In the approach path from I-265 to the east end bridge this 47-acre wooded estate is federally designated and protected under the U.S. Department of Transportation Act.

The main house is listed on the National Register as 20th-century Tudor Revival-style architecture, and was built in 1929.

The state bought the Harrods Creek site for $8.3 million in 2012. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to bore twin tunnels underneath the estate to preserve it. The state of Kentucky, who now own it, is looking for a buyer.

Because the estate, listed in 1983 on the National Register of Historic Places, is part of the Country Estates District, the entire district could have lost some of its integrity if the bridge approach route had run through the property.

Drumanard Estate preservationists claim the property features a historic landscape planned by the nationally-known firm of Olmsted Associates.

The state fought against the federal historic designation for the house that prevented it from being demolished and wanted an overland route taken across the property instead.

Some folks still think the National Register status of the estate got its status as part of a conspiracy by a local group that didn’t want their own property values diminished.

Their findings showed the Olmsted firm’s 1904 layout for Drumanard was never implemented, and was never intended to be implemented on all 55 acres.

The theorists also claimed “state and local historic preservation officials manipulated the process in a deceitful and unethical manner”. Individuals representing the Kentucky Heritage Council, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Jefferson County Office of Historic Preservation and Archives, “used unprofessional tactics on the owner of the Drumanard from 1988 to 1992 in order to intimidate the owners in placing this property on the National Register solely for the purpose of blocking progress of the East End Bridge”.

They claimed the Drumanard “boundary increase” of the entire 55 acres is not a historic property and should not have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

More than one person has claimed “The whole thing is stupid to the extreme”.

6401 Wolf Pen Branch Rd.; also known as the Watson House, the Strater House, and the Fitzhugh House.

Located across the Ohio River, below the Falls of the Ohio, in southern Indiana. One of the six original settlements at the Falls of the Ohio which included Clarksville, Jeffersonville, Louisville, Portland and Shippingport.

The Scribner brothers arrived from New York in 1813 and named the town in honor of the capital of their home state. One of the Scribner houses, built c. 1814, is still standing at the southeast corner of Main and State Sts. The area became a transportation and ship building center.

Before the locks were completed on the Louisville side of the Ohio River in 1830, the river’s influence established New Albany as one of the largest cities in the midwest. The most lavishly furnished steam boats were built in New Albany. The first plate glass windows in the U.S. were produced here.

New Albany is significant for its excellent examples of 19th century commercial and residential architecture.

Mansion Row on E. Main St. is an outstanding collection of 19th and early-20th century architecture. Downtown contains a significant collection of commercial buildings, dating from the first half of the 1800s to the 1950s. A wide range of architectural styles are represented, including Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Renaissance Revival, Beaux Arts, Neoclassical and Chicago Commercial.

In addition to the Mansion Row several other neighborhoods in New Albany are on the National Register, they include Downtown, East Spring St., Cedar Bough, Shelby Place, DePauw Ave., Hedden’s Grove, and the Long-Graf House.

East Spring St. district is just east of the central business district and was a middle- to upper-class neighborhood. The Cedar Bough Place district is a short private street that runs between Ekin Ave. and Beeler St. and was considered one of the city’s most prestigious addresses. The Long-Graf House is a Queen Anne-style house at 1945 E. Elm St.

New Albany Historic Preservation Commission
New Albany – Floyd County Public Library

In 1883, the Southern Exposition of Art, Industry, and Agriculture opened for a five year run on the 40 acre grounds that extended from Park Ave. to Hill St. and from 4th to 6th Sts. The main two-story 600 x 900 sq. ft. wood-framed main building was on the present site of St. James, Fountain, and Belgravia Courts. The marvel of the exposition was the largest ever display of electric lighting, 4600 Edison incandescent bulbs. One million people visited the exposition over five years.

After the Southern Exposition closed and was disassembled in 1887 the area was subdivided to include center greens, three walking courts, and a fountain imported from New England. The original fountain was replaced in the 1970s.

The Conrad-Caldwell House Museum, also known as Conrad’s Castle, is the most stunning of Old Louisville’s homes and defines Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. The house was built for a Frenchman who made his fortune in the leather tanning business. The St. James Court Historic Foundation purchased the home in 1987, restored it, and operates the museum today.

The St. James Court Art Show is a juried fine arts and fine crafts show held the first weekend of October that began in 1957 as neighborhood artists displayed art on a clothesline in the center greens, and has turned into one of the biggest and best in the nation, attracting the largest crowds for any event in Kentucky.

The châteauesque-style Pink Palace at Saint James & Belgravia Cts., and the beaux arts-style mansion at Belgravia Ct. & 4th St., should not be missed on a walking tour of the neighborhood. Tours are available seasonally through the Old Louisville Neighborhood and Visitors Center in Central Park and from other guides.

The St. James Court Neighborhood Association and the Belgravia Court Association manage the preservation and upkeep of Louisville’s most elegant neighborhood.

www.oldlouisville.org

One of Kentucky’s early settlements, chartered as a city in 1797 and lying on the Sinking Fork of Beargrass Creek where the main road to Louisville crossed. Referred to as Middle Station in records before 1787.

Named for being the mid-point between Louisville and Shelbyville on the old Louisville and Shelbyville Turnpike road. The first map of Middletown showed it to be two and one-half blocks long and two blocks wide.

An early trading center for the farms surrounding the city. Its location on the toll road made it a favorite stopover for early travelers traveling by horse. The Wetherby House (Davis Tavern) opened in the early 1840s as a hotel, stagecoach stop, and slave-trading post, along with the Middletown Inn, they both provided hospitality for visitors.

The city was occupied briefly by Confederate forces during the 1862 invasion of Kentucky.

An interurban rail line between Louisville and Shelbyville, established in 1910, made it possible for workers to commute to jobs in Louisville and the area changed from a farming to a suburban community. The interurban was discontinued in 1934 as an increasing number of workers used automobiles to drive to their jobs. The suburbanization continued to such an extent as to almost completely remove all traces of the former rural environment.

Several structures in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and there are two designated Historic Districts containing over 100 individual properties.

www.cityofmiddletownky.org

The area was first known as Hite’s Mill, and then Hobb’s Station, in honor of a president of the Louisville and Lexington Railroad. The town was renamed Anchorage for the estate of a retired steamboat captain. A steamboat anchor mounted inside a driving wheel from a steam locomotive is displayed in the center of town near where the L&N Railroad station once stood.

Originally a community of ten to twenty acre country estates developed beginning in the 1860s on the important Louisville and Frankfort Railroad line between Louisville, Frankfort and points east. A number of country estates were established around the Anchorage station during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Many are of frame construction and date from the 1870s through 1904.

With train service available, including the Louisville, Anchorage, and Pewee Valley Interurban Railroad starting in 1901, the community grew as summer residences for upper class businessmen who commuted into the city each day.

A prominent citizen commissioned the Frederick Law Olmsted firm to design a plan for the town in 1914, it incorporated stone bridges, triangular intersections, and a park like setting.

The Citizens National Life Insurance Co. building was built in 1911 and generated enough tax base to allow the community to create the Anchorage Graded and High School. In 1916, the offices of the Southern Pacific Railroad moved into the building and it became the home office for an out of state corporation controlling 13,000 miles of track, and not a foot was in Kentucky. When corporate tax laws in the State were changed, the railway offices moved away.

The number of houses in the community nearly doubled between 1977 and 1997. To preserve the rural character of the town, an Anchorage Historic District was created, and included on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

www.cityofanchorage.org