Unlike in New England, masons in the Bluegrass region had to quarry their limestone, or haul limestone flags out of creek beds. It was quite a bit of work, I'm sure.
Photographs from the mid-1800s show a serene, beautiful landscape....farmhouses, Presbyterian Churches, and fences all built out of local limestone, a vernacular architecture that framed the lovely Bluegrass farmland. Plenty of this lingered well into the 1970s. Now, sadly, much of that visual paradise is being converted to generic subdivisions and shopping centers.
I've seen some pictures of Kentucky with those stone walls, and you are correct, it is a loss to the region. Generic subdivisions and shopping centers seem to be a virus. I hate 'em--nothing worse than going to visit a city you've never been to, and seeing the same boring, bland architecture everyplace. I like seeing the uniqueness of an area.
Just this past weekend I took a little drive out of the suburban sprawl here in California, out to a little town called San Juan Bautista. It had an old Spanish mission along with a typical western main street (circa 1800s, like Western movies), and it was great to see something unique to the region without a Starbucks on the corner and a faux-Mission McDonalds across the street.