From the Foreword...
The historic sites survey of Boone County is part of a federal-state effort to identify all sites that are worthy of preservation in Kentucky. Federal matching funds provided to the Kentucky Heritage Commission by the Department of the Interior are used in this statewide survey, which will extend over a ten-year period. In order to ensure coverage of all regions of the state, the Heritage Commission staff is conducting the survey on a county-county basis.
The historical survey is a comprehensive investigation of the buildings, structures, sites and objects that materially embody our cultural heritage. Many sites recorded during the survey will be listed in the Survey of Historic Sites in Kentucky and the more important sites will be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.
Domestic architecture along the Ohio River may be loosely divided into three groups; early buildings in stone or brick that are primarily Federal in style; houses related by Greek Revival elements and by open galleries or porches; and a large group of houses sharing one or more specific architectural features and showing a dependence on either Italianate or Gothic Revival styling. The majority of Boone County's remaining stone buildings and many of its early brick structures are found in this area. From the middle nineteenth century numerous frame houses along the river began to reflect the major revivals of the century and certain architectural features that were popular through the Ohio River region -- recessed porches and three-part compositions. Most of the log houses that survive in Boone County are found scattered throughout the interior rather than along the river. This distribution pattern of log buildings perhaps reflects the greater isolation of the interior and a greater pressure for demolition along the river. Some of the buildings along or near the Ohio River are discussed elsewhere in the catalog, specifically in the sections dealing with Petersburg, the Bullitsburg Church and Idlewild area and the Sand Run Church area.
Commonly acknowledged as the oldest town in Boone County, Petersburg gives little visual evidence of its eighteenth century origins. Nonetheless it does provide a complete picture of a planned nineteenth century river town. Originally an oblong grid of twenty-four square blocks along the Ohio River, it is approached from the east by the Petersburg-Burlington Road and from the south by Petersburg-Belleview Road (both now KY 20). The most spectacular view of the town is from the eastern approach, from the hills overlooking the floodplain upon which the town is built. This vantage from Prospect Hill reveals the relation of the town to the river and to the surrounding farmland. There is also the aesthetic pleasure of the contrast between a manmade grid of streets and a natural, picturesque setting.
The obvious drama of the view from Prospect Hill prompted the owner of the Boone County Distillery, a Petersburg industry until the turn of the century, to build here in the late 1850s or early 1860s. The J. C. Jenkins house (Be-55) was planned and built for show and relates to the town below in much the same way as a medieval manor house to its surrounding hamlet. The builder had no single preferred style but rather adopted details from Italianate, Greek and Moorish styles. The chief jewel of the house is a projecting bay overlooking the town and river. From this window, the owner could look down upon the Gothic Revival house (Be-28) he reportedly built for his son, who could thus be observed but not heard. The story may be apocryphal, but the significant relation of these two houses to Petersburg is undisputable. Neither house is in the town grid, yet both are oriented toward the town and both are key visual landmarks seen upon entering or leaving Petersburg from either main road.
