The Method Behind the Madness: Solving a House Mystery, Lexington, Kentucky

In the spring of 2018, I shared a photo from the Lafayette Studios Collection on the Gardens to Gables Facebook page. The black and white image shows a two-story, brick, Italianate style house from the late 19th century. The photo was captioned “Alf Ruh Estate; exterior front of house with tall trees in the front lawn (128 Fairlawn Avenue).” I commented that the dwelling may have been on Fairlawn or on North Broadway, but no longer, and I solicited feedback from readers. Fast forward seven years, with a new comment on an old post, and I’ve descended into the rabbit hole of research. I simply can’t resist a mystery regarding a historic house and a possibly erroneous photo caption. I can’t be the only one who feels that way – so I shall now share the method to my madness, in case other history detectives want to follow in my steps.

The photo that sparked my research. Circa 1938 image from the Lafayette Studios Collection at the University of Kentucky, https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt702v2c8t1s_5355_1

Yesterday, a reader and former resident of the neighborhood around Fairlawn Avenue (which was developed in the early 20th century), posted a photo and comment on my 2018 post. She wondered if the image she found in the University of Kentucky archives was the same dwelling as the one I posted in 2018. This second archival photo showed a two-story, five bay wide brick house, labeled as “Fairlawn, the Withers Estate.”* I regret that I do not have the citation for this image, seen below.

Image of “Fairlawn, the Withers Estate” shared by a Gardens to Gables reader.

Although there are similarities, they are not the same house. Note the projecting central bay on the first photo, the placement of the chimneys, and the segmentally arched window openings – all markedly different from the second photo. But looking at that photo triggered one of my little grey cells, and I turned to my helpful friend, Google streetview. I knew this building!

Undated photo (likely the 1980s) of Fairlawn on North Broadway in Lexington, Kentucky. Image from the Carolyn Murray-Wooley collection on Lexington, Kentucky residential architecture
https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7sf766515x_11_25

For many years (since 1949) it was the home of the Thoroughbred Record, and – more importantly to me – it was next door to what a charming store and café my mother and I used to frequent – Flag Fork Herb Farm. Clay Lancaster’s Vestiges of the Venerable City provided further elucidation, because it appears that this circa 1850s house was never documented or surveyed either locally or by the State Historic Preservation Office (this is a frequent lament and vent for me, but I shall not digress at this time). The house was built for Dr. Benjamin W. Dudley, and later became the home of General Williams Temple Withers.

But what about the photo I originally posted in 2018? How could I find out where on earth that house was located when I had no street or road name to guide me?   Well, the first option was to track down “Alf Ruh,” and historic newspapers are the vehicle for that line of inquiry. (I have a subscription to newspapers.com, and it is worth every penny.)

From the 1936 Lexington Herald.

My first search by the address turned up a birth announcement with the right name, but the rural looking scene in my photo could not be found on Fairlawn Avenue in 1936  – this I could determine by 1938 aerial images. I returned to a search by “Alfred Ruh” later, since “Alf Ruh” turned up nothing – but first I looked elsewhere.

There is one excellent early 20th century publication that I could consult, and I pulled Thomas A. Knight and Nancy Lewis Greene’s Country Estates of the Blue Grass from a bookshelf. I would simply turn the pages and see if any of the houses featured in the 1904 book looked like my mystery photo.

Title page of the 1904 book, which was reprinted in 1973.

I was not expecting this source to yield anything useful, but I am never going to argue with time spent thumbing through a good book. Lo and behold, on page 63, I hit gold!

Poplar Grove, in Country Estates of the Bluegrass, page 63.

The house, shadowed by mature trees, certainly looked very much like my mystery photo.

Text on Poplar Grove, in the 1904 Country Estates of the Bluegrass.

Armed with more information – Parker’s Mill Road and the Bowman family – I turned my search toward historic maps. Since Country Estates of the Bluegrass was published in 1904, I decided to start with a 1891 property owner map of Fayette County by W.R. Wallis.

Section of the 1891 Wallis map showing “H.C. Bowman” on Parker’s Mill Road.

Now I had a good idea of where on Parker’s Mill Road the house and farm were located – but how to verify that my mystery photo was indeed Poplar Grove?**

From the November 28, 1900 edition of the Kentucky Gazette. Florence Bowman owned Poplar Grove jointly with H.C. Bowman (her brother, maybe?).

The Kentucky Heritage Council, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), is the holder and steward of all survey/inventory forms and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nominations produced in Kentucky (along with a great many reports and contexts). Their E-library allows users to search and view records (puzzlingly, unlike many other SHPOs with digitized records and the Library of Congress, you cannot download PDFs. If you would like a PDF of a NRHP nomination, I suggest you go to the National Park Service and use their system).

I scanned the aerial map along Parker’s Mill Road and clicked on what looked to be a likely site – and a site denoted as having been surveyed.

Poplar Grove, as it appeared in 1979, when the house was documented by the Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission.

Floor plan of Poplar Grove, from the survey form FA-295.

MYSTERY SOLVED!

The Bowman heirs sold the farm to the Nicholas family in 1906, and six years later, the farm transferred hands again, this time to a German immigrant by the name of Alfred Ruh. The farm was owned by the Houston family in 1979.

Before I read about the property transfers in the survey form, I’d carried out another newspapers search for “Alfred Ruh.” Mr. Ruh, the elder, was born in Baden, Germany, and worked for the horseman August Belmont, “having charge of Mr. Belmont’s horse shows in New York.” Later, Ruh moved to Lexington, and worked on Belmont’s farm. He died unexpectedly in 1933 while sitting on the front porch of the house at Poplar Grove. One of his sons, also named Alfred, would move back to Lexington after his father’s death, and live on Fairlawn Avenue.

There you have it,  my detective process explained. Now if I could just get the University of Kentucky to update their mislabeled photographs and update the website.

Of course, that’s not quite the end of the story. The aerial images complete the tale of Poplar Grove, and it’s not a happy ending. In August 1989, the house burned, a victim of arson.*** It looks like it was still standing in 1994, but was gone by 1997.  Fortunately, its story and photographs were collected by enterprising women long before me – all I’ve done is try to correct a photo caption. It’s a small win, but a win nonetheless.

*Fairlawn was a popular house/farm name. There is another Fairlawn (also known as Greentree Farm or the Thomas Hughes House) off of Paris Pike, six miles from Lexington.

**Poplar Grover was another popular name. There was another Poplar Grove on the south side of Parker’s Mill Road; that house was a 1.5-story Federal style brick house.

***Carpenter, Siona. “Fire at 120-year-old house was set, officials say.” The Lexington Herald-Leader, page B1, 16 August 1989.