City hires Tompkinsville native to serve as new preservation coordinator

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2015, 10 p.m. — The City of Bardstown has hired Lauren RaShae Jennings as the city’s new preservation coordinator.

Jennings takes over the coordinator’s job from Hope Hawkins, who accepted a position as a archeologist coordinator with the state’s Division of Mine Permits.

LAUREN RASHAE JENNINGS

As preservation coordinator, Jennings serves as the primary staff for the Historic Review Board. She was also administer the state’s Certified Local Government grant program in for the city, and serve as administrator for the city’s sign ordinance.

Jennings graduated Cum Laude in 2008 from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green with a bachelors of arts in sociology and psychology, and in 2011, a master of arts in folk studies, historic preservation track also at WKU.

Jennings most recently served as collections curator of the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, and brings extensive experience in preservation and history to Bardstown.

Jennings was raised in Tompkinsville where she developed an early interest in “items from the past” while working on the family farm. It was there that she developed a passion for items that were recovered originating from several Native American tribes in the Monroe County area.

She began her career working at The Shaker Museum of South Union. Her work also included working with a team to help restore an 1850s historical home owned by WKU.

At WKU’s Kentucky Museum and Library, she enhanced her skills, learning various cataloging and conservation process from Sandy Staebell, assistant professor and registrar/collections curator. She gained knowledge of museum procedures by working with Jonathan Jeffrey Professor, Manuscripts/Folklife Archives Coordinator at Western Kentucky University.

She continues to expand her love for the conservation of “old items from the past” by spending her free time documenting and preserving a civil war era cemetery on her family farm.

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