one of Frankfort’s oldest subdivisions developed from the Pickett family farm in the late 1940s.

If you’re sick in Crestwood, expect greeting cards from your neighbors. They have keys to each other’s homes. And they look out for each other.

“To me, it’s the best neighborhood in Frankfort,” Virginia Boone says. “We watch out for each other, and we just don’t have any problems.”

Boone has lived there more than 50 years. She and her late husband, Doug, moved there from Fleming County.

“It’s one of the oldest neighborhoods in town,” she said. “I like the people. We’re like a family in Crestwood.”

Crestwood - on Frankfort’s east side - was originally part of the Pickett family farm. Development began in the 1940s, according to records from the Crestwood Neighborhood Association.

Growing up in Crestwood
Eugene Pelosi – who lives on Chestnut Avenue with his wife, Terri – moved to Crestwood at age 6 into a house his father built in 1955.

His dad was one of the first builders.

“Crestwood was a neat subdivision to grow up in,” he said. “It was kind of its own universe.”

He remembers playing baseball on a field at the Pickett’s farm and a barn on Holly Street where children constructed forts inside. In the middle of the subdivision was a rock wall that served as a gathering spot.

At that time there were railroad tracks leading to an old pond for children to swim and a limestone cave off the Thorn Hill Bypass where the children would play, Eugene Pelosi said.

Quite charming
There are many types of architecture in Crestwood - tudor-style, Cape Cod cottages, split-level and ranch.

Stephen Kent - co-chair of CNA with firefighter Steve Clark - said the houses offer uniqueness uncommon in new developments.

That’s what drew him and his wife, Michelle, in 1995.

“Houses have much more character,” he said. “It’s got a certain amount of charm to it.”

Terri Pelosi married Eugene in 1984 and raised two sons - John and Bobb - in Crestwood. She said many fall under the spell of the beauty of the neighborhood whose streets are named after trees.

“The trees are such a draw to the neighborhood,” she said.

Eugene Pelosi said Crestwood is close to schools - like Elkhorn Elementary, Middle and Franklin County High School.
“There’s always something going on,” he said.

Terri Pelosi said a lot of people walk around the neighborhood.

“You see a lot of people out, it’s very active,” she said.

Banding together
There have been drainage issues and development battles with City Hall, which sparked the formation of the neighborhood association in the late 1980s, Terri Pelosi said. Boone’s husband, Doug, was one of the first chairmen.

One of the bigger disputes came when developers wanted to turn an empty lot into a complex for businesses and apartments.
The residents were against it numerous times.

“We felt changing that would not be consistent with the character of the neighborhood,” he said. “We just organized ourselves very well.”

Linda Thomas, chairwoman of CNA from 1999-2000 who has lived in Crestwood for 32 years said dozens of residents went to city meetings when proposals to disrupt the neighborhood arose.

“We had buses of people,” she said.

Keeping up traditions
After successfully blocking development, CNA now focuses on keeping the family atmosphere.

The group meets quarterly and organizes a community picnic, yard sale and community Christmas tree.

The Neighborhood Watch activates when there are break-ins or other criminal activity in the area, and Kent said the police department is helpful in stepping up patrols when necessary.

Kent said former mayor, Bill May, was helpful, and the residents donate to May’s Coats for Kids drive each year to show their appreciation.

Thomas said the residents’ caring is unending.

“It’s a lot of different people who care about each other and their property,” she said.

Eugene Pelosi said the majority of residents take pride in their property. There are around 270 homes in Crestwood now, with little room for more.

The Pelosis said the best way to get a home in Crestwood is to have a relative pass one down. Otherwise they’re hard to come by.

“This is always a sought after neighborhood,” she said.

Boone agreed.

“We don’t have too much moving in and out of Crestwood,” she said. “When people get here they like it and they stay. I plan to live here until they carry me out”

The following trivia appear in the Crestwood Neighborhood Association’s 1994 cookbook, which featured recipes submitted by residents.
>An old barn from the Pickett farm stood in the area until the 1960s.
>Ella Harrod had red plum trees on Laurel Street from which she picked untold gallons of luscious, ripe fruit. She enjoyed sharing them in five-gallon buckets with friends and neighbors and making plum jelly.
>Many passersby ask Crestwood residents about the embankment at the north end of the first block of Birchwood. This is a remnant of the first railroad in Kentucky, in fact the first one west of the Allegheny Mountains. It stretches about 1,000 feet.
>The old F&C (Frankfort and Cincinnati) Railroad bed is at the back boundary of the subdivision. It ran regular trains until its demise in the late 1980s.
>The State Journal once had friendly competition from another newspaper, The Franklin County News, published by former Crestwood Drive resident Vernon Rooks. It lasted only a short time in the 1950s, but was well done.

This is the third in a series for The State Journal featuring neighborhoods in Franklin County. For June, The State Journal is looking for stories about residents and the history of the Elkhorn/Lafoon area. To submit ideas or recommend someone for interview contact Sara Gividen at sgividen@state-journal.com or call 227-4556.