The Barnes Restoration Building sits on the former site of the G.T. Hord House, which was razed in the early 1990s. The Hord house was a two story Federal vernacular style I-plan dwelling. It had shouldered brick chimneys and uneven clapboard siding. The house was built very early and retained much of its integrity into the early 1980s. The Barnes Building is five bay brick, two story, with a hipped roof and shuttered windows. 

Today it is a short-term rental so you can check it out to stay the next time you're in Woodford County!

The Guss L. Macey House's conical turret, tall chimneys, encircling veranda, gabled projecting pavilion, window openings of varied sizes, and horizontal siding combine to form an excellent Queen Anne style house. Macey was prominent in the horse industry. His father, Captain Ward Macey, established a training stable in Ver- sailles after the Civil War. Guss Macey began han- dling trotters as a young boy, and soon had few equals as either trainer or driver. By 1900, Macey had won the largest stakes race ever trotted for in the world at that time, the $30,000 Futurity at Lexington, Kentucky. He was the first man to ever win two Futurities. Macey also patented the racing toe weight for trotters. He developed the weight after he had personally used and observed the defects in all other toe weights.

Many prominent Woodford County families have had connections to this house over the years, including the McCauleys, the Raileys, the Fishbacks, and the Alexanders. This two story Queen Anne frame house was probably built in the 1880s, since it does not appear on the 1877 D.G. Beers map but is on Sanborn maps beginning in the 1890s. The house was renovated in 1974-1975, and some of the original features were removed or changed. Some of the more interesting features of the house include the arched window in the center bay on the second floor and the fish scale shingling on the first floor bay window, which is echoed in the frieze on the entablature below the cornice.

This house is sometimes known as the Seller House for one of its former owners, Thomas Seller, who was vice president of the Harris-Seller Bank and one of the town's most successful entrepreneurs. He ran a successful car- riage manufacturing business until 1890, when he went into banking. Seller purchased the property on Rose Hill in 1884. The original portion of the house, which dates to about 1820, was two rooms over two rooms with a front hall. In 1879, the living room was added to the east side of the house's first floor and the face of the house was redone. The house was one-and-a-half stories at that time. In 1891, Seller removed the roof and made the building a full two stories. In 1962, owner Jack Resinger removed the two front porches and began restoring the house to its 1820-1879 appearance. Resinger added a den in 1975 and a kitchen in 1984. He also added a beauti- fully landscaped brick courtyard in 1984.

On October 16, 1871, Mrs. Paulina Chris- man bought 17 acres of land here from Thomas P. Porter and started building a two story brick house. Chrisman was the daughter of Susanna Harris and George Calhoun Caldwell. She married John Higbee and had four children. One son, A.C. Higbee, was a long time merchant in Versailles. A daughter, Susan Higbee, married Thomas Field of Woodford County. When Mr. Higbee died. Paulina married Joseph Crisman and had one daughter, Katherine Chrisman, who later married James Graves, who owned the property on the western end of Rose Hill (see #10-13). Paulina Cris- man died in 1874, and her heirs sold the house to Richard George in 1877. The following year the house was sold again, this time to George Cotton. It remained in the Cotton family until 1946. The house was built in the Victorian style but has heavy Gothic Revival influence, as seen in the steeply pitched front gables and decorative barge boarding in the tympanum.

This house was built in 1898 by Dr. C.W. Parker. The house takes its historic name, the Mastin House, from its first owner's second marriage. The structure has an asymmetri- cal plan, a veranda, and corralled chimneys. Although predominately Queen Anne in architectural style, the move toward Neo-Colonialism is evident in the returns by the bay window on the second story as well as the classic columns on the one story portico. The bay window on the second floor has a stained glass window set in the upper sash. Another stained glass window is set in the center of the bay window in the dining room. 

The J.M. Graves house occupies one of the largest lots in the district. In 1877, the house was the only structure on a large piece of property on which the houses now occupying 268, 276 and 284 Rose Hill were later built. The Graves house is transitional in style. Constructed of brick, the dwelling is characterized by its five bay front elevation and heavily bracketed, overhanging cornices. The center gables and hoodmolds are particularly characteristic to houses built during the mid-19th century. Of particular architectural interest is the five bay wooden porch with decorative bracing. 

The property at 276 Rose Hill was purchased from the J.M. Graves estate by William Yeoman in 1889. Yeoman probably built the house soon after. The property was sold to Mrs. Louella Sellers in 1892. James W. Miller and his wife, Perla, moved into the house in October 1902. Miller was a mayor of Versailles for a number of years. He is described in a 1902 issue of the Woodford Sun as "a first class businessman in every sense of the word, able, progressive and fully up to the times. He is a splendid financier. He is liberal, broad-minded and full of public spirit, and has a big warm heart. Although a wealthy man himself, he is always on the side of the poor man on public questions" At that time he had been mayor for four years and had just been reelected for another term without opposition.

Known historically as Sunny Hollow, or the Amsden-Haupt House, this structure dates from the 1860s and was home to several generations of Amsdens descended from John Amsden Sr., who came to Woodford County in 1839 from his native Massachusetts. A successful Ver- sailles merchant, he founded the Amsden Bank in 1867 and was also one of the founders of St. John's Episcopal Church, Versailles. His granddaughter, Jean Haggin Amsden, married William Medlar Haupt in 1909, and they took over the house. Their daughter, Margaret Haupt, married William Hunter Fishback in 1933. The two story brick house originally had a gingerbread gable and arched window on the second floor at the front. There were six paired chimney stacks. Five steps led up to the large front porch which stretched across the front of the house to a floor-to-ceiling window on each side. That is not the house one sees today. About 1890 the house was expanded dramatically into a large Victorian classic, complete with turret on the south- east corner. The two front windows on the first floor were doubled in width and elaborate colored glass sections were placed at the top of the windows. The front porch was partially enclosed with latticework. A balcony with a low railing was added to the second floor on top of the porch with a pair of windows looking out onto it. The height of the house was raised and a small curved window was added to the front gable. The house was remodeled and ex- panded again in the 1920s. All of the dark Victorian elements were removed and the trim inside and out was painted white. 

Although this house is one of the few structures in the Rose Hill Historic District which was built in the 20th century, it is a fine example of the Colonial Revival style. Located on the summit of Rose Hill, the house has a deep setback and the yard is heavily shaded during the summer. The structure is of brick construction, with a projecting, gabled pavilion, and a one story portico. Keystone lintels top the window openings, and the entrance is surrounded by an elliptical fan and sidelights.

This stately brick residence was built after 1918 on the former site of the Rose Hill Academy. Note the Kentucky Historical Highway Marker out front, placed here in 1967 by alumni of the Academy. The Rose Hill Academy operated on this site from 1901 to 1918. The site featured the two-room frame schoolhouse and a large brick residence where Professor Matt Gay Jesse lived and boarded male students during the school year. After the Academy closed in 1918, the property was purchased by Mrs. Margaret Voorhies Haggin of New York. She had the brick residence razed and lived in the little schoolhouse while her new home was built. When her new home was completed, she donated the little schoolhouse to the Versailles City School District and had the building moved to South Main Street near where the Community Education Building stands today. It was later moved again to High Street, where it is now used as a private residence. The two-and-a-half story, seven bay Haggin House is built in the Federal style and has several interesting architectural features, such as the gabled front, the semi-circular window set into the gable, and the columned portico. The house served for a number of years as the residence for the headmaster of Margaret Hall School in Versailles.

This two story brick house, now occupied by the Duell-Clark Funeral Chapel, was probably built by Dr. Louis L. Ferguson shortly before his death in 1876. Ferguson was a native of Fayette County, Kentucky. He moved to Versailles near the close of the Civil War. He married Sallie B. Graddy in October 1866. Ferguson attended medical college in Louisville and Philadelphia and received his medical degree from Jefferson College. He was a prominent physician and was known for his sterling integrity, amiability of disposition, sweet- ness of temper, and refinement of manner. Ferguson owned another house at 221 Rose Hill in the 1870s (see #3). This five bay building features a bracketed cornice, a portico with double columns atop stone piers, and decorative hoodmolds. The raised yard is bounded by a low stone fence.

What is today the Rose Hill Inn Bed and Breakfast was known historically as the Terrell House. The structure was reportedly built in 1823 by Henry Crittenden, father of former Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. The house, built for the Terrell family of Virginia, is one of the earliest structures on Rose Hill Avenue, still known at that time as Morgan Street. This two story brick was originally constructed in the Federal style, but was modified to Gothic during the 1870s. At that time it was owned by E.M. Wallace, great-grandson of Judge Caleb Wallace, a justice of the first Ken- tucky Court of Appeals. During the modification, the fanned entrance and Palladian windows were re- placed and the roof line was raised to accommodate steeply pitched, bracketed gables. Cornice heads cap the first floor openings, and the second floor has rounded arched hood molds. The Victorian porch was later replaced by a 20th century style porch. The only visible reminder of the original structure is the Flemish bond exterior brickwork. The house was known in the 20th century as the Gregory House, for owners Dr. and Mrs. George H. Gregory.

This dwelling is known as the Twyman House for the original owner, Wilford Wirt (W.W.) Twyman, a captain who served in General Lafayette's command during the Revolutionary War. He settled in Woodford County about 1783. Twyman's descendants owned the house until 1889, when the heirs sold the property to A.W. Thompson. In 1907, the house belonged to J.W. Newman, a state representative and state senator from Woodford County who briefly sought the gubernatorial nomination. The oldest portion of this Georgian style house was built before 1830 and is constructed of brick laid in the American bond pat- tern. The front part of the house was added in the 1840s. It has a stone foundation and is brick laid in the Flemish bond pattern. In 1902 the house was modified by adding a shingled second story, a hipped roof, and iconic columns. The front section of the house has chimneys at each end, while the older rear section has a central chimney. The entrance has a leaded fan light and a leaded front door.

This house is known historically as the Ferguson House for Dr. L.L. Ferguson, who owned the property in 1868 and probably built the house that same year. Dr. Ferguson, a Fayette County, Kentucky, native, settled in Versailles near the end of the Civil War. The property remained in the Ferguson family until 1898. The Victorian-Gothic house is constructed of frame vertical boarding with a central, bracketed gable. A well-designed lonic portico graces the facade. The exterior of the house remains virtually unchanged except for an expanded patio and a screened porch. This is one of the few houses in the district whose exterior has remained unaltered.

215 Rose Hill 

The Blackburn House takes its historic name from a former resident, Joseph Clay Styles Blackburn, a native of Versailles who achieved national political prominence during the late 1800s. His entry into politics occurred in 1871 with his election to the Kentucky General Assembly. At age 36, Blackburn was elected to Congress. He served later as state senator from 1885 to 1897, and again from 1901 to 1907. The peak of Blackburn's political career came in 1896, when he received 41 votes toward the nomination of the presidency at the Democratic National Convention. The house is of brick construction with rough cut stone trim, and window openings of varied sizes. The structure sits on an elevated yard bounded by a stone wall, which emphasizes its grandness. Eclectic in design, the major elements are suggestive of Queen Anne, while its fanned and Palladian windows are reminiscent of Colonial Revival styles. 

The former Big Spring Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation, has been designated as a Kentucky Landmark by the Kentucky Heritage Commission, and is recognized by a Kentucky Historical Highway Marker. Built in 1819 as a Baptist church, the structure has five bays on the longer sides and three bays on the ends. It has four equalized double doorways with transoms. The walls of the building are three bricks thick. Windows are nine-over-six on the ground floor and six-over-six on the second story. The building has a hipped roof with a continuous horizontal cornice. From the early 1830s through 1855, the building was the home of the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. During the next century the building was used as a woolyard, a boarding house, a girls' school, a funeral home, and a private residence. The exterior has been altered many times, but when the Woodford County Historical Society purchased the building in 1969, they restored it to its original Tidewater style.