Whitehall

About this property

White Hall State Historic Site is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) park in Richmond, Kentucky, southeast of Lexington. White Hall was home to two legendary Kentucky statesmen: General Green Clay and his son General Cassius Marcellus Clay, as well as suffragists Mary Barr Clay and Laura Clay. On April 12, 2011, White Hall was designated as a national historic site in journalism by the Society of Professional Journalists, because of Clay's career as a publisher. The site's major feature is White Hall, the home of Kentucky legislator Cassius Marcellus Clay and Mary Jane Warfield Clay. He was an anti-slavery newspaper publisher, politician, soldier and Minister to Russia through the Lincoln, Johnson and Grant administrations. He published True American for nearly 25 years. This restored 44-room Italianate house began as a 8-room structure built in 1798–1799 in the Georgian style by General Green Clay which he called Clermont. Mary Jane Warfield Clay, oversaw the enlarging of Clermont into the structure that is now White Hall. Thomas Lewinski was the architect. The Georgian style of Clermont was replaced with the Italianate style of White Hall. The renovation is said to have cost $40,000. Clermont originally faced south, but the entrance of White Hall was moved to face East. Apart from its architecture, White Hall was also notable for its use of indoor plumbing. Rainwater was collected in a tub from the roof and was fed down to a toilet and copper bathtub. The White Hall property has two outbuildings. The kitchen was originally built in 1790 when Green Clay owned the property. It originally served Clermont as the main kitchen, and the food was walked over to the warming kitchen of the main house. The Kitchen contains what is believed to be the largest existing fireplace surviving from the 19th century. The larger of the two buildings was used as living quarters for the enslaved peoples living on the White Hall estate. White Hall was first home to General Green Clay who built the original structure, Claremont. Clay was an early Kentucky settler and land surveyor. Green Clay made his fortune surveying land, keeping a portion of the land he surveyed as payment. Green Clay became one of the largest land and slave holders in Kentucky by the time of his death. Cassius M. Clay was a Kentucky politician and emancipationist. Despite his father being one of the largest landholders and slaveholders in Kentucky, Clay supported the gradual freeing of enslaved peoples, which was unusual for men of his class at this time. Clay fought many duels over the subject during his life. Clay saw service in the Mexican War and was lauded as a hero upon his return home. Clay published an anti-slavery newspaper called The True American in Lexington, KY and was later forced to move production to Cincinnati, OH. Clay was an early founder of the republican party. Clay served as Lincoln's Ambassador to Russia during the American Civil War. It was during Clay's time in Russia that his wife, Mary Jane Warfield Clay, converted Clermont into what is now White Hall.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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