On This Page: History of the Loudoun House   History of LAL

On May 26, 1852, Francis Key Hunt of Lexington, Kentucky, wrote to his New York architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, “My house is almost finished... It is a beautiful structure, and commands universal admiration as certainly the handsomest building in Kentucky.” Before he could write this laudatory line, however, Hunt had gone through four years of difficulties in the design and construction of what was to be the first castellated Gothic Revival villa in Kentucky, and one of only five in the American South.

F. K. Hunt (1817-1879) was the son of John Wesley Hunt and grew up in the Hunt-Morgan House in Lexington. Named for his mother’s cousin, Francis Scott Key, the young Hunt was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington and the Episcopal Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. It was at Kenyon that Hunt was first introduced to Gothic Revival architecture, for the major academic building there was the earliest piece of collegiate Gothic Revival architecture in the United States. Returning to Lexington, Hunt practiced law and in 1840, married Julia Warfield, whose parents gave the couple 60 acres of suburban land on the Bryan Station Pike adjoining the Warfield estate. This land, called “The Meadows,” was to be the future site of Loudoun.

Francis Hunt received the financial resources to build when he inherited more than a million dollars from his father, J. W. Hunt, who died in Lexington in 1849 during a serious cholera epidemic. The young Hunt, while in the East, had seen a new Gothic Revival castellated residence which fired his imagination: the W. C. H. Waddell mansion on Murray Hill in New York City, designed by A. J. Davis. So in January 1850, after one unsuccessful contact with architect Richard Upjohn, Hunt wrote to A. J. Davis who had found considerable reputation as the most fashionable architect of Gothic Revival country houses in the United States. After an exchange of only two letters, Davis mailed designs for a castellated Gothic Revival villa to Kentucky, about which Hunt wrote ecstatically: “I was struck and highly pleased with the appearance of the design forwarded and have no doubt you can fulfill and exceed my highest expectations in the matter.”

Correspondence between Hunt and Davis lasted for two more years, from 1850 to 1852. The architect never visited Lexington, and Hunt went to New York only once toward the completion of the villa to choose furniture, glass, and wallpapers. The whole design process took place by mail. Hunt hired a local builder, John McMurtry, to construct the villa; yet he still encountered numerous problems with a commission carried on over such a long distance. In the end, with great effort and expense, Hunt got what he wanted: a striking piece of architecture considerably different from the handsome but stereotyped Greek Revival country houses created by local architects for wealthy, socially conservative, Central Kentucky clients. Hunt paid enormously for the distinction. He had at first intended to spend from $10,000 to $12,000 on his house. But by the time Loudoun reached completion in 1852, it had cost over 30,000, as much as many public buildings in nineteenth-century Kentucky.

Loudoun – named for Mrs. Hunt’s favorite song, “The Bells of Loudoun” – is a nationally significant piece of American architecture. It is one of only five remaining castellated Gothic Revival villas left in the United States by New York architect, A. J. Davis, and is listed on the national Register of Historic Places. The exterior of the villa is of brick and was originally painted white with an outer layer of sand dusted on the walls to resemble cream-colored stone. The window arches are of Kentucky limestone, while the roof was of slate. All woodwork is walnut, and selected interior ceilings were stencil-painted with medieval designs. The front doors and drawing room originally contained enameled glass panes with stylized grape and oak leaf designs created by the Bolton glassworks of Pelham, New York. Most of the original glass, plasterwork, marble mantels, and some custom furniture were imported from New York, making Loudoun’s interiors some of the most stylish and cosmopolitan in the nineteenth century in Kentucky. As Mrs. Hunt said in 1882, thirty years after the villa’s construction, “It has been the showplace of our region ever since its completion; only yesterday strangers were driving in to see its beauty. All strangers who come to Lexington drive to see it, and some to sketch it.”

Francis K. and Julia Hunt lived at Loudoun together from 1852 until his death in 1879. Julia Hunt sold Loudoun in 1884 to William Cassius Goodloe and moved to the Gratz Park house of her daughter and son-in-law, Maria Hunt Dudley and Dr. Benjamin Dudley. The Goodloes owned Loudoun from 1884 until 1921 when it was sold to J. F. Bailey of Paintsville, Kentucky. The City of Lexington purchased the house and grounds in the 1920s and converted it into Castlewood Park and Community Center. Upon completion of the Decorators’ Showcase in May 1984, Loudoun became the headquarters of the Lexington Art League.

LAL is 50 years old an is Central Kentucy's oldest and largest visual art organization. LAL operates three gallery locations: LAL @ Loudoun House, 209 Castlewood Drive; LAL @ ArtsPlace, 161 North Mill Street; and LAL @ the Mayor's Office, 12th Floor Government Center, 201 East Main Street. The Lexington Art League originated in 1957 as a group of friends with a common bond. They were friends, they loved art, and they were artists. In the beginning, the group held exhibits in Lexington's stores, downtown in those days. They also used the city's coffeehouses, and held outdoor shows in the Courthouse Square. A few years later, the Lexington Art League was given a home by one of its members, Dr. Zigmunt Gierlach. This enabled the League to hold its exhibits and monthly meetings in Doctor's Park.

In 1976, the Lexington Art League was incorporated as a non-profit organization. With incorporation, the League shifted its focus from providing programs, gallery exhibits, and opportunities and functions for members only, to providing those services for all of Central Kentucky.  Early in 1984, the League moved into newly renovated Loudoun House in Castlewood Park. Designed by A. J. Davis and built in 1852 for Frances Key Hunt of Lexington, this castellated Neo-Gothic villa is owned by the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government and is leased by the Lexington Art League.

The Lexington art League presents new exhibits each year and offers a diverse life-long-learning opportunities in the visual arts.  Ranging from cutting edge contemporary exhibits to in-depth contemplation of the arts most studied subject – the human form, the LAL strives to engage artists and the public in an ever-stimulating dialogue of how visual art can make a difference in each of our lives and the life of our community.

Currently the LAL is undergoing an exciting evolution including a new approach to staffing, board governance, development, education, strategic planning and all aspects of programming. The artistic objectives of the LAL include challenging and stimulating the public through visual art, developing context for art exhibited by LAL through dialogue sessions, panel discussions, lectures, workshops and artists talks/demonstrations and nurturing the creativity of artists and appreciation of visual art among Kentuckians.

Change has become LAL’s new constant. Great progress has been made over the last several years and is reflected in the increased response and involvement from the community. LAL takes an inclusive approach to planning for the organization’s future.  Community leaders, organizational leaders, artists, educators, business leaders, visual art experts and patrons are regularly included in discussions about how the LAL can be more relevant to the region.