Ward Hall is a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern US ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum architectu ...

plantation

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

located in Georgetown,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. The main house covers , with high Corinthian fluted columns.

History

The mansion was built for planter Junius Richard Ward (1802–1883) and his wife Matilda (Viley) Ward ''circa'' 1857 on their 500-acre plantation in

Scott County Scott County is the name of eleven counties in the United States of America: *Scott County, Arkansas *Scott County, Illinois *Scott County, Indiana *Scott County, Iowa, the most populous county on the list *Scott County, Kansas, the least populous ...

, Kentucky, in the

Bluegrass Region The Bluegrass region is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It makes up the central and northern part of the state, roughly bounded by the cities of Frankfort, Kentucky, Frankfort, Paris, Kentucky, Paris, Richmond, Kentucky, Ric ...

. Matilda Viley was the sister of Capt. Willa Viley, a pioneer thoroughbred breeder of Scott County. He was first president of the Lexington Racing Association. Junius Ward was a grandson of the Col. Robert and Jemima (Suggett) Johnson family of Scott County, Kentucky. This was an extraordinarily powerful political and economic family dynasty, whose members extended their influence by developing cotton plantations throughout the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazo ...

. Like Ward, many members had plantations in Washington County along the Mississippi River near

Greenville, Mississippi Greenville is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County, Mississippi, Was ...

. One of Ward's cousins,

Lycurgus Johnson Lycurgus Johnson (March 22, 1818 – August 1, 1876) was an American cotton planter and large slaveholder in the Arkansas Delta during the Antebellum South, antebellum years. Born to the powerful political and planter Johnson family in Scott Coun ...

, owned

Lakeport Plantation Lakeport Plantation is a historic antebellum plantation house located near Lake Village, Arkansas. It was built around 1859 by Lycurgus Johnson with the profits of slave labor. The house was restored between 2003 and 2008 and is now a part of A ...

on the other side of the river near

Lake Village, Arkansas Lake Village is a city in and the county seat of Chicot County, Arkansas, Chicot County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,575 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is located in the Arkansas Delta. Lake Village is name ...

. Many of these family members had plantation houses in the deep South and summer residences and plantations in Scott County, Kentucky. The Wards had this Scott County mansion built as a summer residence. Their Kentucky plantation cultivated tobacco and hemp, and raised award-winning livestock, including racehorses. The Wards also owned a large cotton plantation near Leota Landing, Washington County,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, where they wintered. Their

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

in Mississippi served as their winter residence. Due to financial reverses following the Civil War, Junius Ward declared bankruptcy; he was forced to sell the Scott County plantation in 1869. Nearby planters bought the property in two lots. A later owner offered the property with the mansion to the Commonwealth of

, with the condition that it be used as the state capitol. The state declined.

Design

The mansion design is attributed to Major Thomas Lewinski."Ward Hall (Expanded)"
NRHP Inventory-Nomination Form, 1985; NP Gallery Digital Asset Management System; accessed 3 May 2019 It is the embodiment of numerous

Minard Lafever Minard Lafever (1798–1854) was an American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Life and career Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no ...

design elements from his 1829 and 1835 pattern books. It was built by Taylor Buffington, with the assistance of James Bailey, a

free man of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also ...

."Welcome to Ward Hall"
Ward Hall website It measures and , four stories, with a , central corridor on three floors. There are three rooms on each side of the central corridor, with the exception of the area set aside for the nautilus-chambered double elliptical staircase which rises three floors. The floor plan is based on #17/18 of the 20 permutations within the Palladian grammar by

Andrea Palladio Andrea Palladio ( , ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be on ...

, an influential 16th-century Italian architect. At each end of the central corridor on the main floor are front and rear entrances with cut-glass transom and side lights. The domestic servants' cooking area and sleeping rooms in the basement represent one of the most intact antebellum basements in the country. In that period, the servants were enslaved African Americans. Slaves also served as laborers and artisans on the plantation: working with livestock and in the fields. The original plantation had 500 acres. In its prime, it had "several brick dwellings for slaves and farm managers, a brick greenhouse, at least one and possibly more brick horse barns, a carriage house, a double brick outhouse, a carbide pump house, and a large tobacco barn." The property was divided in 1869 and sold in two large lots. Another piece was later sold at the turn of the 20th century, but the mansion and 150 acres had been intact since 1904. When the complex was nominated in 1985, it consisted of this 150 acres. Some seventy-seven acres was considered in the nomination, as it contained the mansion and major part of outbuildings associated with the historic complex. Also on the property were later additions such as a Victorian horse barn and 1930s garage. In the 21st century, the plantation complex of the mansion and related buildings is sited on forty acres. The complex is recognized as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

Preservation

Ward Hall now serves as the headquarters of The Ward Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. The foundation raised one million dollars to purchase the estate. Ward Hall is a Kentucky Landmark and the full complex is listed as a historic district on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Ward Hall website

Lakeport Plantation website
former

(and family) plantation in the Arkansas Delta Plantation houses in Kentucky Museums in Scott County, Kentucky Historic house museums in Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Scott County, Kentucky Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Houses completed in 1853 Houses in Georgetown, Kentucky Greek Revival houses in Kentucky Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky 1853 establishments in Kentucky Plantations in Kentucky