Two Hendersonians Are Delegates to the 1864 Democratic Convention

Senator Lazarus Powell and John Y. Brown, both from Henderson were among the Kentucky delegation that attended the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August of 1864. They would nominate George McClellan of New Jersey  for President and George H. Pendleton for Vice President.

Kentucky's delegation had two opposing factions, Brown and Powell represented one faction and George Prentice and James Guthrie represented another. Both Guthrie and Powell appeared on the 1st Vice Presidential Ballot before the vote shifts. Guthrie actually received 65.5 votes, Powell received 32.5 and Pendleton received 55.5 and the remaining delegates were split between five other contenders. But after the 1st Ballot shifts Pendleton received all 226 votes.

Lincoln was not without ardent Kentucky supporters, Robert C. Breckinridge, Cassius M.Clay, and Joshua Speed were among them. But in the General Election in the fall Lincoln received 26,592 civilian votes to McClellan's 61,478. Lincoln received 1,205 Kentucky soldiers' votes and McClellan received 3,608.

McClellan - Pendleton Campaign of 1864

1864 Presidential Vote - McClellan carries one state 

Special thanks to Thomas D. Clark and his A History of Kentucky published in 1988.

On This Date - Henderson History

The History of Henderson County, Kentucky was still on my desk this morning. I decided to flip through the 1000+ pages and discovered there is a history section by date. Did you know on this date in in 1929 the city school board adopted a budget of $154,100 for the 1929 - 1930 school year, a figure slightly lower than the previous year's budget.

And on this date in 1954 the Henderson County Soil conservation District became official with the election of its first board of directors and approval of a work program. The following officers were elected:

• Frank Street - Chairman
• G.H. McMurtry - Secretary - Treasurer
• James McConathy - Vice Chairman
• George Crafton & Hugh Jones - Board Members

And on this date in 1974 the City-County Planning Commission approved a zoning change by the Henderson Golf & Country Club to allow a new clubhouse and golf course to be on their site on U.S. 60 East.

Special thanks to Frieda Dannheiser and Donald Hazelwoood for their History of Henderson County, published 1980.

Here it is! The Old Purple House

We bought the house, sight unseen, when we first moved back to Henderson in 1998. Even though my husband had never seen the house painted purple, if anyone asked where we lived, he always responded "the old purple house". He had never seen the house painted purple until I brought this picture home this week. I found the picture in the files at the Kentucky Historical Society. They included it in the filing for  the Alves Historical District Application. I actually think it looks pretty good purple. It may be a good thing I didn't have this picture when I was picking out paint last year for the house.

724 Center Street in the 1980's

Renderings - The project starts to feel real

I called Dennie Branson today and like him immediately. I learned that he used to own an Italianate house up the street next to the funeral home. Sadly, it has since been torn down. But he clearly understood old house issues. He was great. He knew exactly what to do.  I quickly realized that Horace & I would be out of town when Planning and Zoning met next, but Dennie was confident that he and Tim could handle it. And after talking to Dennie I was confident too.


Dennie said we needed actual pictures of the house and computer renderings of what the addition was going to look like. This is when the project really came alive. The renderings took the flat drawings and showed you what it might really look like. After three years of imagining the addition I got a real picture. Now I had to control my enthusiasm, after all, we didn't have the variance, we didn't have the financing and even if we had both it is getting awfully late in the year to start such a large project.

The portico and driveway really made the project. Those two elements to me pulled the project together. Without them I think the addition would feel incomplete. And the convenience of a driveway after 12 years of parking on the street would make me feel like we were living in a new house.

Tim tied the portico in to the house so that there were two permanent parking spaces plus a circular drive. You could park and walk into the new side entrance. The kitchen would only be steps away.



   

A look at an Italianate Design

American Italianate homes were loosely modeled after the villas of Italy. The design is defined more by the ornamentation than by the structure itself. Basically, it's a simple box with a lot of ornamentation with respect to cornices, windows, porches and doorways. The key elements include:

•    Rectangular - It is usually a plain shape with a tight symmetrical floor plan.

•    Sloping Roofs - They usually have a slightly sloping roof with deep overhanging eaves, supported by a row of decorative brackets. 

•    Building Materials - Generally the homes were brick, stone or stucco.

•    Tall Windows - The windows are always tall and slim and most often rounded on the top.

•    Columned Entryway - A single story column supported porch protects the entrance way.

Square tower or Cupola - Most homes have a centrally places square cupola just above the roof line. 

Our home is in the Center Street Historic District in Henderson, KY. It is a four block long neighborhood, which reflects the evolution of late 19^th century domestic architecture. It is a large two-story brick home and according to documents developed for the Kentucky Heritage Council it is the best vernacular Italianate house in the district.

The details at the top of our home.

The arch detail above the windows.

The Kentucky Heritage Council documentation continues: “It is simple in form and detail, it employs a side passage plan with setback addition. The window openings are capped by segmental arches and the main entrance element is topped by a flat lintel. This element is reminiscent of the Greek Revival movement with the opening topped by a large glass transom and flanked by sidelights.

“The Italianate influence can be seen in the deep cornice elements with its elaborate, paired brackets, and in the flat roof. The structures location and setting do much to give it a feeling of prominence. Standing at the southwest corner of Center and Alvasia, the Brown House was constructed on a raised lot which sets it physically above the surrounding homes.”

But our home is small and very plain in comparison to one of the most famous Italianate homes in America, The Breakers, in Newport RI. We visited the Breakers a couple of years ago and it is amazing. I have included a little history and a few pictures here just so you can see the romance of the era.

The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad, which was a pivotal development in the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century. 

The Commodore's grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport during that same year. In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year. Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin. Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters. 

The Vanderbilts had seven children. Their youngest daughter, Gladys, who married Count Laszlo Szechenyi of Hungary, inherited the house on her mother's death in 1934. An ardent supporter of The Preservation Society of Newport County, she opened The Breakers in 1948 to raise funds for the Society. In 1972, the Preservation Society purchased the house from her heirs. Today, the house is designated a National Historic Landmark.

A Kitchen Designer?

So Tim says upfront I am not an interior designer. He says that you can call a custom cabinet shop and they will help you lay out a kitchen. But I have a client whose wife is a Certified Kitchen Designer, so I call her instead. Her name is Suzi Brock and she is in Tallahassee Florida. I contact her first through Linked In. And that's how our long distance relationship begins. I had contact Suzi several months earlier but I wasn't in any hurry so we really hadn't made any progress until I contact her again this month.

I now have a pretty solid idea of the space we have to work with and I have my dream list ready to share with anyone willing to listen. I have collected pictures from kitchen design magazines for nearly three years. I don't know what I can afford but I know what I want.

The wish list I share with Suzi is pretty long:

• Commercial Grade Stove;
• A warming oven;
• A double drawer dishwasher and maybe a regular dishwasher;
• Two Islands;
• Two sinks;
• Lots of storage; and
• A wine captain.

Horace and I want to work in the kitchen together, but we have very different styles and need distinct space. We want to entertain and have plenty of seating area around the kitchen islands. I want a pizza oven but know they are prohibitively expensive, but I have seen counter height gas logs that create the same look. I want a hood over the range and a maybe a pot rack.

I think after I have shared all this with Suzi we'll have a drawing that works in no time. But Suzi is a professional and she knows there is a lot more to it than a wish list. Suzi, like Tim, proves sometimes you just need a professional.

So Suzi sends me a list of questions for homework:

• How high will the ceilings be?
• Melodie's height _______________, right or left handed
• Horace's height ________________,  right or left handed
• Grocery shopping - daily, weekly basis, in bulk
• Do you know yet what material you will use on the floor?
• Any children/others living in the house?
• Any pets __________, if so, where are they fed and do you know of any specific provisions you want/need?
• Where do you intend to eat daily meals; do you want a table in the kitchen or is bar/island seating sufficient?
• What entrance will you use to bring in groceries?
• When entertaining do you have a sit down meal or buffet? 
• Are there any physical limitations or dietary needs to accommodate?
• Do you use the microwave for cooking or simply reheating?
• Do you do any specialty cooking: baking, canning, pasta making, etc, with special equipment that needs to be considered?
• Thinking of your current kitchen, previous kitchens you've worked in and any friends kitchens:  what did you like, what did you dislike?
• Do you like symmetry or asymmetry?
• You mentioned a private garden off the kitchen ~ will that be behind the house or through the double french doors off the family room?
• Do you like having a pot rack?

The questions seem simple, we'll have to wait and see if this is simple.

Hiring an Architect

Horace and I had spent enough time dreaming about a new kitchen that we felt like we could do it ourselves. But we had never done a project like this  so we decided we needed an architect. I had never thought about hiring an architect before so I wasn't sure who to talk to.    And then one day I was telling my brother about our idea and he reminded me that a friend of his from high school was now an architect in Henderson, but more importantly, he had done an old house project right after school and currently lived in an old house. So I gave Tim Townsend a call. I knew immediately he was going to be a good fit. We spent an hour talking about how important maintaining the original design integrity of the house was. Basically, we wanted an addition that would look like it had always been there.

So I invited Tim over to the house for a tour. He took a lot of measurements and we talked about everything we would want to include in the addition. We explained that we wanted to square up the house, have a kitchen and sitting/entertaining area. It seemed simple. But a few weeks later Tim sent back a drawing that had the basic idea with a couple of extras. Tim explained that to get everything we wanted in the addition we would need a little more room so he added a hearth room. Horace was certain that the additional section was not in keeping with the style of the house. But I knew Tim was right about one thing, we needed the extra space. So we let the plans lay for awhile. Three or four months later we started talking about the plans again, but this time we did a little more homework. Turns out Tim had added a standard feature (with a twist) of an Italianate home that we were missing. Our house didn't have the tower, cupola or bay window. Tim's addition, actually made the house more authentic rather than less. With that settled, Horace was ready to talk to Tim again.

We were still struggling with the way the bay area of the house was situated. We have a wonderful side garden and we didn't want to loose anymore of the garden than we absolutely had too. So we talked to Tim and he came up with a few more ideas.

Planning the Expansion

Owning an old home is great, that is if you like always having a project. And in a home that is over 160 years old there is usually more than one project going at a time. Over the past twelve years we've done several do it yourself projects, including refinishing floors, adding a bathroom, remodeling a bathroom, repairing leaky roofs and more. This old house has seen a lot of changes since we moved in. Some of the changes have happened simply because a house this old needs a lot of ongoing maintenance, but most of the changes happen because we were adapting the house to accommodate how we live.

To be honest, in a house with 13 inch solid brick walls from the cellar to the attic you aren't going to dramatically change the structure of the house. You won't be knocking down a wall to open up a space or add a closet. The layout of the house hasn't changed much at all in 160 years. Originally the house probably didn't have an indoor kitchen. Today the kitchen is tucked away in the back of the house, far away from the main entertaining area of the house. And while we have painted, wallpapered, repaired plaster, refinished the floors, etc., we have never been able to fix the fact that the house was laid out for a very different style of living. So about two or three years ago Horace and I started dreaming about an addition. Every now again, usually after a family gathering or a party we would casually discuss what we imagined an addition look like.

The living room and dining room are in the original double parlors off of a large main hall. With over a 1000 square feet of space there is certainly enough room for entertaining. Unfortunately, everyone wants to be in the kitchen that barely has 250 square feet. The house is build on an L design and an addition was put on probably sometime in the 1940's. That side addition was once a large open area with a side door that served as the main entrance to the house. Over the past twelve years we have divided the space to accommodate the laundry area, a pantry closet, junk room and a slightly upgraded entrance area. The only problem is the area has old windows, a roof that won't stop leaking and rotten siding. At some point it needs to be torn down and replaced. And that's where the vision for the addition started.

If we tore the already deteriorated area down and replaced it with an addition that squared up the house we could have a modern great room. A modern great room with modern (interpret that to mean new and working) features. Wow! This would change everything. Certainly the existing house at 4500 square feet has plenty of space, but a new kitchen with enough space to allow for modern entertaining would be my greatest dream for this house.

So now and again, Horace and I would start talking about how we would lay this new room out and what we would want if we could start from scratch. The best part about tearing the 1940's addition off and basically squaring up the L section of the house is that it would be a straight shot into the existing dining room and living room. All we would have to do is take out two windows and create double doors into the area. It was a simple idea. And sometimes those are the best.

The Governor's House - Lots of History

Our Italianate home was built during the civil war. It was a wedding present to John Y. Brown and his wife Rebecca from her father, the then Lt. Governor Archibald Dixon. Archibald Dixon was a grandson of one of the original Transylvania Land Company owners. The house was started at the end of 1860 or the beginning of 1861 and was completed around 1863.

John Y. Brown served as a Colonel in the Confederate Calvary and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected as Governor of Kentucky in 1891.

John Y. Brown and Rebecca married on September 3, 1860 and raised their family in this house. The Browns had 8 children, Elizabeth in 1861, Arch Dixon in 1863, John Y. Brown, Jr. in 1865, Virginia in 1867, Susan in 1869, twins Dudley and Vance in 1870 and their last child Evelyn in 1872. The Browns lost their first daughter Elizabeth at age 5 in 1866 and both the twins as infants. Susan would die at age 22 in the Governor's mansion in Frankfort. And Arch, who served as his fathers personal Secretary while he was Governor, was fatally shot toward the end of his term reportedly by a jealous husband, Fulton Gordon.

John Y. and Rebecca returned to Henderson after his service as Governor. He passed away on January 11(my birthday) in 1904 and Rebecca died in 1922.

The Old Purple House

We bought this big, old house in 1998 sight unseen. We were moving from Paducah to Henderson. We rented our home in Paducah to a plant manager relocating to the area and we had to move within 60 days. We had looked at some properties but couldn't find anything big enough within our price range. I showed Horace, my husband, the ad for the auction. He said we didn't need an old house and left for work three counties away. I immediately called my Mother in Henderson and asked if she had seen it. No. But my Aunt went to the open house the weekend before so we immediately did a three way call. Aunt Mary said it was very big and in pretty good shape. Mom drove by the house and called me. She said I would remember the house, it was purple when I was a kid. She said its taupe now and I would love it. So we agreed that she would go to the auction that afternoon and call me.

Horace's last words before he left that morning was "Don't buy that house." So you can imagine my surprise when thru my Mom and a cell phone my low opening bid was the first and last bid. I couldn't believe it.

I immediately drove three counties away to tell Horace in person. As soon as he saw me, he said "You've been to that auction haven't you?" I said, "No I didn't go the auction, but I did buy the house". My excitement turned to fear when I realized what I had done. We had only been married 4 years, what if he hated the house. My son patted me on the back and said "Mom you said it would be ok". Unfortunately, as we drove to Henderson I wasn't sure.

We drove to Henderson that night. As we drove up to the house it was all lit up and the front light in the yard was on. I think one of the nicest things my husband ever said was "I think it's going to be alright." Whew! Fortunately Horace loved the house.

It's nearly twelve years later and sometimes I think Horace likes the house more than me. This is our home for life.

Old picture from the Kentucky Historical Society Files in Frankfort
circa 1970