Historic Shake Rag items donated to WKU Special Collections Library

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The City of Bowling Green has recently turned over around 800 items to Western Kentucky University’s Special Collections Library to preserve the history of the historic Shake Rag district.

The Southern Queen hotel in downtown Bowling Green’s Shake Rag district was a task that the city wanted to address, hoping to save the historic building and give it new purpose. Back in the summer of 2022, the city inspected the property and added supports to keep it from falling in while looking for a way to revitalize the property. During the process, the city recovered hundreds of items from the basement that now have a home at WKU.

News 40 spoke to the department chair at the library on Thursday, who said they’re soon going to start restoring items and hopefully have some ready for public viewing in the fall. The entire staff is excited about the project and looking forward to preserving local history that has been missing in action for decades.

Adam Adler, who oversees collections on campus, said there are a lot of photos, and something he is looking forward to is getting the community involved to identify people that aren’t named when the time comes around.