Rocky Point Manor

Rocky Point Manor
Rocky Point Manor
	Rocky Point Manor, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
General information
Type	House
Architectural style	Federal; residual Georgian
Location	Harrodsburg, Kentucky
Coordinates	37°45′40″N84°50′54″W / 37.76101°N 84.84836°W Coordinates: 37°45′40″N84°50′54″W / 37.76101°N 84.84836°W
Construction started	1810
Governing body	Private

Last updated November 24, 2022

Rocky Point Manor is a Two Story mansion in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It was built in 1810 for attorney and judge James Haggin. It was considered a grand home for Kentucky during the settlement period, its grounds spanning about 400 acres at the time, and stood next to the historic Fort Harrod.

Following the bloody Battle of Perryville, on October 8, 1862, Rocky Point served as an impromptu field hospital for the wounded, both Union and Confederate soldiers having been treated in its basement,^[1] and a crawlspace on the wall having been used as a temporary morgue.

History

Captain John Haggin (1753—1825), was one of the earliest settlers in Kentucky, with his entrance in the spring of 1775.^[1] A famous "Indian fighter", he was on numerous occasions the hero attacks against pioneer settlements. Haggin set up a cabin in the place Rocky Point Manor stands today and lived there with his wife and children. The local Shawnee indians burnt his cabin down sometime in the late 18th century or early 19th century, and the family took refuge in the nearby Fort Harrod.

One of Haggin's sons, James Haggin, became a prosperous land attorney and circuit judge and, in 1809, purchased the property in which his father's cabin had once stood and had the manor house built there.^[1] The house was built in early Federal style with some residual Georgian features. The house was built with a relative lack of concern for expense and labor; due to cost, it was custom at the time to use common bond on the brickwork on the less significant façades and reserve Flemish bond for the main (front) façade — however, in Rocky Point, Flemish bond was used on all four sides. The woodwork and mouldings in the home, attributed respectively to Matthew P. Lowery, the most famous Federal craftsman of the time, and John Rogers, the most famous foreign architect in Kentucky, are also a testament to the costliness of the house. In around 1822, a wing with similar architectural features was added to the Northern side of the house and beneath it a slave kitchen with an enormous fireplace. A mansard roof was added over the structure sometime in the 1870s. There is also evidence of a summer kitchen, separated from the house (only one brick wall and outline foundation stand today), as well as a carriage house and slave quarters (now demolished).^[1]

On October, 1862, the Battle of Perryville took place in a nearby field and, after the battle, the basement of the Manor was used as a field hospital and its grounds as a triage station. Many artifacts from that time have been discovered in the crawlspaces of the house or dug up from its backyard, such as Union and Confederate belts, artillery and tableware.^[1]

Ownership of Rocky Point Manor changed many times over the years. In the 1940s, the manor was partitioned into apartments, although nothing was ever repaired since, at least 1986, and water damage was rampant.^[2]

The house was left abandoned and lost much of its interest as its history became largely unknown. The James Harrod Trust bought it in 2001 for $75,000, but by August 2002, was described by the Kentucky New Era as being "hemmed into a working-class neighborhood of Harrodsburg — decaying and repeatedly vandalized" and was declared among the 12 most endangered historic places by Preservation Kentucky Inc., an advocacy group.^[2] It was bought again by a private citizen in 2008, the sister of Justin Engelhardt, which led a restoration of the property.

In 2011, the site was featured on the Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures , in which it was investigated for paranormal activity.^[3]

Related Research Articles

Mercer County is a county located in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,772. Its county seat is Harrodsburg. The county was formed from Lincoln County, Virginia in 1785 and is named for Revolutionary War General Hugh Mercer, who was killed at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. It was formerly a prohibition or dry county.

Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of the Boyle and Lincoln counties. In 2001, Danville received a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2011, Money magazine placed Danville as the fourth-best place to retire in the United States. Centre College in Danville was selected to host U.S. vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perryville, Kentucky</span> City in Kentucky, United States

Perryville is a home rule-class city along the Chaplin River in western Boyle County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 751 at the time of the 2010 U.S. Census. It is part of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Perryville</span> Major battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Perryville, also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, as the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a single corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio. The battle is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.

The Battle of Munfordville was an engagement in Munfordville, Kentucky during the American Civil War. Victory there allowed the Confederates to temporarily strengthen their hold on the region and impair Union supply lines.

Old Fort Harrod State Park is a park located in Harrodsburg, Kentucky in the United States. The park encompasses 15 acres (6.1 ha) and features a reconstruction of Fort Harrod, the first permanent American settlement in the state of Kentucky. The park was founded in November 1934 as Pioneer Memorial State Park, and dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Governor Ruby Laffoon.

Constitution Square Historic Site is a 3-acre (0.012 km²) park and open-air museum in Danville, Kentucky. From 1937 to 2012, it was a part of the Kentucky state park system and operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks. When dedicated in 1942, it was known as John G. Weisiger Memorial State Park, honoring the brother of Emma Weisiger, who donated the land for the park. Later, it was known as Constitution Square State Shrine and then Constitution Square State Historic Site. On March 6, 2012, the Department of Parks ceded control of the site to the county government of Boyle County, Kentucky, and its name was then changed to Constitution Square Historic Site.

Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site is a 745-acre (3.01 km²) park near Perryville in Boyle County, Kentucky. The park continues to expand with purchases of parcels by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves' Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund and the American Battlefield Trust. An interpretive museum is located near the site where many Confederate soldiers killed in the Battle of Perryville were buried. Additionally, monuments, interpretive signage, and cannons mark notable events that occurred during the battle. The site became part of the Kentucky State Park System in 1936.

The Confederate Heartland Offensive, also known as the Kentucky Campaign, was an American Civil War campaign conducted by the Confederate States Army in Tennessee and Kentucky where Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith tried to draw neutral Kentucky into the Confederacy by outflanking Union troops under Major General Don Carlos Buell. Though they scored some successes, notably a tactical win at Perryville, they soon retreated, leaving Kentucky primarily under Union control for the rest of the war.

The Confederate Monument in Harrodsburg, located at the entrance to Spring Hill Cemetery in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is a statue listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It depicts a life-sized older Confederate cavalryman standing ready.

The Battle of Tebb's Bend Monument in Taylor County, Kentucky, near Campbellsville, Kentucky, commemorates the Battle of Tebbs Bend, which occurred on July 4, 1863, during the Civil War. The battle was essentially a Union victory, as it greatly delayed John Hunt Morgan's famous Raid that would later go into Indiana and Ohio.

Trinity Episcopal Church in Danville, Kentucky was one of the first churches organized in the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky. Trinity Church is the oldest in-use church structure in Danville and the oldest continuously used Episcopal church building in the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington as well as the second oldest in Kentucky. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Events from the year 1810 in the United States.

Captain John Haggin was one of the earliest settlers of Kentucky, arriving in the spring of 1775 with his wife's uncle, Col. John Hinkston. A famous "Indian fighter", he was on numerous occasions the hero of attacks against pioneer settlements, was dispatched on many expeditions, and was involved in many other aspects of the New West.

The Civil War Trust's Civil War Discovery Trail is a heritage tourism program that links more than 600 U.S. Civil War sites in more than 30 states. The program is one of the White House Millennium Council's sixteen flagship National Millennium Trails. Sites on the trail include battlefields, museums, historic sites, forts and cemeteries.

Octagon Hall is an eight-sided house in Simpson County, Kentucky near Franklin, Kentucky completed around 1860. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has also been known as the Andrew Jackson Caldwell House after the man who built the house. There is a second contributing building on the property, a detached summer kitchen.

Silas Harlan was one of the early settlers of Kentucky, having arrived with James Harrod in 1774 to found Harrodstown - the oldest permanent white settlement in the territory. Silas spent the majority of the American Revolution on the frontier fighting against the Indians, however, near the end of his life, he served under George Rogers Clark through the Illinois Campaigns of 1779 and died at the Battle of Blue Licks on August 19, 1782 fighting a mixed band of Natives, Loyalists and British troops.

David Glenn was of Irish descent and was born in 1753, likely in Pennsylvania but possibly in Virginia. He was one of the early settlers of Kentucky having accompanied James Harrod in founding Harrodstown in 1774, along with his older brother, Thomas. Today, Harrodsburg is considered the oldest permanent white settlement in Kentucky, being it was settled almost a full year before Boonesborough.

References

1 2 3 4 5 "Rocky Point (1810) | Projects | James Harrod Trust". James Harrod Trust. 2009. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
1 2 Charles Wolfe (Associated Press). "Preservation group delegates 12 historic sites as endangered". Kentucky New Era . Retrieved 2011-12-18.
↑ "Rocky Point Manor" . Retrieved 2013-05-31.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[JHT-1] 1 2 3 4 5 "Rocky Point (1810) | Projects | James Harrod Trust". James Harrod Trust. 2009. Retrieved 2011-12-18.

[KNE-2] 1 2 Charles Wolfe (Associated Press). "Preservation group delegates 12 historic sites as endangered". Kentucky New Era . Retrieved 2011-12-18.

[GAC-3] "Rocky Point Manor" . Retrieved 2013-05-31.

[1]

[2]

[3]