Audubon Farm, Scott County, Kentucky

I’ve been living in the past lately (more so than usual) as I delve into the creation of the “super highway system” in Kentucky. This necessitates a great deal of browsing time in historic newspapers, where I am prone to distraction by an interesting story or photograph, a distraction that inevitably leads me down an unrelated rabbit hole. But no historian can ignore the entreaty of a rabbit hole of research – for who knows what might be found there? Take, for instance, an advertisement for the auction of a historic Scott County farm in 1947.

Auction for Audubon Farm ad, November 2, 1947, Sunday Herald-Leader.

It was only one column over from the article on legislative action that I was reading, so I couldn’t very well not notice it.  The next logical step was to determine if this “beautiful Colonial home surrounded by old forest trees” still stood.

Circa 1970 image of the facade of the main house at Audubon Farm. Photograph by Ann Bevins, KHC survey files.

It does still stand! While I’ve driven past the farm, I don’t have any photographs of it (there are more historic buildings in Kentucky that I haven’t seen than the ones I have been lucky enough to see, no matter what my husband might say), but luckily it has been surveyed and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

View of the stone ell, which is the original portion of the building. Circa 1973 image from the NRHP files.

The stone ell is the earliest portion of the house and was built for James Stephenson, an early settler in Scott County. A 1.5-story brick wing extends from one end of the stone section; this may been the second phase of construction and contained a kitchen.

The two-story, central passage brick section is the newest part of the house, and dates from the 1830s and the tenure of Charles B. Lewis. The facade displays characteristics common to Kentucky dwellings built in a transitional Federal/Greek Revival style. Take the two-story portico away, and you have a fairly restrained brick facade, laid in Flemish bond.

From a 1904 story about the farm in the Lexington Herald.

In 1904, the dwelling was described as a “stately, white-pillowed farm house.”* The current owner and operator of Audubon Farm at the time was Mr. Charles Ezra Marvin, grandson of James Stephenson. Marvin, a civil engineer by training, took over the farm in the late 19th century, and “cast about how to decide how the most money could be made upon a Blue Grass Farm.”

His reply warms this farm girl’s heart: “Angus cattle.”**

The springhouse at Audubon Farm, circa 1973. From the NRHP files.

Marvin took over a farm that was in a “badly run-down condition.” He proved to be a progressive farmer, interested in scientific advances (Marvin helped found the State Agricultural Experiment Station, better known today as the University of Kentucky )and labor-saving equipment.

I most enjoyed the description of the spring house (which also still stands). He built a three room spring house over the spring, one room where milk and butter were “cared for,” and one room to keep the crocks cool. The third room served as a laundry and where the lard was rendered.

From the August 8, 1943 edition of the Lexington Herald.

Audubon Farm remained in the same family until its 1947 sale.  The house was restored prior to being sold in 2022; you can view photographs of the farm and the house here. While I’ve not glimpsed more of the farm than the stone fences lining the perimeter, I enjoyed the excursion though its history via the magic of historic newspapers.

*”Audubon: The Home of the Polled Angus.” The Lexington Herald, April 3, 1904, pages 7 and 8.

**For all of the acclaim that Kentucky’s horse farms receive, a large portion of our population seem to forget that many more farms in Kentucky raise livestock and crops, not Thoroughbreds.

In a 1963 newspaper article (related to my real purpose for immersing myself in historic newspapers), an op-ed about the impact the interstate highway system would have on Lexington, Preston Madden (1934-2020), who lost 40 acres to the interstate construction, shared some thoughts on farms and farmers. Madden stated that his grandfather had bought the first piece of land that would become Hamburg in 1898 and that he felt that  “most farmers don’t know what real sentiment is. Many farmers buy acreage, farm it, sell it after several years, and get another place of land. Hamburg Place is a little different. Three generations of Maddens have grown up here. Five Kentucky Derby winners were foaled and raised here. It is unique and not replaceable.” (Sunday Herald-Leader, January 13, 1963, page D-6)

I can’t imagine how I would have felt had my family’s farm been split apart by an interstate highway, and it is a shame that that interstates 64 and 75 blazed through Central Kentucky prior to the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act.

That said, the sentiment expressed by Madden is amusing and ironic, especially given what Hamburg Place is today (a large shopping center).

From a personal perspective, my family had been on our farm for 72 years before John Madden bought his first land in Fayette County. We’re still here, farming the same land, today – I suppose we possess some sentiment as well.