Abandoned house in Kentucky

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The Gothic Revival style was one of the picturesque design modes which developed in the mid-nineteenth century as a stylistic alternative to the more formal Greek Revival. While Boone County has retained a variety of Greek Revival and Italianate homes, such has not been the case for homes executed in the Gothic Revival style. Most of the residences erected by Boone County's small proportion of wealthy and sophisticated nineteenth-century citizenry were built at the county seat of Burlington, along major thorough-fares, or, in the case of the Gregory House and the Berkshire House at Petersburg, in close proximity to the Ohio River.

The classic Gothic Revival-style cottage exhibits a symmetrical three-bay facade with a centered doorway, tall chimneys flanking the central passage, a steeply-pitched roof with a dominant central gable, lancet-arched windows, and decorative bargeboard. Within this framework Boone County builders interpreted freely. Some local houses feature gable-end chimneys, while others, including. like the Glore House, lack the characteristic bargeboard and finials and can be identified primarily by the steeply-pitched roof and prominent central gable. The Jenkins-Berkshire House is of wood construction and incorporates the tall, central gable, bargeboard, lancet-arched openings and trim, and the central-passage plan. Central-passage plans are the rule, in Boone County and across the state. Asymmetrical villa-style dwellings, usually architect-designed, are rare in Kentucky and are generally found in the Inner Bluegrass region. Boone County Gothic Revival-style cottages may be one or two stories in height and both single- and double-pile variants may be found The county's Gothic Revival-style dwellings are rarely stylistically pure and many, like the Gregory House, incorporate Greek Revival-style elements.

Public records suggest that the house was likely erected for one Peter Gregory, who purchased one hundred acres here in 1824 for $500. Peter Gregory died prior to the Civil War, since Richard Gregory purchased one hundred acres from the estate of Peter Gregory, Sr. in 1860. Richard Gregory immediately sold the property to Leonard Clore who retained title and likely occupied the house until 1873, when it was sold to Arthur P. Marshall. Marshall's acquisition included 261 acres and a cemetery; his ownership and the cemetery are shown on the 1883 D. J. Lake Atlas of Boone, Kenton, and Campbell Counties. The Marshall family retained ownership until 1919, when the property, referred to in the conveyance as "the property known as the Peter Gregory tract of land," was sold but 1/2 acre of land surrounding and embracing the grave yard is reserved to the heirs of Peter Gregory Estate for burial purposes only. By the 1920s, D. E. Ogden had acquired the property from Peoples Deposit Bank.

Building Description

The Peter Gregory House is a two-story Gothic Revival-style residence of brick construction. The property is located near the mouth of Gunpowder Creek, in the East Bend Bottoms region east of the Ohio River, in southwestern Boone County, approximately seven miles west of the village of Union. The Gregory House is the centerpiece of a large farm, much of which is devoted to pasture land and the production of field crops. The farm extends southward from the house to the Ohio River; Gunpowder Creek meanders through the southern end of the property. The adjacent agricultural fields are not included in the nomination; a line of mature trees forms the property's eastern boundary and a fence row defines the western boundary.

The Gregory House is a rural Gothic Revival-style residence reminiscent of the "Downing cottage" popularized by the mid-nineteenth-century writings of Andrew Jackson Downing. Built on the central passage double-pile plan, the house is roofed with a characteristically steeply pitched intersecting gable roof, presently clad in asphalt shingles which likely replaced the original roof covering of wood shingles, metal, or slate. Brick chimneys break the roofline at points centered on the east-west axis. Unlike most of its neighbors, the house is oriented toward the Ohio River, rather than toward the roadway.

The house is abandoned, deteriorated and threatened by neglect, but the exterior of the Gregory House nonetheless retains features of its lavish historic ornamentation; while its integrity is somewhat impaired by its condition, its locally-unique overall character is largely intact. Curvilinear bargeboards in the form of stylized Vitruvian scrolls are found along the eaves, with pendants at the apex of each gable. At both the front and rear entrances are open wood porches, presently collapsed, but retaining sufficient material to identify their chamfered support posts and incised ornament. The main entrance incorporates an unglazed four-paneled door flanked by multi-light sidelights and a transom sash. Above the main door is a second-story four-paneled door with a two-light transom sash, suggesting that the front porch also served as a balcony, affording a direct view of the Ohio River across the lower field. Fenestration employs flat-topped openings with six-over-six sash windows, set upon extended sills and capped with plain stone lintels. The common bond brick of the exterior shows evidence of prior painting or a whitewash treatment.

Although deteriorated, the interior of the house expresses an exceptionally eclectic ensemble of Italianate, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival-style detailing. Typical of the central passage, double-pile plan, the house revolves around a central hallway that runs the length of the house and is flanked on each side by two rooms. The main staircase incorporates a polygonal newel and turned balusters characteristic of the Italianate style. The doors and the windows of the two eastern rooms are enframed with Classically-derived pilasters and pediments. The trim in the western rooms includes a Greek key motif and, as noted in the Kentucky Heritage Council inventory form:

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