Thomas Barlow House, Scott County, Kentucky

In 1774, Thomas Hanson, a member of land surveying party out of Virginia, wrote of his surroundings, “the land is so good I cannot give it due praise.”* The area that captivated Hanson was around the North Elkhorn Creek watershed in Scott County, and on a shimmeringly hot afternoon last week, I couldn’t help but echo his words. Although Scott County has changed dramatically over my adult life, with development gobbling up farm land at an unprecedented pace, there are still discrete sections of the county where it is possible to almost forget the century in which one lives.

The Miller’s Run Rural Historic District encompasses a portion of the land that so enticed Hanson. Along with the rolling hills and the wide bottoms along the waterway, there are the historic houses that have survived into the 21st century. Well – survived and barely hanging on, in some cases.

The Thomas Barlow House, a two-story brick dwelling dating to 1813, can be seen from its hillside location long before arriving at the house itself. The impression the building must have made prior to its slow deterioration is worth imagining.

The Federal style dwelling is five bays wide on the facade, with a symmetrical ordering of windows and doors, and two interior brick chimneys. The rear elevation is slightly off-kilter in comparison (four bays wide), but that is typical for an elevation not intended for public view. (Though it does call into question which elevation was the original front of the house? Reorientation wasn’t uncommon when styles and forms changed.)

The interior apparently once had finely executed Federal woodwork, including a chair rail, and ash floors. The house rests on a full basement, and had a finished attic (which likely means it had plastered walls and ceiling and a heat source). In 1978, the owners were quoted as hoping to “restore the house sometime in the future.”

The future has come, and the Thomas Barlow House looks worse than it did 40 years ago. The chimneys have crumbled above the ridgeline, and the roof is open to the elements. Only the strength of the masonry walls is holding the building together now. Lacking a concerted restoration effort, this manmade element within a glorious Bluegrass landscape will soon be nothing but a memory.

 

*Ann Bolton Bevins, Miller’s Run Historic District. Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, 1978. Section 8, page 1. Copy on file at the Kentucky Heritage Council, Frankfort, Kentucky.