What We Do

Proudly celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2007, the Historic Homes Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit corporation chartered in 1957 for the purpose of purchasing, preserving and displaying historic buildings and their collections, as well as for furthering the advancement of education, culture and the arts in Kentucky. Three historic houses: Farmington, Thomas Edison House, and Whitehall, are presently owned and managed by the Foundation.

Farmington (3033 Bardstown Road) was built between 1815 and 1816 for John (1772-1840) and Lucy Fry (1788-1874) Speed.  Both of them came from wealthy Virginia families that moved to Kentucky in the last decades of the 1700s.  John Speed's father, Captain James Speed, fought in the Revolutionary War and was badly injured.  Like many others, he sought to make his fortune in land speculation in the newly opened territory west of the Appalachian mountains.  In 1782, he brought his young family and his slaves over the Wilderness Road and settled near Danville, Kentucky.  In 1809 John Speed, in partnership with David Ward and William Pope, Jr., bought over 2000 acres of celebrated Jefferson County "Beargrass" land.  Speed's share of that large tract was the 554 acres that made up the original Farmington property. 

There is circumstantial evidence that the plans for Farmington were taken from a plan by Thomas Jefferson.  We know of Lucy's family's connections with Jefferson, and we know that Farmington's floor plan is very similar to one drawn by Jefferson.  The building contract for Farmington mentions Paul Skidmore as having done the plan for the house. The construction, much of it undoubtedly by slaves, began in 1815 and was completed by 1816.

The primary cash crop at Farmington was hemp which was used to make rope and rough bagging for the cotton trade.  The farm also produced corn, wheat, apples, cider, vinegar, pork, flax, lamb and mutton, and dairy products.

In 1841, Farmington hosted it's most famous guest, Abraham Lincoln.  Tired and despondent over a break in his relations with Mary Todd of Lexington, and the direction his political career was taking, Lincoln came to Farmington to visit with his great friend Joshua Speed and his family.  When Lincoln was elected President of the United States, he invited Joshua to join his Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury.  Joshua, having no political ambition, declined but suggested his brother James Speed, a successful Louisville lawyer, who, in December 1864, became Lincoln's Attorney General.  James held that position until 1866.

Thomas Edison House (729-31 East Washington Street) located in the Butchertown National Historic District, was opened by Historic Homes Foundation in 1992. Edison came to Louisville in 1866, at the young age of 19, to work as a telegraph key operator. With his skill at receiving telegraph messages, Thomas Edison had little difficulty landing a job with the Western Union located on Second and West Main Street -- about eight blocks from this home.  The house is a small, simple double shotgun duplex built around 1850 and originally had a solid wall running down the center of the structure. Only the most basic accommodations would have been afforded.  Edison's stay in Louisville ended abruptly in 1867 when he spilled sulfuric acid, damaging his employer's desk, and as a result, was fired. Behind the museum house is an established terraced garden.

The house itself has many artifacts of Edison's era, some of which are available for hands-on use, and an extensive collection of Edison's inventions.  In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. The electric light bulb wasn't Edison's favorite invention, but it certainly was his most famous. Our light bulb collection consists of many varied types of his earliest light bulbs.  Some of the other interesting artifacts found at Thomas Edison House include both cylinder and disc phonographs, as well as Edison Business Phonographs. An Edison Kinetoscope, the first home motion picture projector, is also on display in the museum.

Behind the museum house is an established terraced garden used for special events.  

Whitehall (3110 Lexington Road) , thought to have been built circa 1855 by John Marshall, began as a modest two-story brick house in the Italianate style popular during the mid-19th century.  It sat on twenty acres of land that had been part of the original Spring Station tract owned by Samuel and Norborne Beall, and Bealls Branch, a tributary of Beargrass Creek, ran through the property. 

Ownership of the house passed through five different people until it was purchased in 1909 by successful horseman and entrepreneur John Middleton.  Renovations to the home made under the supervision of Mrs. Middleton fashioned the Southern-style Greek Revival mansion we know today as Whitehall House & Gardens. 

In 1924 Whitehall was purchased by Hume Logan, president of the Logan Company, a fence and steel products manufacturer.  Hume Logan, Jr., the middle son of Mr. Logan's five children, purchased the home shortly after the death of his father in 1948, and lived in Whitehall as a bachelor until his death in 1992 at age 94.  The house, gardens and many of the unique furnishings were bequeathed by Mr. Logan to the Historic Homes Foundation so that the public would always be welcome to enjoy this special home.  Whitehall was extensively refurbished in 1994 under the expertise of local design firm Bittners as that year's Junior League of Louisville Historic Showhouse.  Today the house is open to the public for tours and is a popular venue for weddings, receptions and other momentous occasions.

As a privately funded nonprofit organization, the Historic Homes Foundation is sustained by individual members, donors, and a wide array of Kentucky corporations.  The Historic Homes Foundation Board of Trustees serves as the governing body for the entire foundation.  Farmington, Thomas Edison House, and Whitehall have separate Regents' Committees that are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the homes.  The Regent and Treasurer of each committee serve on the Foundation Board.

HHF provides several services to the houses, including accounting, human resources and administrative functions, membership renewals, and annual appeal.  It also distributes the revenue from its annual special events, the Derby Breakfast and Holiday Gala.  It is this relationship that makes the Foundation unique: One umbrella agency coordinates the efforts of three historical and cultural assets, thus eliminating much duplication of effort and rallying more community support to benefit each of these treasured house museums.