ward hall

Ward Hall was closed, so we simply drove up the driveway for a closer look. The house could be MAGNIFICIENT. We are hoping they have enough funds to begin renovation before it's too late. Brochures and photos we saw are much more complimentary than reality. That poor, amazing structure is in bad need of repair.I peeked in the back windows and the rooms look inviting and full of history.Please go when it's open so they can afford to preserve its beauty!!

Great history. I didn't know about this place. It has been restored nicely. It's great to happen upon places like this in your travels. America, what a great country.

Ward Hall is located in Scott County, Kentucky. About 30 minutes outside of Lexington. This historic location is an example of a Greek Revival antebellum mansion. Beautiful candlelight tours at Christmas. Complete with tour guides dressed in time period costumes. Check their website for directions and times open.

This historical home is beautiful if you can catch a candlelight tour during Christmas. Great holiday treat

It was just by chance that I came across Ward Hall, and for someone that likes historic landmarks, it was like hitting the lottery. Two steps into the home and I became speechless. It was a WOW moment.Ward Hall is a Greek Revival antebellum plantation mansion located in Georgetown, Kentucky (less than an hour from Lexington). The 12,000-square-foot with 27-foot high Corinthian fluted columns, is one of the finest examples of a mid-nineteenth classical building in the United States. The mansion was built by Junius Richard Ward (1802–1883) and his wife Matilda Viley Ward circa 1857 in Scott County, Kentucky. The mansion was built as a summer residence; their plantation house located near Leota Landing, Washington County, Mississippi served as their winter residence.The mansion is attributed to Major Thomas Lewinski and is the embodiment of numerous Minard Lafever design elements from his 1829 and 1835 pattern books. It was built by Taylor Buffington, measures 62 ft. wide and 69 ft. long, four stories, with a 14-foot-wide, 65-foot-long central corridor on three floors. There are three rooms on each side of the central corridor, with the exception of the area set aside for the nautilus-chambered double elliptical staircase which rises three floors.The servants working rooms and sleeping rooms in the basement represent one of the most intact antebellum basements in the country. Forty acres of the original plantation remain with the house.Just a last note, as you walk through the front door you are taken back in time to a life style that was, to say the least, “remarkable”. You must discover Ward hall for yourself.

This place is amazing. Our tour was so personalized. You could feel his passion. It is not a museum. It is more like a recently opened time capsule. Fabulous!!! If you love historic places you will love it.

I was unaware of this place until I went there on a tour. I expected a dilapidated house from what I had read, but most of it was in really good shape. The tour was excellent and the house itself was beautiful. The guy who did our tour was also really good. Seeing the slave quarters was pretty eye-opening when you compare it to how the Ward family was living. You get to see every room from the basement all the way up to the attic (which, i must say, would have been hot to live in in July).I look forward to coming back as they continue restoration efforts.

I went for the Christmas open house. The house was decorated beautifully and the volunteers really love the house. Unfortunately it laid in disrepair for so long it will take a fortune to bring it back to what it once was but worth a visit and every dollar helps.

When visiting Georgetown KY, you should enquire whether Ward Hall is open. Fortunately, this past weekend we toured this magnificent old home. The local preservation league guide was very informative and gracious. Yes, the home needs work, but "her bones" are a fascinating looks back into KY history. This is a must see for anyone interested in southern history. We will return over the years to see their amazing progress. Keep up the good work!!

Don't get your hopes up: this is no Mount Vernon or Monticello. The structure is in poor shape (a nearby Gothic barn has already collapsed), but local efforts are making some progress in preservation, if not restoration. Open for special occasions, the house is an authentic Southern mansion on a grand scale. If you have the chance to visit, take it.

A great old Greek revival mansion of the old plantation days . One of the few still in existence and a true KY treasure.

If you visit historic Georgetown, Kentucky on a weekend take time to visit Ward Hall. Ward Hall is a wonderful Greek Revival Mansion just outside of downtown Georgetown. The people who volunteer as the tour guides are very knowledgeable of the area and the home. The tour includes all 3 floors of the property as well as the basement and it worth the small price of admission. You get to see all of the house and the grounds for this price. I would recommend the Christmas candlelight tour!

Beautiful Greek Revival Mansion. It has many outstanding features, but the staircase isfabulous. Makes for a great day trip to Georgetown and then on to downtown.

very nice tour of the historic home by volunteers , tour all three floors of the property and the basement, well worth the small admission fee

Ward Hall is a magnificent Greek Revival Mansion nestled in the heart of the Bluegrass, near Georgetown, Ky. Tours are available the first weekend of every month May through November and Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, the Fourth of July, and several weekends prior to Christmas including candlelight tours. The docents are extremely knowledgeable of the building and can keep a raging teen interested for an hour. Tours are leisurely and at your own pace. Their are stairs to climb, but no elevator. Just a tour of the main floor (though you have to climb the outside steps) is worth it. There is a $5 admission which goes to the preservation and upkeep of the place.The house features many unique architectural details from the cast iron Corinthian capitals on the columns, the Nautilus stairwell and the lead resevoir on the roof for hot water to the herring bone patterned brick floors in the basement "servants" quarters.The private foundation preserving this mansion has gone to great lengths to furnish it with authentic period pieces, though few if any pieces original to the house exist. Go to their website (which doesn't offer a lot of information other than contact and tour dates) to arrange a private or school tour. For anyone remotely interested in fine southern architecture, this place is well worth spending a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Living in a culture bent on destroying its history, it is fantastic that some forward-thinking folks got together to preseve Ward Hall before it was torn down and absorbed by the cancerous plastic subdivisions surrounding it.