Retailing & Tourism Management (RTM) Graduate Student Projects: Museums and Historic Homes

There is no other entity that leaves a greater educational impression on the community than items, stories, and the atmospheres that historic locations provide.
Historic homes and sites are essential to the development of current culture and public aesthetics. 

Visit these local historic homes and sites for a dose of Bluegrass history. 

Visit the Mary Todd Lincoln House website. 

The Mary Todd Lincoln House, located on West Main Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky was the family home of the future wife of the 16th President. In 1977, the girlhood home opened to the public and became the first house museum in America to honor a First Lady.

Description and photograph from the Mary Todd Lincoln House website.

Visit Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate website.

Henry Clay deeply loved Ashland, the farm and home he had built upon it. For him, it provided a place of refuge and sanctuary from a difficult and often disappointing world and was one of the few places where Clay regularly found happiness. For Henry Clay’s descendants, Ashland was a place of great reverence, inspiration, and attachment. For the students and regent of Kentucky University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ashland was a place of learning, development, and growth. For today’s visitors, Ashland is a place of great history, pride, and awe.

Description and photograph from Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate website.

Visit the Waveland State Historic Site website.

Six miles south of downtown Lexington stands one of Kentucky’s most dignified and gracious antebellum mansions. Completed in 1848 by Joseph Bryan (1792-1887), a grandnephew of Daniel Boone, Waveland represents a way of life that has long since vanished.

Description from the Waveland State Historic Site website.

Visit the Jack Jouett House Historic Site website.

This rural homestead includes a 1780s frontier stone cabin, used as a kitchen by the Jouett's.  The 1797 Federal-style brick cottage features a formal parlor, dining room and three bedrooms.

Description from the Jack Jouett House Historic Site website.

Visit the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill website.

Discover America’s largest restored Shaker community, where a remarkable society once flourished and where today, you can experience a true national treasure.

This 3,000 acre National Historic Landmark charms guests with distinct Shaker style and the beauty of Lexington’s Bluegrass Region. A stay at the Inn offers peaceful accommodations, gracious dining, exceptional shopping, historical activities and invigorating recreation.

Description and logo from the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill website.

Visit the White Hall State Historic Site website.

Near Fort Boonesborough is another historic treasure, the home of Cassius Marcellus Clay: emancipationist, newspaper publisher, Minister to Russia, and friend to Abraham Lincoln. Clay’s daughter, Laura Clay, was politically active for women’s suffrage and states’ rights. In 1920, Laura Clay became the first woman to be nominated for U.S. President by a major political party.

Description and photograph from the White Hall State Historic Site website.

Visit the Ward Hall website.

Ward Hall is a Greek Revival antebellum plantation mansion located in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 12,000-square-foot mansion has 27-foot high Corinthian fluted columns and is considered one of the finest examples of mid-nineteenth century classical architecture in the United States.  Built to be a summer residence by Junius Richard Ward (1802-1883) and his wife Matilda Viley Ward in 1857. Junius Ward was forced to sell the plantation in 1867, due to financial reverses following the Civil War. The home was offered by a later owner to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, if they would use it as the state capitol. The offer was not accepted.