Wildwood
Wildwood is a primary example of the High Victorian Italianate style, and is one of the best examples of this style in Kentucky, if not the United States. The Italianate style dominated American houses constructed between 1850 and 1880. Italianate houses are least common in the southern states, where the Civil War and Reconstruction led to little new construction until after the style had passed from fashion.
The Italianate style emphasized rambling, informal Italian farmhouses with their square towers as models for Italian style villa architecture. The first Italianate houses in the United States were built in the late 1830’s. The style was popularized by the influential pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing published in the 1840’s and 1850’s. Architectural historians have distinguished two chronological phases of Italianate styling. The first phase from 1840 to 1860 exhibited relatively simple detailing. The second phase from 1860 to 1870 exhibited a more highly decorated phase, sometimes referred to as High Victorian Italianate.

Wildwood was constructed as a brick two story High Victorian Italianate residence. The floor plan is basically a T shaped plan with a three-story tower positioned at the juncture of the arms of the T plan. The front facade is five bays with a central entrance through the tower. A one story wraparound porch links the exterior doors on the north and east facades. The gingerbread design lattice on the porch is one of the most distinctive features of the residence. The doors and windows are segmentally arched with stone sills and brick hood moldings. Bull’s eye windows are located in each of the gables. The windows are 2/2 with interior wooden shutters. The roof has sections of both hip and gable with overhanging eaves and centralized brick chimneys. The main entrance has a pair of decoratively paneled double doors with glazed transoms above. Square pilasters with decorative brackets are located on each side, and support a decorative entrance covering. Uncle Will's room was on the first floor of Wildwood where the windows extend to the floor and open out onto the porch. And that was the way Uncle Will went into those rooms…..through the windows. If the window was down, Uncle Will knocked the glass out and kept on going.
< Previous Read More >