By Margaret McDonough
Special to NKyTribune
The mysterious origin of the Covington/Northern Kentucky Townhouse is hiding in plain sight in the 900 block of Western Avenue in Covington.
The author’s house, at 909 Western Avenue, Covington, is an example of the Northern Kentucky/Covington Townhouse style, also called the Charleston Single House type in South Carolina. Photos by Margaret McDonough.
When I bought my house at 909 Western Avenue in Covington, I was curious to know if it was built before or after the Civil War. I found that the original 50′ by 180′ lot, in the Lewis Subdivision on a section of Western Avenue (named Ludlow St. by Dr. Harvey Lewis), sold in 1846 for $100. That same property was resold two years later, in 1848, for $260.
As other lots were still selling for $100, this likely indicated that improvements had been made upon the lot, namely a house. That would date the home as being built circa 1846-1848 by Charles Wilson, a meatpacker from Cincinnati who later moved to St. Louis, Missouri. John S. Morgan, a lawyer who owned slaughterhouses on the next block, handled the sale in 1848 with power of attorney.
Having discovered pre-Civil War construction, I was then curious about the style, as it looked like a house that might be seen in Charleston, South Carolina. I also thought there may be others like it in the area. I found no Charleston connection to Charles Wilson, who built the house and left Kentucky for Missouri shortly thereafter. I did find that Dr. Harvey Lewis was involved in the Whig Party, that was led by Henry Clay of Kentucky and that promoted transportation links, including railroads.
This house at 901 Western Avenue, Covington, is an example of the Charleston Double House type.
Lewis named the street Ludlow, after Israel Ludlow, who died in 1846.
Ludlow was an 1837 delegate to a meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee for the proposed Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad. John S. Morgan, a lawyer and local businessman, was President of the Licking & Lexington Railroad in 1849. These men, Lewis, Ludlow, and Morgan, had political and economic interests in promoting southern railroad connections and were probably familiar with houses in Charleston and throughout the South.
Interested in the architecture of Charleston, I came across the book, “The Buildings of Charleston” (1997), and was surprised to see pictures of houses similar to, not just mine, but three other houses on the 900 block of Western Avenue. These “twin” houses were all located on the 100 block of Wentworth Street in Charleston and were built for various owners before 1850.
This house at 899 Western Avenue, Covington is an example of the Charleston Freedman’s Cottage type.
I sent the Charleston Library photos of the “twin” Covington houses for their opinion and was e-mailed their “Tour Guide Training Manual.” Its description of Charleston’s historic Single and Double houses matched these houses in Covington. Double houses could best be described as attached townhouses, such as that seen at 901 Western Avenue.
This manual also described a Charleston Freedman’s Cottage as a small, one-story home, an example of which can be found at 899 Western Avenue in Covington.
The architectural description of the Charleston Single House also matched the description of the Northern Kentucky Townhouse (NKYTH) in the “Documentation of Historic Structures on Twelfth Street, Covington”(2013).
That study stated that “The origins of the NKYTH type are somewhat mysterious. It is formally similar to known precedents. As early as 1711 there were townhouses in cities like Boston with the narrow end facing the street and a side entry into a stair hall between two rooms. Somewhat later we have the Charleston single house, which is that distinctive residential type that orients the main facade of the structure toward a side garden with the end toward the street.”
The Charleston Single House generally featured a two-story porch along the side main entrance, such as my house at 909 Western Avenue.
An example of the Northern Kentucky/Covington Townhouse type is at 917 Western Avenue, Covington.
The description of the facade and floor plan of the Covington/Newport house in the “Northern Kentucky Townhouse Study for the Kentucky Heritage Council” (1993) is also basically the same as that of the Charleston Single House in “The City of Charleston Tour Guide and Training M annual.”
As to the origins of the Covington townhouse, the Northern Kentucky Townhouse Study notes that “knowing which architectural pattern books were available in these communities during this period could possibly lead to a better understanding of the origins for the Covington/Newport House.” Further, this same study dates most of these townhouses in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area between 1865 and 1910.
Found on Western Avenue, and even better than a builder’s pattern book, are actual homes built before the Civil War with this facade and floor plan, clearly predating the proliferation of this local style after 1865.
An example of the Northern Kentucky/Covington Townhouse type is at 923 Western Avenue, Covington.
Kennedy and Casey also owned extensive property and developed subdivisions directly above and south of Harvey Lewis’s. Harvey Lewis’s mother-in-law, the widow of Benjamin Leathers, married James Casey, who attended a meeting with the President of the Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad in Cincinnati in 1838.
Kennedy and Casey would have probably been familiar with Charleston homes and could have adapted and popularized that style house throughout the area, especially following the Civil War.
So, I found that my house was built before the Civil War and looks like a house from Charleston, perhaps because of close cultural and economic links between the cities of Cincinnati and Charleston. The biggest discovery, however, was that the Charlestonstyle houses on Western Avenue help to explain the elusive early origins of the unique local architectural style known as the Northern Kentucky Townhouse or Covington/Newport House found in this region.
Margaret McDonough is a retired Findlay & Court Street Market gardener who now tutors adult reading at The Over-the-Rhine Learning Center in Cincinnati and at the Kenton County Public Library in Covington. She lives in the Lewisburg neighborhood of Covington.
