walkLEX – Page 8 – The Kaintuckeean

walkLEX: Bodley-Bullock House Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts

Bodley-Bullock House – Lexington, Ky.

Built for Mayor Pindell, the house at 200 North Market Street was sold yet inhabited to Col. Thomas Bodley. Bodley came to Lexington a hero of the War of 1812, was clerk of the court when he admitted Henry Clay to the practice of law, and greeted Gen. LaFayette on the Marquis’ 1825 arrival to Lexington, but Bodley would lose this three-story Federal style townhouse to his mortgagee, the Bank of the United States, during the financial Panic of 1819.

The Federal townhouse took a Greek Revival appearance later in the 19th century as other owners added a Doric entrance porch and two-story portico to the northern side of the house which faces the garden.

During the Civil War, the house was occupied at different times by both Union and Confederate troops.

In 1912, the house was purchased for $11,000 by Dr.Waller O. Bullock and his wife, Minnie. Dr. Bullock was the co-founder of the Lexington Clinic which remains one of Lexington’s top healthcare providers, but it is “Miss Minnie” whose story continues to be a part of the home’s history. (She also played a great role in Lexington’s civic and cultural history.)

Miss Minnie passed in 1970 leaving the home in trust to Transylvania University and the property has been maintained since by the Junior League of Lexington. But Miss Minnie remains in the house.

The house, frequently rented for weddings and other events, has a magnificent staircase used for bridal photographs. A few negatives have appeared with the bride … and another woman and child. The child often would come over from the park and talk to Miss Minnie, and it appears she still does.

At another wedding, the guests lingered a bit too long for Miss Minnie’s tastes and so the lights in the foyer turned on and off. As the story goes, the chandelier did not just dim but fully turned on and off… four times. Yes, Miss Minnie continues to show her preferences even after death.

But her greatest preference was her lifestyle as a teetotaler. She allowed no alcohol in the house during her life, and she prohibited it in her will after her death. So how is it that the venue is among Lexington’s most popular for weddings? The trustees overseeing the house changed her will to allow for visitors to consume alcohol. The decision was made in a boardroom on the second floor of the house. The morning after the decision was made, a large crack was found in the glass covering the boardroom table with no evidence of any cause. Yes, Miss Minnie was not pleased.

Certainly, wedding guests have been pleased with the changed. And so too is King Solomon, the town drunk who was the hero of the 1833 cholera plague. A painting of his likeness, purchased by Dr. Bullock, still hangs in the home’s gallery.

Miss Minnie never liked the painting, either.

more pictures of the Bodley-Bullock House on flickr

Sources: BizLex; Dunn’s Old Houses of Lexington; NRHP (Gratz Park); Southern Spirit Guide; Stories from the Haunted South; VisitLex

walkLEX: Northside is a Tale of Two Cities


Ross Avenue – Lexington, Ky.		Hampton Court – Lexington, Ky.

Upon my first study of Northside, I learned that the expansive neighborhood is a tale of two cities. Large and opulent homes occupied the high ground while smaller, inexpensive homes filled in the lower elevations between. I wrote:

It has been noted that both the black urban clusters and the predominately white suburbs were both developed off of the major roadways, yet the former occupied the valleys between the more-elevated suburb.

And I noticed this division on a recent walk. Consider Hampton Court and Ross Avenue. These two parallel streets between Third and Fourth Streets appear as a Dickensian Tale of Two Cities.

Hampton Court, a hundred-year-old urban cul-de-sac surrounded by stone walls and arched entries. Built on the site of the old orphan asylum, the beautiful homes and luxury apartments of Hampton Court enjoy a central park-like area in the heart of downtown.

Contrast this with Ross Avenue which was built around the same time as Hampton Court. On its east side are the rear entrances to the Hampton Court homes which today means tall privacy fences and the occasional driveway. On the west are, as pictured, nearly identical one story T-plan houses. When built, this street would have been home to lower-middle-class professionals but today those residents have moved on to suburbia.

In the 1980s, Hampton Court residents, citing an increase in burglaries and vandalism, first padlocked and then welded shut an iron gate (pictured) that opened their court to pedestrians from Fourth Street. These two streets grew further apart.

But despite their differences, these two streets and their residents have lived and continue to live in facultative symbiosis. These two streets operate as a lesson and reminder of urban planning. A lesson which slaps an even more segregated suburbia in the face. A lesson that shows design excellence by providing affordable housing in a the urban setting with quality of construction. Quality exists on both Hampton and Court; if it did not these homes would not have survived one hundred years.

more photos of Northside on flickr

walkLEX: A Transylvanian Tomb and the Legends of Constantine Rafinesque

Rafinesque Tomb at Transylvania University - Lexington, Ky.

The Tomb of Constantine Rafinesque – Lexington, Ky.

No, it is not Dracula. Although Bram Stoker may be impressed with the story of the man entombed under Transylvania University’s Old Morrison.

Born in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey) in 1783, Constantine Rafinesque immigrated to the United States in 1802. Here, he met a number of young botanists and began to collect his specimens. In 1804, while travelling in the Virginia-Maryland area he met President Jefferson. It was suggested, but never realized, that Rafinesque should join Lewis and Clark on their famed expedition. Whether he was rejected or declined an offer, Rafinesque returned to Europe with his specimens and settled in Palermo, Sicily.

In 1815, he returned to the United States and continued to work diligently in the fields of biology and zoology. He came to the Athens of the West (Lexington) and its famed institution (Transylvania) as a professor of botany in 1819. Throughout his career, Rafinesque published the binomial names of over 6,700 species of flora and fauna, but he was never recognized during his life for his work. Perhaps it was because he was a little too eccentric for anyone’s taste.

On one occasion, Rafinesque stayed at the home of French-American ornithologist (bird guy) J. J. Audubon famed for his detailed color illustrations of birds in North America. In his room was Audubon’s prized violin and a live bat which Rafinesque did not recognize, so Raf swung and destroyed the violin in an attempt to seize the bat for his specimen collection. To thank him for destroying the violin, Audubon later gave his guest a beautiful color illustration of a gigantic fish which swims in the Ohio River. Rafinesque wrote and published a paper on this eight-foot-plus beast only to thereafter discover Aubudon’s joke. Needless to say, the two were not close.

As a professor, Rafinesque was more likely to skip class than were his pupils. He used the time to take nature walks. It is believed, but not confirmed, that Rafinesque also was quite friendly (perhaps a little too friendly) with the wife of college president Horace Holley. Further, Rafinesque (a Unitarian in faith) did not endear himself to the more conservative faiths and faithful of Kentucky.

So, whatever the reason in particular, Rafinesque was forced out of Transylvania in 1826. Upon his departure, however, he left a curse on both president Holley and Transylvania itself: “Damn thee and thy school as I place curses on you.” (or something to that effect).

As with curses, they always come true. The following year, Holley was himself forced out from the college whereupon he and his wife set out to teach in Louisiana. But he caught yellow fever and died. Transylvania’s main building (then within what is today Gratz Park) burned within two years of the curse. And Old Morrison itself suffered from extensive fire damage in 1969.

Rafinesque returned to Philadelphia after being relieved of his professorship and continued his work until his death from cancer in 1840. Without a church home, Rafinesque was buried in Ronaldson’s Cemetery at 9th and Bainbridge in Philadelphia. Ronaldson created his cemetery for travelers and others in Philadelphia who could not, without membership, be buried in a local church cemetery, but who would not be relegated to the public pauper’s field. Even so, up to six bodies would share the same space at Robertson’s and over time, the area became part of Philly’s slums (today it is quite regentrified).

But when Robertson’s Cemetery was to be destroyed in the 1920s, a group of Transylvanians came to recover the body of the old professor with the hope that the curse would end. And so his body was removed from its grave, brought to the campus of Transylvania University, and re-interred in a small crypt under the steps of Old Morrison.

At least, we think it was Rafinesque.

additional photos on flickr

walkLEX: The Kissing Tree @Transy

The Kissing Tree (Transylvania University) – Lexington, Ky.

Near the Haupt Humanities Building on the campus of Transylvania University stands a white ash tree believed to be about 265 years old making it forty years older than the college and almost fifty years older than our Commonwealth. Its moniker – “The Kissing Tree” – also dates to years ago when social mores and taboos were quite different.

Earlier generations frowned at public displays of affection and college administrators forbade it. But an unofficial policy permitted students to steal a sweetheart’s kiss when under the boughs of the Kissing Tree. And in keeping with these traditional rules of affection, the students’ kept their intimacy limited. The unofficial rule among students was that your turn was over when another couple came along. (Again, this was the Kissing Tree and not the ménage à trois tree.)

In 2003, the Chronicle for Higher Education named the spot one of the most romantic on college campuses. Today, the tree is ringed by a wooden bench popular more for meeting friends than for stealing kisses (not a necessity in the era of coed dorms). The tree also receives regular treatment to ward off the ~~sexually transmitted disease~~ insect (emerald ash borer) known for taking out all too many ash trees.

Sources: Transy Kissing Tree; Transy Romance

walkLEX: Remembering Smiley Pete

Smiley Pete Plaque – Lexington, Ky.

The dog’s grin resembled a human smile and so he was given the name “Smiley.” During the mid-twentieth century, downtown Lexington had a roving landmark. Smiley Pete.

Of course, his other nicknames gave a more perceptive look at what Smiley was really up to. Magnificent Mooch. Canine Con Man. Panhandling Pooch.

Yes, Smiley Pete new how to work it.

And he did. With a daily routine of hamburger and waffles for breakfast from Brandy’s Kitchen (Main & Limestone) followed by a bowl of draft beer from Turf Bar (122 North Limestone). A little bit later, chocolate was needed from the Short & Lime Liquor (figure it out). The Panhandling Pooch finally would eat a dog treat and water from Carter’s Supply (339 West Short) before retiring for popcorn at the movie theater operating at the Lexington Opera House. According to a 1950 Lexington Leader report, Smiley would also make the trek to U.K. where he would enter a classroom only to yawn at a professor’s lecture.

Local police turned a blind eye to Smiley Pete, even as other strays were regularly rounded up. Only in 1949, during a rabies scare, was Smiley “incarcerated” by his friends in quarantine at a veterinary clinic on Southland Drive.

At the age of 14 (that’s 98 in dog years), Smiley Pete died in June 1957 and he was buried by his human friends at 904 North Broadway under a marker which reads “Pete – Our Dog – A Friend to All and A Friend of All.” Another plaque was placed closer to the dog’s old stomping grounds at Main & Lime in front of Welch’s Cigar Shop. The plaque was removed in 1990 but replaced close to its original location at the courthouse plaza.

Smiley Pete is also remembered annually by an award given by the LFUCG to those who make “people feel good about being downtown.” Live on, Smiley!

Sources: BizLex; local.lexpublib.org; LuAnn Farrar (H-L)

walkLEX: Thomas Hunt Morgan House

Thomas Hunt Morgan House (and Appendages) - Lexington, Ky.

Thomas Hunt Morgan House – Lexington, Ky.

Today, we all know that sex is determined by XX or XY chromosomes. But did you know that the man who discovered this scientific truth was born and raised in Lexington? Thomas Hunt Morgan, the “Father of Modern Genetics,” was born in 1866 at Hopemont but was raised in his parent’s home on the other side of the block. Through his father’s lineage, Thomas was related to the best families in central Kentucky. A great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Francis Scott Key, penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

While living in this two-story Victorian, a young Thomas began to show his interest in biology and naturalism as he gathered birds, birds’ eggs and fossils. By the age of 16, he was enrolled at the State College, later the U. of Kentucky, from which he would graduate as the valedictorian in 1886. The Lexington Transcript reported on April 8, 1886 that “Thomas Hunt Morgan, son of Capt. Charleton H. Morgan, was awarded valedictory of class at State College.” It would not be long before Thomas Hunt Morgan would escape the long shadow of his father – a Confederate veteran – and bring another chapter to the Hunt-Morgan family.

Armed with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins College in Baltimore, Dr. Morgan entered academia and, after 13 years in Pennsylvania, began teaching at New York’s Columbia University. There he created his infamous “fly room” (popularizing the use of the inexpensive and fast breeding species) where he studied heredity at a chromosomal level.

In 1933, Dr. Morgan became the first Kentuckian to receive the Nobel Prize when he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “his discoveries concerning the role played by chromosomes in heredity.”

After twenty-four years at Columbia, Morgan headed west for Caltech in Pasadena.

In 1925, Dr. Morgan’s mother passed away at the family home on North Broadway. In time, it would become the home to the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky – an influential organization begun in 1894 and credited with many of Lexington’s social reforms around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1964, the Woman’s Club purchased the old Seventh Day Adventist church building and opened its auditorium in the old sanctuary in 1972.

Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan passed away in 1945 in Pasadena. His alma mater, the University of Kentucky, named the biological sciences building after him in 1966.

photos on flickr

Sources: local.lexpublib.org; Nature.com; Nobel Prize bio; Women’s Club of Central Ky.

walkLEX: Northside Neighborhood Association Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary

263 North Broadway – Lexington, Ky.

Last week on one of my walking lunches, I couldn’t help but notice a few brightly colored flags in front of several houses in the area around Third Street just west of Broadway. It was not until Friday that I discovered that the flags marked sites on the Northside Neighborhood Association walking tour in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the association. Of course, the neighborhood and its homes have existed for a much longer period.

When Lexington was originally platted, the area was divided into five acre lots. But by the 1810s, Lexington was beginning to grow northward toward what is now Transylvania University. In 1830, Transylvania University relocated its campus across Third Street to its present location and Lexington continued to grow in her direction. The Northside Neighborhood is expansive – reaching from Newtown Pike to Limestone and from Church Street to north of Seventh. Because of its geographic diversity, Northside also includes a broad variety of socioeconomic classes, architectural styles and historical communities within its bounds.

Prior to the Civil War, African American enclaves grew along College, Henry, and Miller Streets, but blacks (both freed and slave) generally lived dispersed among their white neighbors. After the War, African American urban clusters such as Brucetown, Goodloetown and Taylortown arose as Lexington became more segregated. A black Catholic parish, St. Peter Claver, opened in 1887 to serve these communities and remains a vibrant parish today at Fourth and Jefferson.

In the 1880s and 1890s, many of the old large five acre tracts were opened up to speculation, construction, and a growing population. In turn-of-the-century Fayette and Elsmere Parks, lumber companies built quality homes with architectural detail but without the without a commissioned architect. These were truly some of Lexington’s first “suburbs.”

It has been noted that both the black urban clusters and the predominately white suburbs were both developed off of the major roadways, yet the former occupied the valleys between the more-elevated suburb.

Interspersed among the homes were various commercial enterprises, be it groceries, restaurants, tailors or saloons and many of the old storefronts remain. And infill continued so that the Neighborhood contains examples not only of Federal and Victorian architecture, but also contains homes in the bungalow and arts and crafts style. Today, Miller Street is being redeveloped with townhouses and some quasi-modern architecture. I never have really considered the size and scope of Northside because it contains so much; I have hardly scratched the surface. I guess I know where I’ll be walking…

Sources: National Register (Listing and Expansion); Hat/Tip: Herald-Leader.

walkLEX: Clyde Carpenter’s Carriage House

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour to a local historic site that has been well-preserved and restored – the group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Details are always available on the Kaintuckeean Calendar and on Facebook! In September 2011, the deTour group visited three carriage houses; this is the second installment with the first having been the Hunt-Morgan House Carriage House and the second the Maria Dudley Carriage House. More pictures from this deTour are available on flickr.

Clyde Carpenter Carriage House – Lexington, Ky.

Every time I pass down Lexington’s New Street, a one block path between North Mill and North Broadway, I am taken away to the narrow, history-filled streets of Boston, Mass. The narrow street, nestled between a busy road and beautiful Gratz Park, has a variety of architectural styles — all relatively traditional — that are perfectly scaled to the street’s width. Adaptive reuse and infill are the common themes on this one-block stretch.

But the greatest example of adaptive reuse here, and arguably one of the best examples of adaptive reuse in the city, is the carriage house-turned-residence at 340 New Street. When architect Clyde Carpenter first envisioned turning the carriage house into a home in 1966, he entered through the main door to find an actively used garage. In his living room, a vehicle sat. In the loft, there remained hay and grain.

But a great mind can envision great things. And Clyde Carpenter did. Of course, other hurdles remained beyond his control. Financing was a tricky thing to obtain, particularly given that the area around nearby North Broadway was not considered ‘prime’ for a single family dwelling. ‘Adaptive reuse’ was also not in its ‘prime,’ but despite these odds Mr. Carpenter succeeded in securing financing to turn a dilapidated carriage house into a beautiful residence.

Inside, part of the second floor was removed to expose the first floor to the building’s height and to showcase the preserved beams from the original structure. The second floor could be opened up in this way because it is suspended from those same ceiling beams.

Rather than constructing a privacy fence around the garden, Carpenter constructed a narrow (10ft wide) addition on the southwest corner of the home in which he has placed the master bedroom and bath and a sitting area. Due to the dimensions of this addition, the bed and bath are obviously quite a tight fit and, despite the scale of the overall house, recall the now-popular small house movement.

Between kitchen and dining room, an original horse stall gate connects the house to its origins. For his remarkable work, Carpenter and his carriage house have been recognized by many organizations and the Blue Grass Trust’s annual adaptive reuse award is named in Carpenter’s honor.

And if you didn’t click the link above, check out all of the pictures of the Clyde Carpenter Carriage House on flickr.

walkLEX: Maria Dudley Carriage House

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour to a local historic site that has been well-preserved and restored – the group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Details are always available on the Kaintuckeean Calendar and on Facebook! In September 2011, the deTour group visited three carriage houses; this is the second installment with the first having been the Hunt-Morgan House Carriage House. More pictures from this deTour are available on flickr.

Maria Dudley Carriage House – Lexington, Ky.

Built contemporaneously with the Maria Dudley House in 1879, the carriage house at 215 North Mill Street has been and continues to be beautifully converted into a usable garage and cottage. A stable stall door in the rear of the garage hearkens back to the structure’s prior use, though the carriage house now ably stores vehicles and its upper floor is being remodeled into a very usable living space or possibly an apartment.

The first floor has ample parking room, a wonderful gardener’s prep area, a storage area and a powder room, while the upstairs remains a wholly unfinished 1,044 square feet. Architecturally, however, the carriage house could not be more different than the Victorian Eclectic main house with its octagonal tower that uniquely stands among the beautiful houses in Gratz Park.

walkLEX: Hunt-Morgan Carriage House

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour to a local historic site that has been well-preserved and restored – the group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Details are always available on the Kaintuckeean Calendar and on Facebook! In September 2011, the deTour group visited three carriage houses; this is the first installment. More pictures from this deTour are available on flickr.

Carriage House behind the Hunt-Morgan House – Lexington, Ky.

Behind the stately Hopemont on North Mill Street is the home’s carriage house. A carriage house, like the carriage, is a relic of centuries past. Today’s automobile and garage were preceded by horse-drawn carriages and these carriages (and their noble steeds) required protection from the elements. And unlike today’s two-car garages, a carriage house was never attached to the residence it served (even without carbon monoxide issues!).

Hopemont, built in 1814, preceded the above carriage house by some twenty years. It is quite unlikely that John Wesley Hunt – believed to be Kentucky’s first millionaire – would have built Hopemont without an accompanying carriage house. On this notion alone, one must conclude that the pictured carriage house was the home’s second. Although much of the interior structure is original, the carriage house was slightly modified at the turn of the twentieth century, i.e. circa 1900.

It is said that John Wesley Hunt’s nephew, John Hunt Morgan – the famed “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy,” stalled his famous Black Bess in the carriage house. And although the legend has been told in different ways, one version is as follows: General Morgan saddled Black Bess in the carriage house before riding through the rear of the Hunt-Morgan House only to stop and kiss his mother on the cheek before galloping out the front door.

Of course, Black Bess has been immortalized herself in another way when artist Pompeo Coppini sculpted a masculine mare upon which General Morgan would forever bestride in front of the old courthouse in Lexington. Yes, this famous mare is likely the most infamous ‘tenant’ of the Hunt-Morgan House carriage house.

Bibliography
Alvey, R. Gerald. Kentucky Bluegrass County (p.64-65)
Federal Writers Project, Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State (p. 204)