The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

President's House

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Institution Name: Georgetown College
Original/Historic Place Name: Harvey C. Graves House
Location on Campus: 444 E. Main St., one block north of main campus, contiguous to main campus
Date(s) of Construction and Designer(s):

1859	original construction Unknown
2001-2002	addition of kitchen onto south facade Unknown

Type of Place: Individual building
Style(s): (Glossary)
Materials:

Foundation: stone

Walls: brick

Roof: composition shingle

Function:

1859-1912	private residence
1912-1916	other (Elks lodge)
1916-1958	private residence
ca. 1958-1961	other (antique show)
ca. 1961-present (2007)	president's house

Significance: architecture, culture, history
Landmark designation:

National Register

Georgetown College Historic District (1979)

Narrative: see below
References: see below

Narrative:
The Harvey C. Graves House or President's House of Georgetown College is a square Greek Revival, two-story temple style house with a two-story tetrastyle pedimented portico with bracketed entablature. Located in the East Main Street Historic District, it is one of eleven houses of this type in Scott County. The house is set on a foundation of tooled limestone blocks and has a three-bay facade laid in Flemish bond and consisting of triple windows with stone lintels. These flank a center door with transom and sidelights and trimmed with brackets and modilions. Italianate brackets are positioned on the entablature of the pediment and the house itself. Wrought iron grill work surrounds the brief balcony that can be entered through the second story central window. The house has a central passage from which an elliptical stairway leads to the second floor, which also has a central passage. The house is approached from the sidewalk by a wide walkway laid in herringbone design. Interior architraves are constructed of massive molding and have Greek ears. A new kitchen was built onto the south facade in 2001 and 2002.

The house is significant for its history as well as its architecture. It was originally the home of Harvey C. Raves who, according to a sketch in "Biographical Encyclopaedia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living and Dead Men of the Nineteenth Century", was "one of the movers of Georgetown College in its establishment." Graves was also a founder and trustee of the Farmer's Bank of Georgetown, a founder of Warrendale Female Institute, and a member of the Christian Church. A Whig, he was a Union Democrat during the War Between the States. His biographer claimed that, "Few men have been more useful or more widely esteemed, and by an active, successful, public spirited, unselfish life, he has made the world better by living in it."

References:

I. Bibliographic sources:

Bevins, Ann Bolton. A History of Scott County as Told by Selected Buildings. Georgetown, KY: 1981.

Fields, Carl R. A Sesquicentennial History of Georgetown College. Georgetown, KY: Georgetown College Press, 1979.

Gaines, B. O. The B. O. Gaines History of Scott County. 2 vols. Reprint, Georgetown, KY: Frye Printing Company, 1981.

Georgetown, Kentucky: A History. Georgetown, KY: Scott County Historical Society, 1993.

Kentucky Heritage Commission. Georgetown College Historic District. National Register of Historic Places designation report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1979.

Meyer, Leland W. Georgetown College: Its Background and a Chapter in its Early History. Louisville, KY: Western Recorder, 1929.

Snyder, J. Robert. A History of Georgetown College. Georgetown, KY: Georgetown College, 1979.

II. Location of other data:

University: Library, Special Collections

SHPO

Government Offices