Ward Hall mansion was built by Junius Richard Ward (1802–1883) and his wife Matilda Viley Ward in 1857. The mansion was built as a summer residence. Their plantation house located near Leota Landing, Washington County, Mississippi served as their winter residence. Junius Ward was the grandson of the Colonel Robert and Jemima Suggett Johnson family of Scott County, Kentucky, an extraordinarily powerful political and economic family dynasty whose members extended their influence throughout the Mississippi River Delta and who also had plantations along the Mississippi River at Greenville, Mississippi and Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village, Arkansas. Many of these family members had plantation houses in the deep South and summer residences in Scott County, Kentucky. Matilda Viley was the daughter of pioneer thoroughbred breeder, Capt. Willa Viley of Scott County. Junius Ward was forced to sell the plantation in 1867, due to financial reverses following the Civil War. The home was offered by a later owner to the Commonwealth of Kentucky if they would use it as the state capitol. The offer was not accepted.
The mansion is attributed to Major Thomas Lewinski and is the embodiment of numerous Minard Lafever design elements from his 1829 and 1835 pattern books. It was built by Taylor Buffington, measures 62 ft wide and 69 ft long, four stories, with a 14-foot-wide, 65-foot-long central corridor on three floors. There are three rooms on each side of the central corridor, with the exception of the area set aside for the nautilus-chambered double elliptical staircase which rises three floors.The floor plan is based on a design by 16th century architect Andrea Palladio. At each end of the central corridor on the main floor are front and rear entrances with cutglass transom and side lights. The servants working rooms and sleeping rooms in the basement represent one of the most intact antebellum basements in the country. Forty acres of the original plantation remain with the house.
Ward Hall is now the home of the The Ward Hall Preservation Foundation, Inc. The foundation raised one million dollars to purchase the estate 40 acres and is dedicated to raising the funds necessary to restore the estate in order to operate the facility as the Ward Hall Plantation of 1857, a cultural and educational facility dedicated to teaching the culture of Kentucky. The historic site depicts an interpretative period from 1857–1867.
This geocache is one of 12 geocaches that comprise the Scott County Geotrot. Passports are to be given out at the August 12, 2017 Scott County Geotrot event. Geocachers will visit all 12 geocaches along the trail and stamp the corresponding block on the passport and turn it in for a prize as supplies last. After the event, passports will be available both inside the Georgetown-Scott County Tourism office located at 399 Outlet Center Drive, Georgetown, Kentucky and outside the tourism office in the designated Scott County Geotrot passport box after hours. Completed passports can be turned in here as well.
Please remember to leave the designated stamp and ink pad inside of the geocache containers! Permission to hide geocaches has been obtained by the property owners.
