| In the years before the Revolutionary War, intrepid frontiersmen with roots
in northern Ireland claimed vast tracts of land in Kentucky on which they
developed plantations. They settled the land and, with their families, built
enduring stone houses that became the centerpieces of their properties. In
Early Stone Houses of Kentucky, author Carolyn Murray-Wooley examines these
early frontier homes as well as the people who built and lived in them.
What traditions did these settlers call on to provide construction techniques
and plans? How do the frontier dwellings of settlers with differing origins
compare with these stone houses? Murray-Wooley looks at these and many other
questions, exploring the transfer of cultural traditions from northern Ireland
to the state of Kentucky.
Drawing on extensive field work and genealogical research, Murray-Wooley
examines the history of these resourceful settlers and their architectural
practices, uses scale drawings and floor plans to illustrate how the houses
would have appeared at the time of construction, and compares them to modern
photographs. The book includes color plates of more than thirty stone houses, as
well as many black and white construction illustrations. Early Stone Houses
of Kentucky is a fascinating look at the impact of a little-known community
on the architecture and culture of the Bluegrass State.
Carolyn Murray-Wooley is an architectural historian, former
executive director of the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, and founder
of the Dry Stone Conservancy. She has also written The Founding of
Lexington, 1775-1776, and coauthored Rock
Fences of the Bluegrass with Karl
Raitz. She lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky.
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