Ashland

Home in Kentucky meant Ashland, the name Clay gave the estate that had become Henry and Lucretias' residence in 1806 and that was located about a mile and a half south of Lexington. The name derived from the native ash growing in the area, and conveyed a sense of serenity and peace. Ashland provided Clay with a refuge from the tumultuous world outside, a safe haven to which he might regularly escape from the burdens and hardships of public life. Almost from the day they acquired the property Clay planted spruce trees. 'When I passed through the wilderness in 1797,' he recollected, 'I was much struck with the Spruce Pine as a beautiful evergreen. I am anxious to propagate it on a little farm that I have been improving near Lexington'.

Purchased for approximately ten thousand dollars, the estate grew to around four hundred acres. The original house on the property when Lucretia and Henry first moved into it in 1806 was a modest affair, like most other houses in that area at that time. Building soon began to transpose the structure into an elegant country house. When completed, the mansion faced west toward Lexington and was made of brick. Reputedly designed by Benjamin Latrobe, it stood two and a half stories high, with one-story wings flung out right and left from the central house itself.

The Garden. A place where Henry Clay found solitude and a place to think.

After the wings were added, the house measured 126 feet long by 57 feet wide. The entrance bay had a colonnetted fan doorway with tall windows on either side. It let into a lofty octagonal hall, to the left of which was a small room that Clay used as an office. On the right an elliptical stairwell provided access to the rooms above. Directly opposite the front entrance were doors leading into the drawing room and dining room. A wide, arched doorway on each side of the house were narrow hallways between which Clay had built an octagonal-shaped library, paneled in ash and walnut, with a dome ceiling or skylight for greater illumination. Beyond the library there were bedrooms and a billiard room.

"Glyndon Van Deusen, Clay's biographer, described life at Ashland during early years as busy, happy and filled with gayety and noisy activity. Henrietta, Theodore, Thomas, Susan, Anne, Lucretia, Henry Jr. and Eliza were the first of eleven children born. Amos Kendall, the young tutor, gave then lessons every morning and tried to manage this tather spoiled and high-spirited bunch. In his diary the tall, lanky teacher from New England paid tribute to the generosity and kindness of Mrs. Clay. After Henry Clay's return from Europe where he went to help negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, Laura, James and John were added to the family group. Ten house servants, the children, visiting relatives and a constant round of guests made Ashland a lively home and a place of resounding hospitality." (Simpson, The Cat)

These old discarded household items were found in the family privy