Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway (Images of America)
Title: Club looks back at historyAuthor: Staff WriterPublisher: The EnquirerDate: 9/21/09Deborah Kohl Kremer treated the Florence Rotary Club to a Northern Kentucky history lesson via a presentation and photos from her newly published book, "Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway."The book is a pictorial history of the highway from when it was a dirt toll road up until recent times. The book, with 200 photos dating back to the late 1800s, is not just about a roadway, but the story of the towns, people, and places along the way from Covington to Florence.Kremer presented several of the photos from the book along with related stories about each. Her favorite photo, which belonged to her grandfather, serves as the cover of the book. Taken in 1893, it shows a 20-horse team pulling a monument up a hill from Covington to a cemetery in Fort Mitchell.Some of the photos are of buildings long gone but with extremely interesting histories, like the Cabana Bar and Restaurant with its bowling alley and alleged secret back room or the Roundup Club in Erlanger that featured a Western theme and was home to a live caged bear that made appearances in the parking lot back in the 1970s.Other photos are of buildings still standing, but with new names and new uses today. One is of the Dixie Tea Room, now the Greyhound Tavern, and another of the Retschulte Five Mile House, now known as Barleycorn's.A family photo tells the story of Joseph Kuchle, a German immigrant who changed his business as the times changed. Kuchle built wagons, was a blacksmith, sold gasoline, and eventually sold and serviced cars on the corner of Kyles Lane and Dixie.The book can be purchased at local Northern Kentucky bookstores. Kremer is available for signings and presentations. Contact her at 859-331-7849 or visit her Web site at www.deborahkohlkremer.com.Florence Rotary welcomes visitors to share lunch at the Hilton on Turfway most Mondays from noon to 1 p.m.For further information about Florence Rotary, contact John Salyers, president, at jsalyers7@insightbb.com or 859-653-9399 or visit the Web site at www.florencerotary.orgTitle: "Kentucky's Dixie Highway"Author: Matt KelleyPublisher: 89.7 WNKU-FM RadioDate: 6/2/09The mention of route 66 immediately brings to mind famous photos of the legendary road. Deborah Kohl-Kremer a lifetime resident of Villa Hills feels the same way about Kentucky's Dixie Highway, so much so that she wrote a book about it. She talked to WNKU's Matt Kelley about why people have such fond memories of a stretch of road.Listen Now: http://tiny.cc/WNKURadioYou can contact Deborah Kohl Kremer at http://deborahkohlkremer.com/Title: Book shows Dixie Highway historyAuthor: William CroylePublisher: Kentucky EnquirerDate: 5/31/09Deborah Kohl Kremer spent the last year on what she called a "treasure hunt" for old photos of Dixie Highway.By the look of her new book, she amassed a fortune.Kremer is the author of "Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway," part of the "Images of America" series by Arcadia Publishing. It will hit stores June 8.This is the first book for Kremer, a freelance writer and contributor to The Kentucky Enquirer.The book features 200 black-and-white photos of the roughly 15-mile stretch of the highway from Covington to Florence, with some dating to the 1800s.Kremer, who was raised in Villa Hills and has traveled the highway frequently, called everybody she knew who had any connection with the road."I was in living rooms, basements, garages," Kremer said. "I looked through thousands of pictures."She scanned the photos on site and wrote the captions for them after interviewing the owners of the photos."Everyone told me so many neat stories," Kremer said.The chapters of the book follow the road from Covington to Florence, with many of the photos requiring some imagination.For example, a 1904 photo shows a snow-covered stretch of the highway in Fort Mitchell with nothing but farmland on both sides. A few 1937 photos show the construction of the Southern Railroad underpass in Erlanger.There are also dramatic pictures of the Lookout House fire in Fort Wright 1973, and the congregation of Blessed Sacrament Church in Fort Mitchell laying the church's cornerstone in 1920."My husband found those Blessed Sacrament photos at an antique store last year," said Ruth Korzenborn, who contributed several photos to the book with her husband, Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn. "They were part of someone's personal family photo album - he knew how historical they were."Kremer said after she got the photos she needed, people were still calling her with many more to contribute. She said she may do a second volume on the same stretch of highway in the near future.