The New Year in 1923 was still fresh when newspapers across the world began sharing stories and images of the treasures “recovered” from the tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt. The mysteries and wonders of the boy pharaoh’s tomb, discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, filled newspapers, motion picture news-reels, magazines, and the imagination of people all across America – including one man in a small river town in Kentucky.
An exotic sight that is a treat to behold!
The masonry structure (concrete block and brick, most likely) is painted blue and was built in the 1920s by Elmer Browning, a mason, contractor, and part-time developer. The square, two-story building could have been an American Foursquare type dwelling, were it not for the elements appended to the facade. On one end of the front porch is a battered brick pier that desperately wants to be an obelisk, while on the other end of the porch rises a heavily stylized approximation of a lotus column. Both obelisks and lotiform columns were common design elements in Egyptian architecture.
Detail of the obelisk on the facade.
Between these two porch supports is the main entry door, which has a battered surround that calls to mind…a pyramid, perhaps?
Detail of entry door.
Rusticated quoins accent the corners of the house, while the cornice is detailed with a band of stone blocks. Time and subsequent layers of paint have muddied some of the crispness of the details on the facade, which are more clear on the 1984 photograph below.
Circa 1984, from the National Register of Historic Places files. Photograph by Lori A. Feldman.
I am hypothesizing that Browning was captivated by the tales of Carter’s discovery. It wasn’t because the Egyptian Revival style was new – the 1920s witnessed just the latest version of the craze. Napoleon’s late-18th century Egyptian campaign enthralled artists and scientists, and the subsequent publication of the Le Description de l’ Égypte further fanned the flames of all things related to Egypt.*
America’s first professional architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe – who designed the Pope Villa in Lexington, Kentucky – used the Egyptian Revival style as inspiration for his original design for the Library of Congress (just a room, not a free-standing building).
Circa 1808 plan by B.H. Latrobe for the Library of Congress – never built. This would have been the first Egyptian Revival style room in America.
The translation of the Rosetta Stone (1822) further sparked the desire for all things Egyptian, and a later wave followed after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. But the early 20th century iteration of the Egyptian Revival reverberated with the public because of King Tut.
An account of King Tut’s tomb that appeared in the January 20, 1923 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Not only is the house that Browning built unusual – but the very site bore a lineage of thrills and entertainment. The Lagoon Amusement Park – 85 acres with a midway, park-like grounds, a beach, and a miniature railway (other many other enticing offerings) was the recreational center for the Greater Cincinnati area between 1895 and 1919. Accessed by streetcars, the Lagoon was wildly popular – until natural disasters and World War I led to its limping closure.
Postcard image of the entrance to the Ludlow Lagoon. Image courtesy of the Cincinnati postcard collection via the Greater Cincinnati Memory Project of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
So a parcel with links the Ludlow Lagoon and the 1920s “trending” topic of ancient Egyptian tombs becomes home to an Egyptian Revival inspired dwelling. Fantastic and true! Browning carried the more general public interest in “exotic Egypt” further than most, as the Egyptian revival style is not something one encounters on daily basis, unlike the Tudor Revival style houses and the bungalows that line streets in every town in Kentucky. I’ve never seen another one in the Bluegrass state, and the architecture I have encountered elsewhere tends to belong to public buildings or masonic halls.
The circa 1922 Scottish Rite Temple in Mobile, Alabama. Photo from July 2016.
I wish I knew more about Browning, for I imagine he was an interesting character – the house that survives him is certainly an interesting piece of architecture. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and has been captured by many on Instagram, but I’ve not yet found much about the man behind its creation.
*The Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt) was a series of publications, the first in 1809 and the last volume in 1829, which sought to comprehensively catalog all known aspects of ancient and modern Egypt as well as its natural history. Around 160 civilian scholars and scientists (civilian, even though they were part of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign) contributed to this ground-breaking publication.
