Wrecking Ball Watch: 2201 Leestown Road, Lexington, Kentucky

Around 1913, a farm “lying and being about 2.5 miles from Lexington on what is known as the Leestown Turnpike Road,” was in a beautiful and rural spot. Sadly, any bucolic charm of the early 20th century is now in short supply – save for the occasional historic house – like the Willmott House at 2201 Leestown Road, which is slated to be demolished.

The Willmott House, in happier days, circa 1991.

It’s likely that most folks take little if any notice of the 2.5 story brick house with its distinctive red tile roof. Overgrown taxus (yew) bushes bombard the wrap-around porch, and the steady stream of traffic in an increasingly industrial area works to camouflage any vestige of the former farmhouse.

The Wilmott House, September 2018.

In 1913, Curtis Willmott purchased 134 acres of land on the Leestown Pike from H.F. Hillenmeyer, the “well-known nurseryman.” The land previously had been owned by the Pepper family of distilling fame.

Section of the 1901 map of Fayette County, Kentucky, with the blue arrow designating the location of the farm and house.

Willmott farmed on the Sandersville Road, near the railroad, and this purchase may have been a land swap between he and the Hillenmeyer family, as his farm was located in the same general vicinity as what would become the Hillenmeyer nursery. The 1901 map of Fayette County shows a H. Hellenmeyer on Leestown Road, and a small dark square denoting a building, but I simply don’t know if the house existed at that point or not.

The east elevation of the Willmott House, with a wonderful bay window on the first floor.

Rural properties are sometimes harder to research than their urban counterparts – city directories don’t include county addresses, and Sanborn maps are no help either. What is known is that Curtis Wilmott took out a mortgage on this farm in 1921, and the house was there in 1923, when his son, George F. Willmott, and his bride, Sarah Talbott Kennedy, moved in and began their life together.

The porch is spacious and I can imagine it strewn with chairs, rockers, and children playing.

Could this house, which has the boxy appearance of an American Foursquare but the interior plan of a central hall Colonial Revival, have been built as early as 1901? Never mind its striking resemblance to many of the gorgeous tile-roofed houses in Ashland Park that date from the 1920s and 1930s – I live in a similar house (thankfully, mine is still in the country) and it was constructed in 1901.

So yes, it could have been there, but there is simply no way to prove it without further research. What is evident though is the thoughtfully conceived plan and architectural details of the house. It’s not your everyday farmhouse – I wouldn’t be surprised if it was architect-designed. The mortared stone wall that lines the front of the house is another nice (and expensive) touch.

The entranceway with stone posts that leads from Leestown Road.

When George F. Willmott married Sarah, he was 42 and she was 26. They married on a chilly Saturday, January 13, 1923. After a short trip, they settled in their home on the Leestown Pike.

By the time the census workers came around in 1930, George and Sarah were parents to Grace, age 5, and George Jr., age 3. Sarah was an active member of the Leestown Homemakers Club, and her husband farmed.

A photograph from the Harrodsburg/Leestown Pike area from the 1930s. Image from the Lafayette Studios Collection at the University of Kentucky.

Willmott lost a large tobacco barn, (containing four acres of tobacco), a stable, and a cabin in a 1927 fire. Firefighters pumped water from a well on the farm to save the main house and a tenant house, occupied by Will Courtney.  The loss was estimated at more than $6,000 – which was a great deal of money at the time.

Notice of Willmott’s death.

George F. Willmott (or Wilmott, as the paper spelled it) died suddenly on January 12, 1951 – one day before his 28th wedding anniversary.

His will, which he had made out in 1944, left his property to his wife Sarah for her “natural life,” and then to his two children. In addition to his farm on the Leestown Pike, Willmott owned land in Oklahoma and Texas.

A small grape arbor – just the right size for children to play under – is located behind the house.

Amazingly, the Willmott family owned  – and lived in – the house until 1993. Leestown Road had likely already begun radically changing at that time.

The small tract of land still with the house is an island in a sea of warehouses.

I don’t know why this house – which appears to be in very sound condition, although deferred maintenance has caught up with box gutters in places – is being demolished. But, that is typically my refrain – puzzlement at the actions of property owners, and disbelief at the thought of all of those building materials being unceremoniously dumped in the landfill.

Maybe I’ll be proved wrong, and the house will be deconstructed – all of the bricks, tiles, hardwood floors, windows – going to find new life elsewhere. But I’m not going to hold my breath.

I just hope that somewhere, someone will remember the Willmott farm, and the handsome Willmott House once this stretch of irreplaceable Bluegrass land is paved over for good.