Old Oaks Farm
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Old Oaks is a historic home and museum in Guthrie, Todd County, Kentucky, United States. The farm has played an important role in the development of some of the most recognized and influential artistic works in poetry and music, and is significant as an example of 19th century Greek-Revival architecture inspired by Minard Lafever's The Modern Builder's Guide published in 1841.
Ruth Northington married on October 22, 1919 to Walter Morton Wellman of Huntsville, Alabama in the parlor of the Old Oaks mansion. Wellman was the son of Williard Wellman, an industrialist and heir to a large fortune derived from textile manufacturing. Wellman’s family owned cotton mills and were early pioneers of the Huntsville area. Today, Wellman Family Park remains in Huntsville, as well a bronze statue dedicated in Williard Wellman’s honor. According to family tradition, Walter Wellman and Ruth Northington met in 1918. Ruth was asked by Wellman’s sister, a college friend of Ruth’s, to travel to Huntsville to attend the rehearsal dinner of a mutual friend, as the blind-date of her brother Wellman. Exclaiming that he would, “...not escort a girl that he had never met!” Wellman hid behind a boxcar at the train station as Ruth disembarked the train. He quickly acquiesced upon first sight of Ruth, and the couple were married after a short period of courting.[1]
The fourth child born to Watkins and Annie Northington, Thad was a born at Old Oaks Farm in 1903. He married Willie Hampton on September of 1926. Thad attended local primary and high schools, and was educated at Bowling Green Business University. He primarily worked as a farmer, a tobacco buyer, and later owned an antiques shop and restaurant. The couple had one son, Teddy Northington, born on November 12, 1932 who died at the age of five on March 4, 1937 from an automobile accident where Teddy fell from a moving car. Teddy struck and fractured his head on a hard surface when he accidentally triggered the car door open. The couple designed and planted a garden directly in front of Old Oaks mansion in his memory in the shape of a heart made of field rock and planted with peonies, lilacs, and day- lilies. The next year in 1938, the couple sold Old Oaks Farm to Edgar Selden Allison. Years later in 1953, Thad and his wife bought an historic inn in nearby Guthrie constructed by John Gray in 1836, known as the “Stagecoach Inn.” Together the couple operated the inn as a popular restaurant and antique shop.[2]
Present Ownership
Old Oaks mansion and the remaining 4.5 acres surrounding the mansion is currently owned by Emily Riggins Humphreys. The property is currently used as a weekend home, and a wedding venue/overnight accommodations for guests and is open to the public. The property was purchased in 2020 from John and Kathy Hansen, and underwent an extensive restoration that preserved the mansion's original architectural features. [3]
References
- ^ Patch, Rubye (October 14, 2010). "True Love House". Cumberland Lore: 25. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ The Story of Todd County, KentuckyWilliams, Marion (1971) [1971]. The Story of Todd County (first ed.). Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press. pp. 397–398.
- ^ "The Old Oaks Farm Events and Lodging". The Old Oaks Farm. Atticus Real Estate. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
External links
Category:Historic house museums in Kentucky Category:Greek Revival houses in Kentucky