Architectural Overview of Madison County
Introduction
Most of the examples within this text of Madison County's surviving historic buildings represent domestic architecture, and appropriately so, since residential structures were the type of buildings most often constructed. Commercial buildings are the second most frequent type described here. Although commercial buildings were numerous and Richmond and Berea, as well as in crossroads communities, they do not survive in great numbers. Churches are the third most frequent type of historic structure surveyed in Madison County, as well as the third most often selected for description. Educational structures (including campus residence halls), governmental buildings, and transportation buildings also have been selected for inclusion. All of these buildings, having a variety of original functions, deserve acknowlegement because they represent architectural expressions of Madison County's cultural history.
Log Construction
Log construction was the type most often selected by the county's early settlers, and it remained a viable building alternative until the mid-nineteenth century or later in some parts of Madison County. (See MA-211, MAB-20, 74, and 75.) Log dwellings were preferred by settlers for reasons of economy and efficiency. trees were plentiful in Madison County, and, as white men began to clear the land for cultivation of crops, they utilized the many large sycamore, poplar, black walnut, and oak trees to erect log walls for their houses. In addition, the technology for shaping (hewing) and joining felled trees into log buildings did not require specialized skills and equipment. The necessary tools were those that the settlers possessed and knew how to use, and the task was accomplished with relative ease by few laborers.
When Indian hostilities began to cease, pioneers staked land claims outside Boone's fort and constructed log dwellings. Because waterways were the earliest "roads," these settlement-period houses were concentrated along creeks.
The majority of the log houses that have been surveyed in Madison County were originally of the single-pen form (fig. 1). That is, they consisted of only one room, one or two stories in height. The square pen was roughly a sixteen-foot square enclosure. Although some log "pens" or rooms were built with a square configuration, most were of rectangular proportions (fig. 2). A rectangular-pen house, approximately sixteen-by-twenty-four feet, often had a board partition square-hewn hardwood logs with either v-notched or half-dovetailed cornering and were topped with gable roofs covered in split shakes. Both types had asingle, regularly-coursed limestone chimney on one of the gable ends. Some houses eventually gained a porch across the front, as at the Merritt Jones Tavern (MA-211) near Big Hill in southeast Madison County.
Madison countians expanded these basic units of log construction in several ways. Some actually built additions to single- and rectangular-pen houses, while others erected more complex dwellings in one phase. Many log structures, like Reuben Stapp's (MA-219), were composed of two pens, joined by a breezeway or "dogtrot" (fig. 3) which served as an open passage, storage, and work space. The two-story Lisle House (MA-3) is an excellent example of the dogtrot plan consisting of two rectangular pens connected by a wide dogtrot. On some buildings the ends of the dogtrot were eventually enclosed to create an interior passage. Double-pen log dwellings (fig. 4) were formed form the joining of two pens at their gable ends without a passage between them. double-pen plans usually contained two entrances on their principal facades, one into each pen, and separate chimneys on each exterior gable wall. The saddlebag plan (fig. 5) joined two pens on the gable ends so that the pens shared a common chimneys. A stone chimney at the Hart House (MA-2), one of the oldest existing log structures in Madison County, contians such an exterior firebox.
Few log houses, either single or two-story, have survived in Madison County, and most of the remaining ones have been covered with weatherboard and/or enlarged. Many of the early log houses eventually became the nucleus of larger houses, and some become rear service ells (fig. 6) when later additions were placed perpendicular to the ridgeline of the log building's roof. The addition, being more up-to-date, superceded the older log building's roof. The front facade, while the log section was relegated to the rear. An excellent example is the James Moberly House (MA-45) on Muddy Creek, originally a two-story, rectangular-pen house, that was later sheathed with weatherboarding and reoriented by additions.
As at the Moberly House, additions to log structures did not necessarily employ logs. Log pens were often later combined with units built of different materials. The Isaac Newland/Shelby Irvine House (MA-204), initially a rectangular-pen log house, consists of a stone addition and a brick addition. An extreme example of this multi-material usage is the Hawkins/Stone/Hagan/Curtis House (MA-181) on Silver Creek. It began as a two-story rectangular-pen log house and then gained frame and brick additions which considerably altered its appearance. Similarly, the Hagan House (MA-232), adjacent to Silver Creek and once near the family's stone gristmill, consists of both stone and log portions. A dogtrot separates the two protions, and the entire structure, including the dogtrot, is now covered in frame weatherboarding.
Stone Construction
Although local stone was used for chimneys, foundations, and door sills in log buildings, it was also used as the building material for the entire body of some of Madison County's earlier houses, as in the two-story Andrew Bogie House (MA-161). Not uncommon as a building material for early structures, stone was later used for more pretentious edifices, including educational (MAB-38), and governmental Buildings (MAR-30).
A few buildings, located near sources of sandstone, especially in the eastern part of the county, utilized this stone in their construction. Viney Fork Baptist Church (MA-75) in Speedwell is a good example of the early use of sandstone. The majority of the stone house, however, were built of limestone which was particularly abundant along Silver Creek. Consequently, most of the existing limestone houses are located near this creek. these include the Andrew Bogie House (MA-161), the James Bogie House (MA-162), and the Nathan Hawkins House (MA-168), all three in double-pen plan.
Brick Construction
The majority of the surviving buildings in Madison County were built of brick, beginning in the 1790s when Green Clay erected Clermont to replace his hewn-log house. (See MA-199.) As landowners acquired wealth, they built soilid and durable residences, symbolic of their permanence on the landscape. Initially, bricks made form the profuse clay deposits found throughout the county were molded and fired in a temporary kiln constructed at the site. Although permanent brick-making operations eventually developed, this on-site method persisted throught the end of the nineteenth century, as at Elmwood in Richmond (MASW-44) where the first pressed brick was fired and laid.
A simple, symmetrical three- or five-bay facade was most common, with some exceptions such as the four-bay facade of the Morrison House (MA-235). Most of the Brick structures are two stories in height, as are most of the residential structures in general. Yet many, like the three-bay Whitney/Cobb House (MA-10) one-and-one-half story. Some, such as the St. Charles Hotel (MAR-45) in richmond and Lincoln Hall at Berea College (MAB-39), are three stories.
With brick as the structural material, new details were possible on the exteriors of buildings. Brick work, three or four bricks thick, laid in Flemish bond of alternating stretchers (long ends) and headers (short ends) in each brick course (row) is chaaracteristic of early nineteenth-century brick houses. This bond was usually reserved for the front facades, with the simpler common bond laid on the less conspicuous side and back of the building. the common bond employs multiple courses of stretchers to each course of headers. Brick segmental arches or brick jack arches over windows, often of the headerstretcher type, provided subtle accents to buildings' fenestrations, as at the Creamery (MAR-57) in Richmond
Frame Construction
The historic frame structures of Madison County are most numerous in Richmond and Berea. A few, such as the Lucien Griggs House (MA-52) near Waco, are located in small settlements, white others are farmhouses, such as the Mataline L. Clark House (MA-103).
By the begining of the 1800s, timber-frame structures and additions to log or stone house were being constructed with large, hewn members joined with mortise and tenons and secured with wooden pegs. These new structures and abbitions utilized vertical, horizontal, and diagonal wood members covered by overlapping horizontal planks called clapboard or weatherboard. Some timberframe buildings contained "nogging," or infill of mud and straw or brick, in the spaces between the wooden members of the frame.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, timber-frame construction was replaced by balloon-frame; that is, sawn wood members were nailed togeter, and the studs were continuous, without a girt for second-floor joists. This method of frame construction has persisted until the present. (MA-224) which had its original brick portion remodeled by a projecting two-story addition.
Many of the post-Civil War structures were balloon-frame, such as the shingle-covered Frost House (MAB-16) and the Samuel Hanson House (MAB-61) in Berea which display the typical weatherboarding over the framework. A few of the frame buildings, as in the two-story, asymmetrical framework. A few of the frame buildings, as in the two-story, asymmetrical frame house at 703 West Main Street in Richmond (MANW-12), comtained weatherboards with shingles or stone. Although vulnerable to fire and usually of modest proportions, many frame houses in Madison County contained elaborate stylistic and decorative features, as n the houses in Madison County contianed elaborate stylistic and decorative features, as in the house on Prospect Street in Berea (MAB-72), and the Farley House (MASW-20) in Richmond.
Decorative Materials
Decorative brickwork became common in the first half of the nineteenth century. Brick cornices, moldings at the bases of roofs and the tops of exterior walls, appeared on brick structures; an early example is the ca. 1815 Morrison House (MA-235) south of Silver Creek. Brick corbelling, projecting brick headers or courses, can still be seen on the old Methodist Church (MAR-53) in Richmond. Brick quoins, or groups of projecting bricks at the building's corners, are a feature of the Cammack Building (MASE-10) on Eastern Kentucky University's campus. Horizontal, slightly projecting flat bands of brick at intermediate floor levels, called belt or string courses, were never common on exteriors of Madison County Structures until revival styles of the early twentieth century suggested them, and, when used, belt courses were usually laid in stone rather than brick. One exception to this is the William Chenault House (MA-234), built around 1830 and consisting of three rows of brick stretchers in a belt course across the front facade. Another exception, the ca. 1825 Joseph Barnett House (MA-93), displays a narrow brick belt course between the first and second story.
Wrought iron and cast iron were often utilized on the exteriors of buildings in the latter portion of the nineteenth century. Cast iron verandas, as in Rolling View (MA-116) and Blythewood (MA-195), were added to existing structures, while new buildings, particularly commercial ones, featured window hoods, cornices, and columns in metal work. (See MAR-45, 60, and 62) Iron fences graced the lawns of large residences, as in the Hume/McCreary House (MANW-5). An iron fence which surrounded the Courthouse (MAR-65) for fifty years was moved to the Richmond Cemetery (MASE-23) in 1908.
Many dwellings and churches in Madison County utilized polychrome stained glass in their openings: windows of all shapes and sizes, fanlights, and transoms. (See MA-175, MAR-168, and MASW-2.) Bevelled glass, held by lend mullions, and etched glass also lent embellishment to many windows and entrances. (See MA-195, MANW-3, 12, 16, MAR-69, and MASW-13.)
Types of Floor Plans
In addition to the plans described for log constructions - single-pen (fig. 1), rectangular-pen (fig. 2), dogtrot (fig. 3) double-pen (fig. 4), and saddlebag (fig. 5) - the hall-parlor plan (fig. 6) was utiliized in Madison County residences. This plan, essentially the same as a rectangular-pen but of a different name when built in a material other than log, contains two rooms of unequal size. In some buildings both rooms were heated, while in others only the larger room, the hall, contained a fireplace. An excellent example of this type of plan is the Samuel Karr House (MA-21) in northeast Madison County near Otter Creeks.
Eventually, the popularity of the hall-parlor plan lessened in favor of another type, the central-passage plan (fig. 7) which became the most persistently preferred in Madison County. this plan consisted of rooms arranged on either side of a passage containing a stair and could be either single pile (fig. 8) and one room deep, or double-pile (fig. 9) and two rooms deep. The single-pile house was far more common than the double-pile in Madison County, as it was throughout Kentucky and the upland South. Excellent early examples of the single-pile house was far more common than the double-pile in Madison County, as it was throughout Kentucky and the upland South. Excellent early examples of the single-pile dwelling are the 1826 Huguely/Green House (MA-11) near Otter Creek and the 1832 Duncannon (MA-114) five miles south of Richmond. An outstanding example of an early double-pile house is the 1820 J.B. Miller House (MASW-40) in Richmond.
The central passage in many dwellings was originally an open dogtrot between two log pens, later enclosed by framing, as at the two-story Dozier/Guess House (MA-23). Also, many new buildings were constructed with this symmetrical central-passage plan, regardless of their structural material.
Although early nineteenth-century dwellings tended to gain additional rooms through lateral expansion, most house built after 1840 were provided with an ell (fig. 10) extending from one end toward the rear. The John Campbell House (MA-215), a one-story brick residence with an original one-room brick ell, is in example. An open porch was usually built along the length of the ell. Rolling Meadows (MA-165) features such a porch to which access is gained from the main unit via the central passage. In many houses like the Stephenson House (MA-166), a wider frame ell, also with porch, could be reached from the central passage itself. Ells generally contained service and workrooms, such as the kitchen, which had previously been relegated to separate buildings.
At the same time new dwellings were being constructed with service ells, older buildings received ell additions. In other houses the original structure in the hall-parlor plan become a rear ell to a later mid-century central-passage dwelling added as a front. Such reorientation, accomplished with a large addition, occurred at the William Walker House (MA-113).
Many structures contained a side-passage plan (fig. 11) the most common urban form built during the eightteenth century. The side-passage, plan is similar in size to the hall-parlor plan, although it is actually a central-passage plan without the room or rooms on one side of the passage. Example include the Greenleaf House (MANW-17) and he Clay/Harris House (MANW-2) in Richmond.
Some house were designed in an asymmetrical/picturesque plan which consisted of an irregular layout, as at the Tribble/Igo House (MASW-2). Others contained a T-plain (fig. 12), so named because of its shape, as at the A.R. Burnam House (MANW-16) or the Crook House (MASW-6) in richmond. The T-plain was, in a sense, an asymmetic version of the central passage plan; while it was two rooms deep on one side of the passage, it was only one room deep on the other. The side of the house with the two rooms projected beyond the front wall plane so that both rooms could be entered form the central passage inside.
Architectural Styles
The earliest architectural style to appear in Madison County was the Georgian. It characteristically consisted of a symmetrical design based on Roman classicism. Doorways were surrounded by pilasters orcolumns. They were surmounted by a cornice and/or pediment, often with a semicircular fanlight over the door. Pallandian (three-part) windows were employed. Corners of the buildings had quoins, and string courses defined the floor levels.
Not many Madison County structures were constructed in this style, and the clearest example, Woodstock, was demolished in the 1940s when the land surrounding it became part of the Lexington Bluegrass Army Depot. A vernacular expression of the style in which Georgian ornament appeared on a traditional house form, the two-story double-pile house was built in 1792 with four rooms on each of the two stories, no passage, two enclosed stairways, and much carved woodwork. Woodstock also contained an unique Palladian window with the central arched opening capable of being used as a door. Another annexed to the Italianate style White Hall (MA-199). Clermont consisted of two stories with a five-bay facade in a hall-parlor plan contianing paneled rooms.
The Federal was the first architectural style to be commonly executed in many of the builings in Madison County. It became pop in America in the 1780s. All of the surviving Federal structures in Madison County originally functional as residences and were constructed in brick. Most of these were erected on the rolling farmland estates of landed gentry.
The Federal style incorporated delicately-scaled and elongated classical elements. It was locally characterized by elaborate doorways of generous size that were topped by fanlights and flanked by sidelights, each having wooden or lead mullions. The interiors of the structures expressing the Federal style displayed intricate carvings in built-in cupboards, wooden mantels, and chair rails which were not present in later styles. Festoons, bell flowers, sunbursts, and reeding were typical motifs, as at the John Campbell House (MA_215).
The Harris House (MANW-4), one of the few Richmond dwellings expressing this style, reveals the characteristic Flemish bond only on one side of the front facade. Like so many of Madison County's Federal houses, the Harris House received a later addition (here, an Italianate bay) reflecting a newer style. Once part of a large plantation, Wooldlawn (MASE-24), built in 1822, represents one of the most formal expressions of Federal detailing that remains in the county. It is a single-story residence withthe five Palladian windows of the primary facade glazed with elongated leaded panes. Richmond's Irvinton (MAR-69), originally constructed in the Federal style, contains a double-door entrance complete with fanlight and sidelights. Irvinton also displays carved woodwork and built-in cupboards that flank a central fireplace.
During the twenty years prior to the Civil War, the architectural style most often expressed in log, frame, and residential buildings. The first of the nineteenth-century "revival" styles of architecture, the Greek Revival movement becames fashionable with the romantic popularization of the Greek revolution in the 1820s. Stylistically, it accepted the forms and orders associated with classical Greece. The most elaborate examples of the style in Madison County were built in the late 1840s such as the courthuose (MAR-65) and the William Holloway House (MANE-11) in Richmond about of which have a central permenment point.
In Madison County the Green Reviewal style wa typically expressed in a dwelling comprised of two-stories with a five-bay facade and built of brick laid in a common bond. The style tended to emphasize the center of house; therefore, central transomed doorways sheltered by a portico - either one- or two-story, pedimented or flat-roofed - were common. The interior woodwork featured wide, plan baseboards, squared rectilinear mantels, and Greek-ear, also called shouldered or crossette, moldings on windows and doors. Most local Greek Revival residences were simple structures of traditional form with the stylistic elements limited to ornamentation and concentrated on the doorway as at Greenbriar (MA-169). A few assumed an imposing scale, like Homelands (MA-198) with its massive pedimented portico and pilastered facade.
Many churches in Madison County interpreted this temple-like style. Unlike houses, churches were usually entered from the gable end, and this facade formed a pediment. For example, cornices at the gable ends of White Oak Pond Church (MA-184) and Tates Creek Baptist Church (MA-206) strongly suggest the pediment.
In the years immediately preceding the Civil War, the Gothic Revival style of architecture began to be used in Madison County. Gothic Revival style of architecture began to be used in Madison County. Gothic Revival houses often exhibited varied building heights and steeply gabled rooflines. Many late nineteenth century vernacular houses, consisting of two unadorned stories with a single-pile central-passage plan, refer to the Gothic Revival style by exhibiting a single cross gable centered on their primary facades. Cross gables are dormerlke sections of roof that are perpendicular to the mian roofline, as in the rural Griggs (MA-52) and Gibbs (MA-100) Houses.
Pointed arches and elaborate Gothic ornamentation such as multifoils and tracery were often displayed. Jigsaw-cut wooden bargeboards, also called vergeboards, became almost synonymous with Gothic Revival ornamentation. The two-story frame Taylor House (MASE-21) features this vertical-face board under the roof eaves and the trefoil shape in small, stationary windows at the steep gable ends. One-and-one-half story Mt. Pleasant (MASE-23), also in Richmond, includes a single cross gable centered on its primary facade, and vergeboard appears under the eaves of the main house and the outbuildings. Pointed arched windows appear in the frame house on Chestnut Street in Berea (MAB-56) exhibits bargeboard with Gothic fleur-de-lis (lily flower) and cusp motifs.
The Gothic Revival style was also used in church buildings form the middle of the nineteenth century, as at Mt. Pleasant Christian Church (MA-196), through the first quarter of the twentieth century, as at the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond (MAR-2). Pointed openings, buttresses, and tall, spired towers are distinguishing features. As elsewhere, the style was quite popular for ecclesiastical architecture; in fact, its most common use in Madison County was for buildings serving a religious function.
The style of historic architecture that most often survives in Madison County is the Italianate. This style found popular expression in many late nineteenth century buildings, whether commercial (MAR-63 and 64) or residential (MASE-7), frame (MASE-2) or brick (MASE-6). As was true elsewhere, the Italianate was most commonly found in towns and in commercial structures; however, none of the surveyed sites in Berea are categorized as Italianate style.
Italianate buildings often displayed an asymmetrical arrangement of squared shapes and lines, flat or low-pitched roofs, and tall, arched windows adorned with hood molds. Many late nineteenth century local structures referred to the style by exhibiting square-pillared porches, ornamental ironwork, and extended eaves that emphasized deep, heavy cornices set with ornate brackets. Blair Park (MASW-42) in Richmond is the most formal expression of this style in the county. It includes all of these features, as well as a three-story tower above its low hipped roof.
A few Madison County structures express the Romanesque Revival style. These buildings characteristically were constructed of masonry, preferably rugged, rock-faced stone, and had massive, round arches. Romanesque Revival structures displayed an asymmetrical compostion with tall hipped roofs having massive chimneys, round towers with conical roofs, and recessed entrances. An outstanding example of this style is the limestone-faced Old Federal Building (MAR-30) in Richmond which has a unique combination of Byzantine-like columns and roundhead arches.
The asymmetrical froms of the Romaneque style continued in the Queen Anne style, in which an asymmetrical/picturesque plan and the irregular massing of a variety of shapes and textures produced a smaller-scale, nonsymmetrical composition. Several examples of Quenn Anne style exist in Richmond. It is distinguished by small, round turrets topped with finials, warparound or arched entry porches with turned spindlework, and decorative glass accents. The brick Turley House (MASE-20) and the frame Burnam House (MASW-16) contain all of these aspects.
The Shingle style is expressed in only a few houses in Madison County, as at the Wilkes Smith House (MANW-21) in Richmond. In this style the walls had a uniform covering of shingles; even the posts of verandas were shingled. Windows often formed Horizontal bands. Roofs were hipped or gabled or both, sometimes sweeping down form the ridge to shelter a porch. Round, conicalroofed towers were not uncommon.
The Chateauesque style is uniquely evident at Elmwood (MASW-44) in Richmond, both in the building's large-scale, asymmetrical plan and in its silhouette with a steeply hipped roof surmounted by metal crestings. Chateauesque buildings always were built of stone or brick and contain round corbelled turrets and high, pinnacled wall gables. (Brick-constructed, Elmwood contains stone detailing.)
The Classical Revival style abundantly utilized classical detailing such as huge columns and pilasters, pedimented or balustrated porticos, and ornate linteled or pedimented openings. The planning and massing of these large buildings were symmetrical, as at the Wagers House (MASW-36) sometimes with a central body dominating wings as at Arlington (MASW-41) and at Burnam Hall (MASE-17) on Eastern Kentucky University's campus. Other campus buildings in Madison County represent the Classical Revival style such as the Coates Building (MAB-13) and the First Baptist Church in Richmond (MAR-1) both depict Classical Revival style in church architecture. Almost all of the surveyed early twentieth-century educational and ecclesiatical buildings in Berea and in Richmond are in the Classical Revival or the Colonial Revival style.
Colonial Revival structures such as the Mary Keen Shackelford House (MASW-24) were strictly rectangular in plan with symmetrical facades. A flat deck or a balustrade often topped a gable, gambrel, or low-hipped roof. Sometimes a cupola extended above the roof, as at the Keen Johnson Building (MASE-16) on Eastern's campus. The Palladian window was often utilized as a focal incident as at the Draper Memorial Building (MAB-37) on Berea College's campus. A columned portico frequenlty sheltered the entrance, as at Boone Tavern in Berea (MAB-12).
The early twentieth-century popularity of the American Four square residence can be attested to by the presence of several such buildings along Main Street in Richmond. The term American four square, not truly an architectural style, describes a form that is square, not truly an architectural style, describes a form that is square and box-like as implied in both plan and vertical face. It characteristically contained four rooms on each of two stories. This symmetrical, doulble-pile two-story dwelling usually featured a hipped roof, as in the Kennedy House on Main Steet in Richmond (MASW-26).
The bungalow form of structure also appears fairly frequently on Richmond's West Main Street, as well as on Chestnut Street in Berea. The bungalow, as at the Mellinger House (MASW-32), was reserved for dwellings which featured one story or one-and-one-half stories with high pitched gable roofs and recessed front porches. The space beneath the roof often was made usable by a solitary dormer or by windows in the gables.
Architects and Designers
Not many of the historic sites in Madison County can be credited to a kown architect or designer. Most of the designs and constructions were executed anonymously, while some have inferred ties to regionally famous architects and designers.
Three early eighteenth-century Federal style residences in the county can be loosely attributed to one of Lexington's first architects, Matthew Kennedy. Each of these structures contains exterior features similar to Kennedy's documented designs for house, including his own in Lexington. Bronston House (MANW-23), the earliest of the three, ca. 1830, establishes the material, massing, and facade design that also appears in Brighton (MAR-68), ca. 1832-37, and Blythewood (MA-195), completed in 1840. In all three facades a centralized classical pediment, supported by brick pilasters, encloses a wooden sunburst motif in the typanum.
Professional craftsmen must have been employed to carve the fine, intricate woodwork inside many Madison County houses. Although no carvings can be absolutely attributed to any one designer, Matthew P. Lowery, a well-known Kentucky woodcarver of the early nineteenth century, may have executed the woodwork and mantels in several interiors. At Woodlawn (MASE-24), erected in 1822, beautifully carved mantels, chair rails, a central passage arch carried on coupled colonettes, and elliptically-headed cupboards are attributed to the craftsmanship of Lowery.
A published designer of the mid-nineteenth century, Minard Lafever, may have provided in one of his pattern books the model for the frontispiece of the William Holloway House (MANE-1), built in 1849. A year earlier, Maj. Thomas Lewinski, an immigrant of Polish heritage and a well-known Lexington architect, was employed to design a new courthouse in Richmond (MAR-65). The temple-like edifice exhibits the principles of monumental Greek Revival design. A decade later Lewinski was commissioned by Cassius Clay to execute an expansion of Green Clay's Georgian residence, Clermont. The result, completed in 1864, was the Italianate style White Hall (MA-199).
Another Lexington architects, builders, and civil engineers, Cincinnatus Shryock, designed in 1874 the first building on Central University's campus, the Italianate style University Building (MASE-14). Cincinnatus was the son of early architect-builder Mathias Shryock and the brother of Gideon Shryock, pioneer Greek Revival architect of the midwest.
The French Canadian architect Samuel Eugene des Jardins (1865-1916), who studied at studied at the school of Beaux Arts in Paris, France, came from Cincinnati, Ohio, to design four brick manorial residences - the Pattie Field Clay House (MANW-22), Amberley (MANW-18), Elmwood (MASW-44) and the Bennett House (MANW-3) - as well as one hotel, the Glyndon (MAR-6). His work in Cincinnati spanned the year 1882-1916, some of it spent in partnership with William Hayward.
The Christian Carl Weber Firm of Fort Thomas, Kentucky, Known for the design of the Executive Mansion in Frankfort, was responsible for Eastern Kentucky University's early twentieth-century campus buildings. Beginning with the Roark Building (MASE-9) in 1910 and including the Keen Johnson Building (MASE-16) completed in 1940, they also worked as general contractors for many of the university's buildings. The continuity of the architectural design of the campus core is a result of the Weber brothers' nearly complete reliance on the Classical Revival style.
The appeal of the landscape design of the center campus at Eastern Kentucky University is due to the Olmstead Brothers, landscape architects of Brookline, Massachusetts. This firm was associated with Frederick Law Olmstead who designed New York City's Central Park and Cherokee Park in Louisvile, Kentucky. Employed in 1926 to suggest the campus's approaches, future buildings, and landscape, the firm's designs for the Ravine and University Drive loop are still evident.
Architects from around the country have contributed to the design of buildings on the Berea College campus. The oldest standing structure at Berea College, Ladies' Hall (MAB-28), was designed by the New York architectural firm of Cady, Bergh, and See in 1873, one year earlier then Central's University Building (MASE-14) in Richmond. The same firm designed Lincoln Hall, a National Historic Landmark. The Phelps Stokes Chapel (MAB-36), the Log House Sale Room (MAB-74), Kentucky Hall (MAB-22), and Talcott Hall (MAB-23) were all designed by New York architects, some in association with Cady.
Charles F. Cellarius of Cincinnati, Ohio, designed the Jessie Preston Draper Memorial Building (MAB-37) in 1937, after completing the 1935 addition to the Carnegie Library. Other Cincinnati architects, in addition to architects from Cleveland, Ohio; New Haven, Connecticut; and St. Louis, Missouri, designed the individual builings of Berea College. Nevertheless, a unified expression of Colonial Revival and Classical Revival Styling is clearly attained across the campus.
Conclusion
This overview is intended as a general guide to the architecture of the existing historic sites of Madison County. Because architecture reflects social and economic developments, significant buildings in the county are diverse, thus reflecting a varied fabric of local history. Different plans, materials, styles, and construction dates can be found interspersed throughout the county. Each possesses its own importance, and each warrants preservation.