DEPARTMENT OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. Mrs. W., Versailles, Ky. In reply to your suggestion that it would be a good idea to write up for the Register the notable places in the Capital for its readers, we beg leave to refer you to the early numbers of the Register, in which may be found this information. And we have given also pictures of the old and new Capitols, and the histories connected with them. We have published the history of Frankfort, by streets, both in the Register and in newspapers, and have the articles bound for publi cation at some time when the demand for them shall be worth the expense. We have written for the Register sketches of all the Governors of Kentucky, with photographs of them, and pictures of their homes in this city and elsewhere, when we could obtain them. We have written up the notable things and people of the Capital, both in old and new Frankfort, as South Frankfort is called since the new Capitol is located on one of its most beautiful sites. There remains in old Frankfort very few of the homes once occupied by the Governors upon retiring from the old Governor's Mansion, which has been pictured in the Register, with an extended history of the Governors and their wives, when each held it as their residence while in the gubernato rial chair. The home of Governor from its site on the river bank, to Greenup years ago was torn away be replaced by modern cottages. The home of Governor Letcher is still standing, and is a land mark, being one of the earliest lots sold in Frankfort in the Colonial period before Kentucky was a State. It was bought and built upon by Clement Bell, who emigrated to Kentucky from Maryland in 1790. A history of this place is given in Miss Jackson's history of Wapping street, and also will be found in Washington street, as it is on the Mrs. Woodson's chapter on corner of Wapping and Washington streets. The old Crittenden house, the residence of Governor Crittenden, is still standing on the corner of Washington and West Main streets. Its general appearance is not much altered, but many changes have been made in it since Governor Crittenden, in the zenith of his fame, lived there. There is a picture of it in the Register in the history of Governor Crittenden. The Love House, really the most notably famous building of early days, was pictured in the Register in the history of Wapping street by Miss Jackson also, and a history of its distinguished guests. Louis Philippe, the King of France, in 1830, was 1830, was a guest at the Love House, incognito, in that early day, afterward a teacher in Bardstown, Kentucky. Aaron Burr held his secret conferences at the Love House, and his apartments were often pointed out to sightseers at the Capital. Phillip Noland, the mysterious hero of "The Man Without a Country," was often a guest at the Love House. The first Legislature that convened in the Capital in 1793, held its brief session in the Love House. The first Sunday school west of the Allegheny Mountains was founded in the Love House by those two most distinguished godly women of that day, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Love, the latter being the owner of the old tavern. Mrs. Margaretta Barrett, who wrote the history of the street on which the Love House to the cast stood, gave an interesting history of Wilkinson street, named for General Wilkinson, the founder of Frankfort, in 1786. On this street is the notable Brown house, built in 1796, planned, it is said, by Thomas Jefferson, who was at one time a guest in the home of Senator John Brown. The Colonial Daughters, in writing the history of the streets of Frankfort, have given the origin of their names, for whom called, and when. Generally the name will be found to have been given by General Wilkinson for his friends in the Revolution-Washington, Montgomery (now West Main street), St. Clair, Clinton, Madison, Mero, of the Burr conspiracy. Ann street was called for the wife of General Wilkinson. In South Frankfort we have Steele street, called for William Steele, who wrote the plat of the city on the South Side—a man of education and wealth. Then came Shelby street, for Governor Shelby; Logan street, for General Logan, etc. The only Governor now residing in the city of Frankfort in a home of his own is Governor J. C. W. Beckham, now U. S. Senator. This handsome home is located on the corner of Shelby street and Fourth avenue, which place he purchased after he retired from the Gubernatorial chair, in 1907. The former Governor's Mansion, built in 1798, in the northeast part of the city, is on Clinton and High streets. It was pictured and written up in the Register years ago. The city socially has moved away from it, and it is no longer desirable in that respect. The railroads, street cars, and traffic wagons of the penitentiary, situated diagonally across from and near the old mansion, makes its vicinity a noisy mart of business now, very undesirable for either public hall or private residence. The home of Governor Charles S. Morehead, built in 1833, in South Frankfort, on Shelby street, is still a fine old place, and is now the residence of Judge J. P. Hobson, late Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. At one time it was owned by Col. J. Stoddard Johnston, and after he left Frankfort was rented as a residence by Major Henry T. Stanton, the Poet Laureate. The distinguished men of the Nation, at different times, have been guests under its hospitable roof. The new Governor's Mansion, de signed by Webber & Webber, architects, is opposite the new Capitol, as shown in the picture, and has no history save the brief one connected with the present occupant, Governor James B. McCreary. It is a white palace, and the State is mainly indebted to the Governor for this. He is a man of culture and broad, generous ideas of the "fitness of things." An elegant mansion for the Chief Executive of Kentucky was the building most needed to harmonize with its splendid Capitol, and to his wise direc BOOKS, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS. NEWSPAPERS. The State Journal. The Harrodsburg Herald. December-The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. (Thanks for the handsome notice of the Register, and of the Kentucky State Historical Society.) Published at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. December-The Government of the American Historical Association. Jackson, Mississippi. The People's Home Journal for The sixteenth annual dinner of the 1915. Farm and Family Magazine. MAGAZINES AND PAMPHLETS. September Catalog of Choice Books, Edinburg, Scotland. October-The Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, O. November-The National Geographic Magazine, Washington, D. C. November-The World's Work, New York. December-The Southern Woman's Magazine. Christmas Number, beautifully illustrated, instructive and interesting. December-Book of New Hamp shire. Dedication of a memorial to Reverend John Tucke, 1778. State Island, Isles of Shoals. New Hampshire. December-Magazine of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md. December-Magazine, "The United Empire" of the Royal Colonial Institute. London, Eng. Pennsylvania Society in New York, Saturday evening, December the twelfth. A splendid "Feast of reason and flow of soul," besides a dinner that King Solomon might have envied, though he did write a few proverbs on the subject of "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," yet we know there are some phases of vanity, with the material phase thrown in, made very attractive, such as that sixteenth annual dinner in New York, adorned by the wit and wisdom of Pennsylvanians, and that famous Alabamian, Hobson, bringing with his oratory to the splendid occasion the warmth and glow of his sunny land. Thanks for the handsome book, also the engraving. December-Nebraska History and Ethnology Series. A. E. Sheldon, editor. An address on Captain John Smith by Justice Harvey Smith, at the ceremony of placing a tablet to his memory on Smith's Isle, three hundred years later, by the It Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Hampshire, 1914. We thank the New Hampshire Historical Society for the delightful book above noted. has the most interesting sketch of Captain John Smith we have read. It should be in every school in the land, with the Pocahontas incident added to give the charm of truthful romance to the book. Bank Deposit Guaranty in Nebraska, an historical and critical study. Bulletin No. 6. Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, Rhode Island. Hollands, a splendid magazine, beautifully illustrated. Published in Dallas, Texas. The Missouri Historical Collections, Jefferson Memorial. Published by the Society, St. Louis, Mo. December-History of Dick Johnson's Indian school at White Sulphur, Scott County, Ky. Revista Historica, Montevideo, Uruguay, S. A. Indiana Magazine of History, Bloomington, Indiana. Nineteenth Annual Report of Department of Agriculture, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Library of Congress Publications, January, 1915. Report of Librarian of Congress. Monthly publications. Washington, D. C. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Published in January, April, July, October, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914. Catalog, Madrid, Spain. Everybody's Magazine, three numbers, November, December, 1914, January, 1915. Magazine, National Geographic Journal of the Continental Congress, 1782. Sent through the courtesy of the Librarian of Congress. Washington, D. C. Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, Vol. 7, No. 8. Philadelphia, Pa. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, Mass. Journal of the Illinois State His torical Society, Springfield, Ill. The Mentor, January and February numbers. New York. Review from the Library of Congress. January, 1915. The Magazine of the D. A. R., Bulletin of the Newport Historical Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution. 1913. Washington, D. C. Holland's Magazine (exchange), Dallas, Texas. Catalogue of Americana. New York City. Two books of Proceedings of the Middle Tennessee Farmers' Institute, October, 1914, thirteenth annual convention. Journals of the Continental Congress. Library of Congress. |