Oxmoor Farm is an estate in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

located east of

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976. It has also been termed Oxmoor or the Bullitt Estate. With .

History

Oxmoor was surveyed in 1774 and was the home of Sturgis Station fort by 1780, when it was granted to Col. William Christian.

Alexander Scott Bullitt Alexander Scott Bullitt (1761 – April 13, 1816) was an American pioneer, planter, slaveowner, and politician from Virginia who became an early settler in Kentucky and a leader during the early days of Kentucky statehood. Early and family life ...

married Christian's daughter in 1786 and Christian gave the farm to them as a wedding present. Christian was killed by Native Americans later that year. Alexander Bullitt purchased an adjoining in 1787 to expand the farm and named it Oxmoor after the fictional farm in

Tristram Shandy Tristram may refer to: Literature * the title character of ''The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman'', a novel by Laurence Sterne * the title character of ''Tristram of Lyonesse'', an epic poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne *"Tristra ...

, with a new house being completed in 1791, a year before Kentucky separated from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

to become a separate state. Alexander Bullitt became

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

's first

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

in 1800 and

Bullitt County, Kentucky Bullitt County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 82,217. Its county seat is Shepherdsville. The county was founded in 1796. Located just south of the city ...

is named in his honor. Alexander Bullitt died in 1816 and willed the farm to his youngest son William. William Bullitt expanded the farmhouse in the late 1820s, but closed the house in 1863 and rented out the farmlands due to the passage of the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...

. William Bullitt died in 1877 and his wife died in 1879. Then the farm was divided between their children. From 1906 to 1909 a great-grandson of Alexander Bullitt, William Marshall Bullitt, purchased the lands from the different family owners and reopened the main house. When William Marshall Bullitt died in 1957, the farm was passed to his son Thomas Walker Bullitt under a trustee arrangement that prohibited him from selling it. In the 1960s, the farm was split under the process of

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to build

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange w ...

. Due to the trustee arrangement of the land, the Bullitt family formed Beargrass Corporation to manage the leasing of the land for

Oxmoor Center Oxmoor Center is a Louisville, Kentucky shopping mall located at 7900 Shelbyville Road in eastern Louisville. History The 1970s Opened on February 8, 1971 on the opposing side of the Watterson Expressway from Mall St. Matthews, the mall ori ...

, Oxmoor Country Club, and other commercial uses.

References

Louisville's First Families

External links

Google Satellite Map

The Food LIteracy Project
a non-profit education agency located at Oxmoor which teaches about the processes and products of organic and local agriculture 18th-century buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky Houses in Louisville, Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Houses completed in 1791 1787 establishments in Virginia Plantations in Kentucky

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links