Ward Hall: Kentucky’s Greek Revival Masterpiece

Praise for Ward Hall . . .

“…the Noblest Greek Revival house in Kentucky.” —Lindsey Apple, Scott County, A History; 1993, pg. 164.

“The Grandest Greek Revival house in Kentucky, and one of the grandest in America, is Ward Hall in Scott County.” —James Birchfield, Clay Lancaster’s Kentucky; 2009, pg.106.

“The stairway is the grandest of this style in the country.”  —Ann Bolton Bevins, Real Country 3; 2021, pg. 140.

“Kentucky’s largest and most ostentatious Greek Revival house.” —Ann Bolton Bevins, Johnson, Apple, Georgetown and Scott County; 1998, pg 116.

“Ward Hall, [is] the epitome of Kentucky Greek Revival architecture.” —Ann Bolton Bevins, The Ward and Johnson Families of Central Kentucky; 1984, pg 21.

“…the most fabulous house in Central Kentucky.” —Richard DeCamp, The Bluegrass of Kentucky; 1985, pg. 154.

“Widely considered one of the finest mid-nineteenth century classical structures in America.” —Pieter Estersohn, Kentucky: Historic Houses and Horse Farms of Bluegrass Country; 2014, pg. 88 (featured on the front cover).

“Ward Hall … It’s early American classical architecture, Greek Revival and one of the most amazing examples because it hasn’t been tarted up.” —Pieter Estersohn, New York Times interview, 2014.

“Palatial formality and magnificence.” —Talbot Hamlin, Greek Revival Architecture in America; 1944,  pg. 246.

“A short distance from Georgetown, Ky., stands a pretentious house, built of brick, and with a lawn in front sloping to the highway, which never fails to attract the attention of strangers.” —Obituary of Junius Ward, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Monday, 3 September 1883, pg. 2; copied from Turf, Field and Farm.

“It was a veritable palace, surrounded by a fairy garden.” —Descendent Henry V Johnson

“One of the grandest Greek Revival houses north of the deep south.… It’s a nationally important house. To lose this would be black eye for Kentucky.” —Richard Sammonds, Keeneland Magazine, Winter, 2012.

“It is a house that is as arrogant as it is beautiful; as stately as it is old; as proud as it is wise.” —Elizabeth Simpson, Bluegrass Houses and their Traditions; 1932, pg. 293.

“Thomas Lewinski … the epitome of residential architecture of this style is his 1854 design for Ward Hall.” —John Kleber, The Kentucky Encyclopedia; 1992, pg. 29.

“The largest and most ornate Greek Revival style residence in Kentucky and is the epitome of southern grandeur.” —John Kleber, The Kentucky Encyclopedia; 1992, pg. 928.

“The most imposing Greek rural residence in Kentucky.” —Clay Lancaster, Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky; 1991, pg. 229.

“The grandest of all the porticoed and plastered mansions is Ward Hall.” —Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South, Kentucky and Tennessee; 1993, pg. 158.

“Ward Hall is the unchallenged queen of Greek Revival architecture in Kentucky … Kentucky’s preeminent antebellum Greek Revival residence … One of the finest examples of its kind in the United States … The grandest Greek Revival home ever built in Kentucky … A masterpiece of plantation design … One of the most important structures of its kind in the United States” —Matrana, Lattimore, Kitchens, Southern Splendor, Saving Architectural Treasures of the Old South; 2018, pg. 296-303.

“The best ornamental plaster in Kentucky.” —Rexford Newcomb, Architecture in Old Kentucky; 1953, pg. 85.

“The most fabulous house.” —Rexford Newcomb, Architecture in Old Kentucky; 1953, pg.140.

“The handsomest country place in Kentucky” —The Lexington Observer, September 12, 1867.