Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate

Infobox_nrhp | name =Ashland
nrhp_type = nhl


caption = A view of the front of the house
location= 120 Sycamore Road Lexington, Kentucky
locmapin = Kentucky
area =
built =1811
architect= Latrobe,Benjamin H.; Lewinski,Thomas
architecture= Italianate
added = October 15, 1966
governing_body = Private
refnum=66000357cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Ashland is the name of the estate of the nineteenth-century Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, located in Lexington, Kentucky in the Bluegrass region of central Kentucky. It is a registered National Historic Landmark.

History of the Estate

Henry Clay came to Lexington, Kentucky from Virginia in 1797. He began buying land for his estate in 1804.¹ The Ashland farm--which during Clay's lifetime was outside of the city limits--at its largest consisted of over 600 acres (2.4 km²). It is unclear whether Clay named the estate or retained a prior name, but he was referring to his estate as "Ashland" by 1809.² The name derives from the ash forest that stood at the site. Clay and his family resided at Ashland from c. 1806 until his death in 1852 (his widow, Lucretia, moved out in 1854).

Clay had divided the Ashland estate between three sons. After Clay's death, son James Brown Clay owned and occupied Ashland proper and a surrounding approximately convert|325|acre|km2|sing=on tract. James rebuilt the house and his family resided there until his death in 1864. His widow, Susan Jacob Clay, put the estate up for sale in 1866.

Kentucky University purchased Ashland and utilized it as part of its campus. University founder and regent John Bryan Bowman occupied the mansion. The Agricultural and Mechanical College (Kentucky A & M) was situated on Clay's former farm. Kentucky University eventually split into what eventually became Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky and sold Ashland in 1882.

Henry Clay's granddaughter, Anne Clay McDowell, and her husband, Henry Clay McDowell, purchased the estate (consisting of approximately convert|325|acre|km2 and outbuildings) and moved in with their children in 1883. Their eldest daughter, Nannette McDowell Bullock, occupied Ashland until her death in 1948 and is founder of the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation which purchased and preserved Ashland. The historic house museum opened to the public in 1950.

The Mansion

Henry Clay began building his Federal style house c. 1806 (see Federal Architecture). He added two wings between 1811-1814, designed for him by Benjamin Latrobe. Inferior building materials, particularly a porous type of brick which resulted in water damage, as well as probable earthquake damage from the New Madrid earthquake and aftershocks of 1811-12, resulted in an unstable structure. Clay's many repairs could never completely stabilize the house.

Seeing no viable alternative, Clay's son James B. Clay, opted to rebuild the house with the goals of living there with his family and paying fitting tribute to his father. James had the house razed by the end of 1854 and rebuilding was completed by 1857. Local architect Thomas Lewinski designed the new structure which utilized features of the original house: the footprint and foundation, floorplan, and massing. But Lewinski aided James in updating the house stylistically. With many Italianate features, the resulting mansion is a mix of Federal architecture and Italianate details. Inside, James employed Greek Revival features and decorated the home lavishly (see:Victorian decorative arts with many imported furnishings purchased in New York City.

During the Kentucky University period, Regent John Bowman utilized part of the mansion to house and display the University Natural History Museum.

When granddaughter Anne Clay McDowell came to Ashland in 1883, she and her husband remodeled and modernized the house, updating it with gas lighting (later, electricity), indoor plumbing, and telephone service.

The Farm

The cash crop grown on the farm was hemp. Merino sheep and six other species of European livestock were imported and bred on the farm. Clay kept a record book of his breeding operation, which is now displayed at Ashland.

Resources and References

¹ Clay's first purchase was a convert|125|acre|km2|sing=on tract. Contract at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate.² Clay put a notice in a local paper asking for the return of a lost horse and listed his home as Ashland.

*Archives of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, KY
*Brooks, Eric. "Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate." Images of America Series. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007
*Remini, Robert V. "Henry Clay: Stateman For The Union." New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.
*Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Clay Family Papers.
*University of Kentucky Special Collections.
*Transylvania University Special Collections.
*"The Papers of Henry Clay". James F. Hopkins, editor; Mary W.M. Hargreaves, associate editor. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1959-1992. ISBN 0813100569 (v. 6)
*Fazio, Michael W. and Patrick A. Snadon. The "Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe". Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. ISBN 0801881048
*Hopkins, James F. "A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky". Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1998. ISBN 0813109302

References

External links

* [http://www.henryclay.org/index.htm www.henryclay.org]
*http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/lexington/ahc.htm