History of the Estate

Building the Clay Legacy 

In 1804, Henry Clay began acquiring land just outside Lexington to build a farm and home for his young family. By 1809, the central block of his new residence—named Ashland, for the abundance of ash trees on the property—was complete.

As his family and political stature grew, Clay expanded the house with plans from Capitol architect Benjamin Latrobe, creating a five-part Federal-style mansion: a center block, two hyphens (connecting corridors), and two end blocks. This was the house Clay cherished above all places—a personal refuge from the turbulence of public life.

He and Lucretia Hart Clay would live at Ashland for over four decades, raising eleven children and shaping the estate into a thriving plantation, political salon, and symbol of statesmanship.

A Son’s Tribute: Rebuilding Ashland

After Henry Clay’s death in 1852, his will granted Lucretia a life estate at Ashland. But not long after, she moved in with their son John at nearby Ashland-on-Tates-Creek. The home was left in disrepair—weathered by time, sorrow, and the weight of history.

In 1853, James B. Clay purchased the estate from the family and made a painful decision: the original structure was too far gone to save. He razed the home, carefully salvaged what materials he could, and rebuilt Ashland on the same foundation using his father’s original floor plan.

James updated the design with then-modern architectural flourishes—Greek Revival, Italianate, and Victorian—while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original. This wasn’t just a renovation. It was a memorial—a son’s tribute to the legacy of Henry Clay.

But James wouldn’t enjoy Ashland for long. Like his father, James pursued a political path, serving as a U.S. Congressman and Minister to Portugal. But unlike Henry Clay, who famously fought to preserve the Union, James cast his allegiance with the Confederacy. The contradiction was striking: a son who honored his father’s legacy in brick and stone, but rejected his defining cause.

In 1862, amid growing fear of Union retaliation for his Confederate sympathies, James fled Lexington. He would never return. After the Civil War, James’s wife, Susan Jacob Clay, was forced to sell Ashland as a result of the financial difficulties caused by the war. He died two years later in Montreal, leaving behind the house he had rebuilt—and a legacy caught between preservation and rebellion.

Ashland at War: The Civil War & Battle of Ashland

No event in Ashland’s 200+ year history was more traumatic than the American Civil War.

The Clay family, like much of Kentucky, was deeply divided—torn between loyalty to the Union and sympathy for the Confederacy. Henry Clay had hoped never to witness such a rupture in the nation he worked so hard to hold together. But while he didn’t live to see it, his descendants did—and Ashland itself became a battlefield.

On the night of October 17, 1862, Confederate cavalry commander John Hunt Morgan learned of a Union encampment in the woods between the rear of the Ashland mansion and Richmond Road. At dawn the next day, Morgan launched a surprise attack with around 1,800 Confederate troops, overwhelming a force of just 294 Union soldiers.

The skirmish lasted about 15 minutes. Four Union soldiers were killed, 290 were captured, and Morgan famously paroled them on the front steps of Ashland that same day.

The war’s toll wasn’t just physical—it was personal. Like so many American families, the Clays were divided by ideology and geography. Ashland, once a symbol of unity and ambition, became a site of absence, grief, and unresolved conflict.

Ashland as a Campus: Kentucky University

In 1866, John Bryan Bowman purchased Ashland to become the heart of Kentucky University and the state’s new Agricultural and Mechanical College—a joint institution representing both religious and state-supported education. His vision was ambitious: to make Ashland a beacon of modern learning for the South, and a cultural and intellectual hub for Lexington.

Bowman made Ashland his residence, but soon converted rooms on the first floor into classrooms, offices, and a museum. The estate’s fields became laboratories of agricultural education. The mansion wasn’t just a historic home—it was a working campus and a platform for ideas.

Among Bowman’s boldest achievements was the establishment of a Museum of Natural History at Ashland. He collected artifacts from the local community, involved students in gathering and cataloging objects, and even partnered with the Smithsonian Institution to acquire specimens from around the world. The collection included archaeological finds, biological specimens, cultural items, and even a small zoo.

But ambition ran ahead of stability. Conflicts between the state and the Disciples of Christ (the institution’s religious backers) fractured the university. By 1878, Bowman was forced out. The college dissolved, and the museum—on the cusp of becoming something extraordinary—vanished with it.

For the next four years, Ashland sat in limbo, rented to tenant farmers until 1882, when the estate returned—at last—to the Clay family.

Ashland Reclaimed: A Family Restores Its Legacy

In 1882, after sixteen years outside the family, Ashland was purchased by Anne Clay McDowell, Henry Clay’s granddaughter, and her husband Major Henry Clay McDowell—a Civil War veteran named in honor of the Great Compromiser.

With the house still bearing the structural bones of James Clay’s reconstruction, the McDowells undertook extensive renovations. They modernized the interior with Eastlake and Aesthetic Movement details, updating the home while preserving its foundational layout. The architecture of Ashland now carried the imprint of three generations.

But the McDowells did more than just restore the house—they revived its spirit. Ashland once again became a center of family gatherings, civic engagement, and historical remembrance. Anne, in particular, saw the home as a unifying force, a space to heal post-war wounds within the Clay family and the broader community.

When Anne and Henry passed, their eldest daughter, Nannette McDowell Bullock, inherited Ashland. Alongside her husband and son, she would be the last resident of the estate—and the one to envision a future beyond private ownership.

Nannette’s commitment to preservation culminated in the founding of the Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, ensuring that Ashland would never again be lost to time, conflict, or disrepair.

From Home to Landmark: A Legacy Shared

On April 12, 1950, a crowd gathered on the Ashland lawn as U.S. Vice President Alben Barkley officially dedicated the estate as a historic house museum. It marked the culmination of decades of family stewardship—and the beginning of a new chapter.

Thanks to the foresight of Nannette McDowell Bullock, Ashland was no longer just a private inheritance. It became a public institution, operated by the newly formed Henry Clay Memorial Foundation, and committed to preserving not just Henry Clay’s legacy, but the evolving story of the site itself.

Since then, Ashland has welcomed thousands of visitors each year—scholars, students, tourists, and neighbors alike. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, recognized not only for Clay’s political significance, but for the layered architectural, agricultural, and cultural history embedded in the estate.

Today, Ashland is far more than a static museum. It’s a site of ongoing education, community dialogue, and a place of beauty. The five-part Federal structure Henry Clay built remains at its core—but wrapped around it are the stories of a nation.