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Ashland’s Star: Henry Clay

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Wendy

If you love Ashland, you’ll love this. Curator Eric Brooks leads a fascinating video tour of Ashland, focusing on Henry Clay. This was done for C-SPAN in June. Ashland has amassed an impressive collection of Henry Clay artifacts and Eric explains them perfectly:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?326946-1/henry-clays-estate

Popular image of Clay at Ashland

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Posted in Artifacts, Henry ClayTagged American architecture, American history, antebellum, Ashland, Eric Brooks, Federal architecture, Henry Clay, Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, historic house museum, historic preservation, Kentucky, Lexington Kentucky, mansion

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Ashland Restoration Raises Interpretive Questions

Giving the Impression that Henry Clay “may return at any moment”

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Historic house museums often face difficult decisions regarding which period of the house’s history to interpret. This interpretive decision has proven to be a most complicated issue at Ashland. historyofahousemuseum.com henryclay.org #Ashland #HenryClay #interpretation #housemuseums https://historyofahousemuseum.com/2020/01/03/messy-generational-layers-complicate-museums-task-5/

The story of Henry Clay’s house, 1805-1815: https://historyofahousemuseum.com/2019/12/30/henry-clays-house-5/

Benjamin Latrobe's sketch for Ashland's wings includes the circular library - top right in image. Henry Clay and his builder would flip the wings and the library would be on the left side. We actually have a good idea of what Latrobe's plan for Clay's library would have been: Lexington's Pope Villa by Latrobe (1811 for Senator John Pope) had a similar space from the same time. Pope Villa is one of only three extant Latrobe residences in the U.S. As one of Latrobe's most avant-garde designs, it is nationally significant for its architect and unique design. Here, a recreation view of the rotunda shows what Latrobe designed for Pope Villa and likely what he had in mind for Henry Clay's Ashland. When Ashland was rebuilt it was updated to the 1850s. The current library (pictured) is inspired by Latrobe, but not what Clay's would have looked like. In a letter from Latrobe scholar Patrick A. Snaden to Ashland in 1998: “The current library…is a fine 1850s, mid-Victorian library and in no way reflects Latrobe’s work or style. A Latrobe room would have been of plaster, most likely with smooth plaster dome on wood lath." Just like at Pope Villa. #HenryClay #Ashland #Latrobe #architecture #PopeVilla #ShareTheLex

An antebellum family Christmas at Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate: https://historyofahousemuseum.com/2019/12/23/an-1856-christmas-at-ashland-the-henry-clay-estate-3/

Architect Benjamin Latrobe designed two wings for Henry Clay's house. But Clay and his builder decided to flip the wings. The north wing of Ashland, the “Chambers and Nursery” wing, was built first by John Fisher, late summer into autumn 1813, while the south end, the “Kitchen wing,” was built either before Clay’s trip to Ghent, Belgium or afterward, early 1814 or late 1815. #Ashland #HenryClay #Latrobe #architecture henryclay.org

Benjamin Latrobe designed the distinctive wings of Henry Clay's Ashland but possibly designed the central block as well. So say Michael W. Fazio and Patrick A. Snadon in "The Domestic Architecture of Benjamin Henry Latrobe." This is a relatively new thesis. When designing the wings, they say, Latrobe showed great familiarity with the central portion of the house: “The planning itself reinforces this hypothesis. The protruding octagonal entrance vestibule resembles Latrobe’s Markoe House in Philadelphia, while the pinwheeling circuit of main rooms resembles the planning Latrobe learned from his mentor S. P. Cockerell and which he subsequently used (at the Van Ness and Decatur houses; fig. 39). The Latrobe-like quality of the central portion of the Ashland plan is increased by the diagonal ‘scenery’ vista between the hall and the dining room (again reminiscent of the Markoe House.) This sort of planning was unknown in Federal period Kentucky and is uncharacteristic of architect Thomas Lewinski who rebuilt Ashland in the 1850s.” #HenryClay #Latrobe #architecture #Ashland henryclay.org

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