Visiting Blackacre: Nature and History Combined

The Presley Tyler Home – known today as Blackacre State Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead – sits in Eastern Jefferson County, in Louisville, KY. In the late 1700s, however, this area wasn’t considered part of Louisville, as it was not near the city. As a matter of fact, it likely would have taken you about four to five hours to travel by horse and buggy from Tyler Presley’s home to Louisville. Today, you can get from Blackacre to St. Louis in that same amount of time! So, if the area wasn’t considered Louisville, what was it considered? Well, the Tylers played a significant role in the development of an area known as Jeffersontown, KY, which was officially incorporated as a city in 1797. Let’s take a look at a long line of Tylers that arrived in Kentucky in 1780. 

Edward Tyler, Jr. (c.1717 – 1802)

To start this family story, we begin with Edward Tyler, Jr., who was born in Ann Arundel County, Maryland, on August 9, 1719. He married Nancy Ann Langley c.1750. 

Somewhere along the way, the Tylers moved to Fort Redstone, which is now the town of Brownsville, Pennsylvania. It was from there that the Tyler family traveled in the Spring of 1780, heading down the Ohio River in a flatboat with seven of their ten children and their nephew. They stopped at the Falls of the Ohio, near Louisville, and it was there they stayed – possibly at Linn’s Station along Beargrass Creek, as this was where their son William had made “the base for his explorations” as a surveyor. 

As a side note, Edward helped in the Revolutionary War effort by “by contributing wood planks, flour, and courier service to the army of George Rogers Clark. He was later paid for the supplies by the state of Virginia.” It is through this service that Edward receives the status of a Revolutionary War Patriot.

In 1781, Edward purchased four ½ acre lots in Louisville. In 1782, a Virginia Treasury Warrant, No. 12182, allowed him to purchase 503.25 acres on Chenoweth Run (named for Richard Chenoweth) just east of Jeffersontown. Three of his sons, Moses, William, and Edward III, and his nephew, Robert, “established farms on this land, each productive and self-sufficient by the 1790s, forming a rural community.” These four farms, within about a half mile of one another, created what became known as the Tyler Settlement. By 1785, Edward had patented roughly 1,000 acres. 

Edward, however, did not move to this land right away. Instead, he settled in Louisville, where he had warehouses and established a tavern. Remember, he had purchased four lots in Louisville in 1781.

“[Edward] Tyler, and his spouse, moved to Louisville, and in 1784 began operating a tavern on Main Street near Fort Nelson. They lived there for about five years before retiring to the farm operated by their youngest son.”

John E. Kleber, The Encyclopedia of Louisville

So, sometime around 1789, Edward, his wife Ann, and their youngest son, Edward III, left Louisville and moved to the parcel of land he had set aside for Edward III. This piece was just west of Moses’s farm, now known as Blackacre Nature Preserve. 

(You can learn more about Edward Jr. and Edward III in my second book to be published before the end of 2025.)  

Moses Tyler Sr. (1755 – 1839)

Moses Tyler was one of Edward and Nancy’s seven children who traveled with them down the Ohio River in 1780.

Moses was born on January 1, 1755. He married Phebe Evans (1758-1831) on January 31, 1777. Also in 1777, Moses took the Oath of Allegiance to the newly formed United States of America in Monongalia County, Virginia, earning him the status of a Revolutionary War Patriot like his father. As stated above, Moses and his wife, Phebe, came to Kentucky in 1780. He was given a parcel of land to farm by his father around 1785. Right away, Moses went to work clearing the land for “grazing and crop production.” (Johnston, 1997)

By 1790, Moses had begun construction of a homestead “within the Floyd’s Fork watershed.” He started with a double-crib Appalachian-style log barn, built of Kentucky’s native yellow poplar. He continued with a two-story springhouse and a stone cottage, both constructed with Kentucky limestone believed to have been quarried onsite.

The Stone Cottage and the Double-crib Appalachian-style Log Barn / Photos Courtesy of KHT

“A Private Quarry

In addition to the availability of springs, streams and woodlands, the Jeffersontown area abounded in limestone outcroppings, where stone for building was readily obtained. As a result, many early structures, particularly in the rural areas, were made of stone quarried on the same farm on which they were built. [The rocks quarried on the Moses Tyler farm were used by the family to build] houses, springhouses, chimneys, foundations, fences, road paving, and even tombstones.”

Joellen Johnston

In addition to the barn, springhouse, and stone cottage, the homestead had numerous outbuildings such as a smokehouse, loom house, and corn crib. It is known that Moses operated a whiskey still on his property, believed to be the first legitimate distillery in Kentucky, as he received a permit that allowed him to distill 90 gallons of whiskey from January 15 to March 15, 1798.

Moses also acquired additional land while establishing his homestead. In 1792, he acquired “220 acres adjacent to his father’s land from Alexander Breckinridge,” and in 1794, Moses acquired 200 acres from his brother, William, “who received it from their father, Edward Sr.” 

Moses and Phebe had ten children together, all living in the stone cottage that is still found on the property today. One of those children, Presley Tyler, was deeded his father’s property in 1834, five years prior to Moses’ death. He was deeded 300 acres along Chenoweth Run, which included all the livestock: horses, sheep, cows, hogs, and poultry, along with all the farming utensils, household and kitchen furniture, and wagons – basically receiving it all, lock, stock, and barrel. Now, this “gift” didn’t come free. Presley was required to care for his father until his death in exchange for the family estate. Presley, of course, agreed to the arrangement.

Moses died on January 28, 1839, and is buried in the Tyler Family Cemetery next to his wife, Phebe, who died on August 31, 1831.

Presley Tyler (1796 – 1879) 

Presley Tyler was born on the Tyler property in 1796. He married Jane Marmaduke, daughter of Samson and Catherine Catron Young Marmaduke, on March 17, 1831, in Oldham County, Kentucky. Presley and Jane had two children, an infant son who died at birth and a daughter named Catherine “Kate” Francis Tyler, who was born on March 4, 1832. 

As noted above, Presley was deeded the Tyler Farm in 1834. I would have to assume that Presley had been helping his father with the farm long before that, which would be the reason he was chosen to inherit the property over one of the other children. 

The Presley Tyler Home

In 1844, Presley Tyler had tradesmen Samuel McDonald and C. Schooler build a 2-story, 5-bay, brick I-house on the property. The Federal-style farmhouse included two bedrooms, a formal parlor, a dining room, and a living room, and was “more pretentious in siting and style than the other Tyler houses and reflects the rising fortunes of the family.” The home included 118 thousand bricks, 72 feet of cornice, and “penciling of the struck mortar joints.” Penciling was a “purely decorative, painted surface treatment over a mortar joint, often in a contrasting color.” (Because the house was later painted yellow, the penciling can no longer be seen on the home.) The home cost $268.40 to build in 1844. An addition was built onto the back of the home by the Tylers at a later date that included a kitchen on the first floor and a bedroom above. 

The home faced Mann’s Lick – a trail or road that then ran from Mann’s Salt Lick near Bullitt’s Lick and present-day Fairdale, all the way through Jeffersontown and into Louisville – so the Flemish-bond pattern was used on the sides of the home seen by those using the well-traveled “road.” 

The home also featured brick cornices, jack arches above the windows, narrow sidelights on the main doorway with a six-pane transom, a 2-story ell at the rear, and an enclosed corner staircase in the dining room to the room above. All of which were “extra” features on an 1844 farmhouse. 

Old Mann’s Lick runs in front of the Presley Tyler Home (left), and the transom and sidelights around the front door (3rd photo). / All Photos Courtesy of KHT

Passing Down the Property

Presley Tyler died in October 1879, leaving the property to his widow, Jane Marmaduke Tyler, their only daughter, Kate, and their son-in-law, Andrew Barnett, whom Kate had married in Green County, Kentucky, in 1856. Shortly after Presley’s death, in 1881, the family sold the 407-acre farm to a neighbor, John T. Sweeney.

From there, the property changed hands several more times to the Kroegers, the Wheelers, the Woodwards (who named the property “Land O’Skye”), and then to Macauley and Emilie Smith, who called it Blackacre. 

In 1979, the Smiths donated the farm to the Kentucky State Nature Preserve Commission as Kentucky’s first nature preserve.

Interior photos of the Presley Tyler Home during their Candlelight Tour event. / Photos Courtesy of KHT

Visiting Today & Reflection

As one of Jefferson County’s most complete 19th-century farm complexes (or maybe the only one), the oldest nature preserve in the Kentucky Nature Preserve system, and the only state nature preserve with farm animals… Blackacre Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead is so very worth your time! It is a perfect place to go for a hike, visit a waterfall, explore a small quarry site, pet some goats, and see what life was like in the late 1780s into the 1800s. 

Now, I really can’t explain why I never took my daughter to the nature preserve. Really. I’ve got nothing. Truthfully, Blackacre is so perfect for littles! I missed out on an awesome memory with this visit. I really do wish I had taken my daughter when she was young. I know she truly would have loved to play in the water and explore the meadows and woods. She would have been thrilled to climb up into a hay loft and even more excited to play with a baby goat. 

Along with everything that I just mentioned, you can – of course –  also get your history on while you are there! You can explore the historic barn, the smokehouse, and the springhouse. You can walk along the historic Mann’s Lick. You can see the outside of the stone cottage and Presley Tyler’s home, and all of this is possible 365 days a year, from sunup to sundown. They do prefer that you come after 3 PM on weekdays throughout the school year because of field trip groups.

If you would like to tour the Presley Tyler home, check Blackacre’s website for tour schedules as well as for special events when the home will also be open. 

For example, I toured the home last winter for the very first time during their special candlelight tours. It was such a special event! The home was decorated for a Victorian Christmas with tour guides dressed in period attire ready to tell you the history of every room. The house was lit in beautiful “candlelight.” (Well, battery-powered candlelight to be safe, but it was still amazing!) 

A special Thomas Kinkade village and electric train exhibit was set up in the Pioneer kitchen. In addition, there was Pioneer-era music and period dancers showing off their skills in the Stone Cottage (so you could see the interior), a fire going in the firepit by the smoke house with historic storytellers, period crafts in the loom house, and special refreshments. It was a night to remember, and if you get the chance to visit during this time, I highly recommend it! 

Goats and outbuildings found at Blackacre Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead / All Photos Courtesy of KHT

Happy Travels!

NOTE: This history and much more (along with more photos) will be included in my second book, which I hope to have published before the end of 2025!

Resources

Johnston, Joellen Tyler, Jeffersontown, Kentucky: The first 200 years, City of Jeffersontown, 1997

Kleber, John E., “Tyler, Edward II,” The Encyclopedia of Louisville, The University of Kentucky Press, 2001