Peterson-Dumesnil House

The Peterson - Dumesnil House is an Italianate Victorian house in the district of Crescent Hill Louisville, Kentucky, United States.

The property is one of the last remaining large country estates, the end of the 19th century east by Louisville residents of the city were built. Of all the land it is sitting downtown Louisville on the next.

Largely for this reason it was added in 1975 National Register of Historic Places.

History

The house was in 1869 or 1870 built on a 31 acres ( about 12 hectares) of land. In the period after the Civil War, wealthy residents of Louisville began to build himself near the town country houses, where they spend the weekends or during the summer, and finally, as a faster means of transport were available, also could live. The house was once one of several built in a similar style villa houses on a large plot on the south side of Frankfort Avenue, which surveyed the valley in which the Grinstead Drive runs today. Most of the other lying in the same proximity to the Downtown of these houses were demolished in the early 20th century to make way for construction of houses on small plots of land. In the early 1970s there was only one other such property in Crescent Hill. It was founded in 1974 irreparably damaged by a tornado.

Joseph Peterson, a wealthy tobacco merchants from Louisville, it was built. He was known at that time for his contributions to architecture Louisville. The obituary of him in 1889 revealed that he " has built many of the pleasing and best buildings that adorn the [ Louisville ] streets ". It is believed that the building was built by the local architect Henry Whitestone.

Peterson's granddaughter Eliza Dumesnil inherited the house and lived until her death in 1948 it. Then it was bought at the Louisville Board of Education and ran it as a private club facility for teachers - a unique institution in the United States. This practice was abandoned and in 1982 the house was sold to the Peterson - Dumesnil House Foundation.

Architecture

The Peterson House was built around 1869/1870 with an asymmetrical floor plan. It is built of brick and sits on a limestone base. It is painted white and has two floors. The only major change after the completion of the house is a new terrace at the front of the house that was built sometime after 1898.

The Italian -inspired facade of the house is common for the country seats of the time.