Jessamine and Mercer County, Kentucky Antebellum Homes

This film clip was originally created by Arthur E. Hopkins between 1937 and 1938. Hopkins was a Louisville attorney, judge and 1941 mayoral candidate who had a passion for Ohio and Mississippi river history and steam boating. Judge Hopkins was a member of the Amateur Cinema League. His film collection was conserved and digitized in 2010 with a grant provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation, http://www.filmpreservation.org/.


The first home featured in this clip is the George Byrd Bryan House, built circa 1940. At the time Hopkins filmed the home, it had fallen into disrepair and stood as a compelling, if not haunting, monument to the county's antebellum architecture. Today the home has been restored and can be seen along the Lexington-Harrodsburg Pike, near Wilmore.

There are two other homes on the clip: an unidentified home with millstone at the 1:40 minute mark and another at the 2:04 mark that is thought to be the Center Family Dwelling at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Mercer County. The cemetery may be Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg, the final resting place of Beriah Magoffin, Kentucky's governor during the early part of the Civil War.

The Filson welcomes any comments you may have that help to identify scenes from this historic film.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Jessamine county
• Mercer county
• antebellum architecture
• cemetery
• historic film
• Filson Historical Society
• Shaker Village
• Harrodsburg
• Kentucky
• amateur cinematography
• Arthur Hopkins