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Newdigate-Reed House

Houses in Maysville, KentuckyHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in KentuckyLog buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in KentuckyLog houses in the United StatesNational Register of Historic Places in Mason County, Kentucky
Newdigate Reed House
Newdigate Reed House

The Newdigate-Reed House is a two-story log house built by the Newdigate family at the top of the hill near the Lexington-Maysville Turnpike. John Newdigate, a farmer, is listed as the landowner in 1854. Situated at the top of a steep hill leading out of Maysville, the house served as a convenient rest stop for merchants and wagon masters hauling goods from the docks at Maysville to points south. Siding was applied to the log structure in the 1930s. The structure is asymmetrical with four windows on the upper story left side, one on the right side, and one to the right of the first floor entrance. The doorway with a one-story portico is slightly off-center. Stone chimneys on either end of the house are original.The building was purchased by the Bierbower family in the late 19th century and sold to Stanley Forman Reed in 1910, Reed having just completed his law studies at a number of Universities including Yale University, the University of Virginia, Columbia University and the University of Paris.The future supreme court justice began the practice of law in Maysville in 1910 with the law firm of Worthington, Browning and Reed. Reed served as a Kentucky state representative between 1912 and 1916, sponsoring child labor and workman's compensation bills that were enacted in the face of significant opposition.Although a Democrat, Reed was appointed by President Herbert Hoover to serve as general counsel of the Federal Farm Board in 1929. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Reed Solicitor General of the United States to defend the New Deal laws whose constitutionality had been challenged. Reed was successful in doing so. In 1938, Reed was nominated to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy caused by the retirement of Justice George Sutherland. Reed was widely considered the best lawyer in government service and his nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate.

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Newdigate-Reed House
Skyline Drive,

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N 38.645277777778 ° E -83.776944444444 °
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Skyline Drive 292
41056
Kentucky, United States
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Newdigate Reed House
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Maysville, Kentucky
Maysville, Kentucky

Maysville is a home rule-class city in Mason County, Kentucky, United States, and is the seat of Mason County. The population was 8,873 as of the 2020 census. Maysville is on the Ohio River, 66 miles (106 km) northeast of Lexington. It is the principal city of the Maysville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which comprises Mason County. Two bridges cross the Ohio from Maysville to Aberdeen, Ohio: the Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge built in 1931 and the William H. Harsha Bridge built in 2001. On the edge of the outer Bluegrass Region, Maysville is historically important in Kentucky's settlement. Frontiersmen Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone are among the city's founders. Later, Maysville became an important port on the Ohio River for the northeastern part of the state. It exported bourbon whiskey, hemp and tobacco, the latter two produced mainly by African American slaves before the Civil War. It was once a center of wrought iron manufacture, sending ironwork downriver to decorate the buildings of Cincinnati, Ohio, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Other small manufacturers also located early in Maysville, and manufacturing remains an important part of the modern economy. Under the leadership of Henry Means Walker, Maysville was home to one of the largest tobacco auction warehouses in the world for most of the 20th century.Maysville was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, as the free state of Ohio was just across the river. Abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the area in 1833 and watched a slave auction in front of the court house in Washington, the original seat of the county and now a historic district of Maysville. She included the scene in her influential novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852.

Armstrong Row
Armstrong Row

Armstrong Row is a series of 11 brick row houses in Maysville, Kentucky built between 1820 and 1833 by John Armstrong, a local industrialist, entrepreneur and real estate developer. Vacant lots were purchased by an Armstrong owned company that operated the Maysville cotton mill. The company continued to operate as the January & Wood Company until 2003. Armstrong also developed a number of other row house projects in Maysville including the Federal style row houses on Limestone Street, Mechanic's Row, and the "Allen Block".The Armstrong Row houses are two story brick with gable roofs and stepped parapet walls in both Federal and Greek Revival style. The facade is Flemish bond and sides are common bond. Although similar in construction, the gable roofs vary in pitch suggesting the buildings were constructed either by more than one builder or over a period of time. John Armstrong was born in Ireland in 1779 and emigrated to America with his family circa 1790. He bought his first Maysville property in 1800 from Jacob Boone, a first cousin of Daniel Boone. He later operated several wholesale houses on front street becoming wealthy in the process.Armstrong was instrumental in the early development of the city and was the first to sign a petition to move the county seat from Washington to Maysville. He was a member of the company responsible for building the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike, he established the first bank in Kentucky in Maysville in 1818, and was a member of the committee that welcomed General Lafayette to Maysville in an 1825 visit.

Phillips' Folly
Phillips' Folly

Phillips' Folly is an historic three-story brick residence in Maysville, Kentucky. The home's Antebellum architecture displays a blend of styles which may be explained, in part, by the home's speculative six-year construction period, which ended with its completion in 1831. The Sutton Street entrances are Federal, windows are typical Greek Revival in their size and character, and the two-tiered portico and the segmental dormers reflect a Georgian influence. The portico and Doric frieze are similar to Drayton Hall (1738–42) near Charleston, South Carolina. The stepped parapets on the end walls are peculiar to the Ohio River Valley and are "associated with the 'Dutch' character of Cincinnati, Ohio and the surrounding area." The home also possesses an artful and unique dry stacked foundation that is set without mortar. William B. Phillips was Maysville's second mayor and was among those who welcomed General Lafayette during his 1825 Maysville visit. Phillips is listed as serving as Mason County's state legislator in 1820. Phillips' residence earned the term "folly" because the mansion's construction began as early as 1825, but was halted for up to six years due to lack of funding. According to a 1973 magazine article, "leaving the house unfinished, the owner disappeared for two years, during which time he won enough money [in New Orleans] at gambling to complete the structure".Phillips sold his "folly" to wealthy businessman John Armstrong in 1838. Armstrong was instrumental in the early development of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Maysville, Kentucky, in particular. Armstrong was the first to sign a petition to move the county seat from Washington to Maysville. Armstrong was a member of the company responsible for building the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike, which was the subject of the significant historical decision involving U.S. President Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren and Congressman Henry Clay referred to as the Maysville Road veto. The Maysville Road veto served as one of President Jackson's first acts in aligning the federal government with the principles of what would later be known as Jacksonian democracy. Armstrong established the first bank in Kentucky in 1818. Armstrong died in the home in 1851. After John Armstrong's death, the home was willed to Armstrong's son, Francis Woodland Armstrong, who served as a noted abolitionist. The Reed family owned the home from 1894 to 1904. Dr. John Reed maintained a medical practice in the basement of the residence for about 10 years. Also during this period, the residence was the adolescent home of U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice, Stanley Forman Reed. Justice Reed spent formative years in the home until leaving for college. Reed would go on to serve in the Kentucky House of Representatives and as U.S. Solicitor General, where he defended the constitutionality of several New Deal policies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Reed to the Supreme Court in 1938. Justice Reed served the nation's highest court until his retirement in 1957. Justice Reed wrote the majority opinion for the cases Smith v. Allwright, Gorin v. United States, and Adamson v. California. He authored dissenting opinions for the cases Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education. Reed was the final pivotal voice for the unanimity of the U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.According to oral history, during the ownership of Francis Woodland Armstrong, the mansion served as an important post along the Underground Railroad. During this time corresponding with the American Civil War, runaway slaves were held in a wooden jail cell that dates to the home's original 1831 construction. Runaway slaves would be housed in the basement jail cell until it was deemed safe for them to continue their journey to the nearby free state of Ohio. It is believed that slaves were kept in the jail to foil slave hunters who were likely to search the home. A tunnel leading to a secret room once used by slaves to escape to the Ohio River can still be seen in the home's basement. The basement jail cell is still intact today and is thought to have also served as an early town jail during the ownership of Mayor Phillips. In March 2011, Ghost Adventures from the Travel Channel filmed at Phillips' Folly. The episode aired on Friday, May 13, 2011. It featured former resident and Underground Railroad historian, Jerry Gore. The home is said to be the residence of several spirits, including John Armstrong and his Newfoundland dog; by John Pearce who died in the home around 1890 either by fighting a duel in the home's back parlor or by suicide in the home's back parlor (dueling was outlawed at the time, therefore death by suicide may have been the manner of death officially recorded); and by former slaves who were chained in the basement prior to the home's abolitionist history. The home's backyard is directly adjacent to one of the oldest known cemeteries in Kentucky (circa 1800–1850) referred to locally as the Maysville Pioneer Graveyard, which was established on land acquired by city trustee Jacob Boone, close friend, business partner, and cousin to Daniel Boone. Jacob Boone and his family are buried in the Maysville Pioneer Graveyard in a plot notating Jacob's militia service during the American Revolutionary War. Phillips' Folly was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 10, 1978. Phillips' Folly is a private residence.

Old Library Building (Maysville, Kentucky)
Old Library Building (Maysville, Kentucky)

The Old Library Building was chartered by the Maysville and Mason County Library, Historic and Scientific Association in 1878 and built between 1878 and 1880. It is the last of four libraries established in Maysville, Kentucky in the nineteenth century. It was preceded by the Maysville Lyceum – chartered in 1839, the Maysville Athenaeum – 1840, and the Maysville Library - date unknown, but no longer in existence by 1859.The brick structure is long and narrow, set perpendicular to the street. The original front of the building facing Sutton Street was a bare brick wall. In 1973, a new wing was added with windows matching the original side elevation with the insertion of plain double doors into the end bays.Structurally, there are tall narrow brick piers between which the actual wall is recessed, but most of the wall consists of the apparent frames of the tall, narrow two-story windows, which seem to occupy most of the surface. The deepest windows have round arches at the top with prominent stone keystones. Circular windows, framed in wood, are inserted within the arch. Above the keystones and within the vertical panels are corbelled brick features with narrow slits that suggest machicolation. Apparently, there has never been an ornamental cornice.The scale of the two-story windows is non-residential and the form suggests a mid-19th-century Italianate style often applied to semi-public buildings such as fire stations, banks, Masonic meeting halls, and libraries. The interior originally consisted of a single long hall with gallery above. It is now reached by a staircase at the far end that splits above a central landing to lead up to the gallery on either side. The gallery is supported turned columns above newel posts.

Washington Opera House
Washington Opera House

The Washington Opera House is a 2 and 1/2 story structure near the western end of the main downtown shopping district of Maysville, Kentucky. The sides and rear of the theater are of red brick while the façade is of buff brick trimmed with red brick, stone, and cast iron. The tradition of theater in Mason County dates back to at least 1797 according to the Washington, Kentucky newspaper, The Mirror. The performance at the "Court House" is the first record of a stage performance west of the Alleghenies to disclose play titles, performance dates and prices. By 1817, there was a theater in Limestone (Maysville) at the corner of 2nd Street and Fish Street (now Wall Street).A disastrous fire destroyed a significant amount of property on West Second Street in April 1850 including the Presbyterian Church, then known as the Old Blue Church. The church congregation decided to rebuild on Third Street, leaving the Second Street lot vacant. In 1851, two fire companies were formed to prevent a repeat of the town fire and an elegant theater, "The Opera House", was built on the site of the Old Blue Church.In 1898, fire struck again and "The Opera House" was destroyed. Perhaps from remorse, the Washington Fire Company, organized at the time the theater was built - nearly five decades before, decided to rebuild it at a cost of $24,000 and the new structure was thereafter known as the "Washington Opera House".A number of famous artists and actors performed here including Marguerite Clark, Tom Mix, John L. Sullivan, and John Philip Sousa and his band. The Washington Opera continues as a theater and is currently home to the Maysville Players.