Adsmore House is located in Princeton, Caldwell County, Kentucky, approximately 30 miles east of the Tennessee River – the easternmost boundary of the Jackson Purchase. Because Princeton is so far west, it was not officially founded until December 1820, just one year after the Jackson Purchase took place, and 28 years after the establishment of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. When John Higgins arrived in Princeton c. 1842, the state was 50 years old, but the town was merely 22 years old – quite young in the grand scheme of things, right? So, it seems that John Higgins just might have gotten in on the ground floor of this small town’s growth.
John Higgins Sr. (1821-1899)
John Mitchell Higgins was born on February 23, 1821, in South Carolina. Little else is known about Higgins until he arrived in Princeton sometime before 1842, when he married Nancy Leana Calvert on February 23, 1842, in Caldwell County. He likely arrived after 1840, as he is not listed in the 1840 U.S. Census for Princeton.
He quickly made something of himself, however, as by the 1850 U.S. Census, Higgins was listed as a merchant with real estate totaling $3,000 in value, which would be equivalent to $124,606 today. Also by this time, the Higginses had welcomed two children into the world: Mary J. Higgins (b. 1846) and John M. Higgins Jr. (b. 1849).
By 1860, John Higgins’ wealth had continued to grow. Listed as a dry goods merchant on the 1860 U.S. Census, Higgins reported that he had $10,000 ($390,332 today) in real estate – possibly two plantations he is said to have owned in the south – and his personal estate was valued at $20,000 ($780,665 today). By this time, the Higginses had expanded their family, adding David in 1855 and Martha in 1856.
It is possible that the real estate he owned was either his dry goods store or his plantations, or maybe both, but what personal estate did he have worth $20,000? The answer is present-day Adsmore House.
Building a Home
The home that John Higgins had constructed in 1857 was simpler than what we see today. Imagine the photo above without the addition on the back and without the added portico on the front. That is the original section of the home.
The Higgins’ home was a two-by-two brick home with a large center hall that had the front and back doors directly across from one another for cross-ventilation and a gorgeous staircase to the second floor. To the left of the hall was one room used as the formal parlor, and to the right of the hall was another single room used as the library.
“By 1850 Greek Revival was the preferred style of the community’s prominent citizens for residential architecture. This followed the national design trend from the 1830s through the 1880s… Adsmore, built for dry goods merchant John Higgins circa 1857; Waveland…, built for Dr. Thomas McNary circa 1853; and the L. B. Overby House built circa 1857, are outstanding examples of the two-story brick Greek Revival style homes with full Georgian plans constructed during this period.”
NPS Nomination Form
Upstairs, there were two bedrooms, one on each side of the landing. While there were only four rooms in the Higgins’ home, those rooms were 20’x21’ with ten-foot ceilings and a beautiful fireplace in each. (NPS Form)
Second Owner – James R. Hewlett
The Higgins family didn’t live in the home for very long, however, as John “had financial reverses during the Civil War and the home had to be sold at the court house steps.” James R. (J.R.) Hewlett, “a prominent western Kentucky lawyer,” purchased the home, becoming the new owner in 1870.
Hewlett was born in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1833. He was the son of Alanson and Sarah Thompson Hewlett. He lived and worked on his father’s farm until he was twenty years old. At that time, he left Hopkins County for Caldwell County, where he attended Cumberland College. Upon graduation in 1859, Hewlett accepted a “professorship in the college, and filled the chair of mathematics for two years, studying law in the meantime under the instruction of L. Lindsay, a prominent attorney.” In 1859, he was accepted to the bar and went straight to work as a lawyer in Caldwell County and the surrounding Kentucky counties. In 1866, he was elected to represent Caldwell County in the House of Representatives, where he served one term. He was then elected as the Commonwealth’s Attorney, a role he filled for the next six years. Hewlett purchased Adsmore House in 1870 and then married Susan Leaville on December 24, 1874, at the age of 41.
Mr. Hewlett lived in the home with his wife until his death on March 22, 1896. The couple did not have any children together, so Hewlett’s widow sold the property just a few years later, in 1900.
Third Owner – John Parker Smith
The next owner of the home was John Parker Smith, a prominent member of the Smith-Garrett family. Smith was born in Lyon County, Kentucky, on March 18, 1836, to Ransford and Catharine Graves Howard Smith. He was born and lived “near the old Rolling Mill on [the] Cumberland River” until he was a young man.
On January 19, 1856, John married Philadelphia Parker. They were married for eleven years, until she passed away in June 1867. They did not have any children together.
In January 1869, John married Nancy Bond Kevil (1852-1919), of Princeton. Nancy was the daughter of James Early and Nancy “Nannie” Bell Kevil.
The Smiths would have seven children together; only five would reach adulthood: Maggie J. (died at 2 years old), Mayme, an infant son (died one week later), Katharine, Shell Ransford, James Urey, and Selina (Lena) Smith. In 1871, John moved his family to Princeton, where he entered into the grocery business and then moved into the hotel industry. In the 1880 U.S. Census, John is listed as a “Hotel Keeper.”
“Five years later, Mr. Smith became proprietor of the Commercial Hotel and as a hotel man became widely known throughout the State. In remained in the Commercial Hotel 25 years and after its destruction by fire, Mr. Smith was connected with the Bank Hotel until 1895 in which year he sold the hotel and retired from active business life.”
Caldwell County News Obituary
Clearly, John Parker Smith was doing very well by 1900 when he purchased the home from the Hewletts. He was already retired after selling his hotel, and his children were mostly grown. His youngest daughter, Selina, was seventeen years old when they bought the home. John, Nannie, Mayme, her husband Robert, and Selina moved into the home together. With so many in the home, the Smiths jumped right into expanding the home and adding some “glitz” to the rather simple 1857 home.
A New Addition
Brinton B. Davis, a noted Kentucky architect from Paducah, KY, but living in Louisville, was hired to enlarge the home into the Colonial Revival style. He designed the portico with four fluted Corinthian columns and an entrance “flanked by applied Corinthian pilasters and period lighting.”
In addition, Davis:
- changed the roofline, allowing an attic space to be added to the front of the home.
- added a side sitting porch with Doric columns.
- added wainscotting to the stairway.
- added extra living space off the back of the home – a dining room, three bedrooms, and a kitchen. The stairs to reach the second floor of the new addition were added to the back of the landing of the original stairway, creating “steps leading to both the front and the back of the house, an arrangement rarely seen in old homes.”
- added “several more Federal-style additions,” including “beautifully hand-carved Federal mantels in the downstairs rooms, making them more impressive.”
As if that wasn’t enough, central heating and electricity were added to the home in 1907.
John Parker Smith enjoyed a few years with modern amenities before passing away on March 2, 1911. His wife, Nannie, passed away just a few years later on May 23, 1916.
Inherited by Family
Mayme Smith Garrett, the Smiths’ oldest daughter, inherited her family home upon the passing of her father. She had married Robert Dixon Garrett on November 15, 1892, in Princeton, KY, and on March 28, 1901, the couple welcomed their one and only daughter, Katharine Roberta Garrett, into the world. As I stated above, Mayme and Robert were living with the Smiths in 1900, and they were still living there in 1910, along with their 9-year-old daughter. Upon the inheritance of the home, Mayme continued with new updates.
“In 1920, the old frame kitchen was torn away and a new kitchen, breakfast room, pantry, and sitting porch were added to the back of the house. No additions or alterations were made after that time.”
Mary Grace Pettit
The Garretts lived in the home until their deaths: Robert in 1930, and Mayme in 1947. The Garretts’ daughter, Katharine Garrett, inherited Adsmore and made it her home until her death in September 1984.
“Miss Katharine Garrett, granddaughter of the original owners, grew up at Adsmore and lived there for the duration of her life. When she passed in September 1984, she left Adsmore, its furnishings, and the estate to the George Coon Public Library Board of Trustees under the stipulation that it be open to the public. The museum opened to the public in November 1986, two years after Katharine’s passing.”
Adsmore House
Our Visit…
As usual, I did not know Adsmore House’s history until we made our visit. For several years, I had been discussing making a trip out to Western Kentucky. That area of the state is about a three-hour drive from us, so I wanted to make it a tour of sorts, where we visited several sites over two days. With my daughter headed off to college, I really wanted to make the trip before the summer ended, and we finally did. Our big stop was Adsmore House, and it was totally worth the three-hour drive.
Adsmore House is said to be the only living history museum in Kentucky. It’s “a type of museum that creates historical events and situations that are similar to real past events and situations, so that visitors can experience what life was like at that time.” (Cambridge Dictionary) My daughter and I felt as if we had traveled back in time as soon as we arrived. We walked to the carriage house, turned gift shop-admissions office, and there we met the sweetest ladies dressed in early 1900s attire. We heard a little bit of history as we waited for our tour to start, and were then guided to the house where we met our tour guide, also dressed in period attire, on the back sitting porch. She welcomed us into the Smith home as special guests on Selina Smith’s wedding day.
Selina was the Smiths’ youngest daughter. She had recently returned from a Grand Tour of Europe that she had taken in early 1907. Upon her return home, she announced to her family that she was engaged to marry Dr. John E. Osborne of Wyoming. (Osborne served as Wyoming’s third governor from 1893 to 1895, and was a very successful physician, farmer, and banker.)
Being a living museum, the home was decorated just as it would have been for Selina’s special day, on November 2, 1907. As we toured the home, we saw the parlor set and ready for guests to arrive, special wedding presents set in the library, Selina’s beautiful wedding cake on the dining room table with finger foods displayed and ready for a small reception, and the wedding attire in the bedrooms. (Yes, Selina’s real wedding dress was on display!)
“Photographs (the ladies dressed in hats and furs atop camels is a favorite), postcards and other souvenirs bring the Grand Tour to our doorstep. The wedding is held in the parlor where the drapes are drawn to highlight the newly installed electric lights. The dining room is set for their elegant high noon breakfast reception and decorated with Selina’s colors of white and yellow. Their many original gifts from the wedding may be seen in the library, while the matron of honor’s dress and the wedding party are being readied in the upstairs bedrooms for Selina’s special day.”
Adsmore HOuse
Our tour guide was so knowledgeable and personable. It was such a great tour. We learned so much history of the family, I felt like we knew them personally. One of the many stories we heard had to do with how the home came to be called Adsmore. It seems there was an aunt who visited the home often, and one time, after seeing the various renovations and additions, she commented that the family just “adds more” to the home. The name stuck and became Adsmore over time.
Along with the wonderful stories we heard, we also loved that we were able to tour the entire home, except for the kitchen and bathroom. Katharine Garrett specified that once the home was a museum, the two non-period additions to the home should not be a part of the tour. She wanted visitors to see the home as it was in the late-Victorian era, not as it was when she lived there in 1984. I happen to agree with Katharine on that thought. After visiting all the period rooms and feeling like we traveled back in time, I know that feeling would have been spoiled by touring a 20th-century bathroom and kitchen. So, this time, we didn’t mind at all that we couldn’t see every room. We saw all the rooms that mattered, and they were awesome!
…and Reflection
This is such a special home for several reasons. As I stated previously, Adsmore House is a living history museum, which makes it one of a kind for Kentucky. In addition, the original part of the home, built by Mr. Higgins, is one of the oldest homes in Princeton, as well as Caldwell County. Lastly, because this home was owned by the family all the way until 1984, Adsmore holds an extremely large collection of period furnishings, clothing, letters, etc., belonging to the family. Everything in the house, from books to diaries, photographs, family correspondence, and family knick-knacks, belonged to the Smith-Garrett Family. That is extremely rare and so very cool!
With 18 steamer trunks full of family relics, the museum’s exhibits are changed out about every two months. In 2025, they featured ‘Treasures from the Adsmore Attic,’ ‘The Engagement & Wedding’ (which we thoroughly enjoyed), ‘The Black Patch Tobacco War,’ and ‘A Victorian Christmas.’ I absolutely love that they change out the living history of the home with different themes. That way, you can visit more than once and see different pieces in the home while also hearing different family stories. You can check their website for their exhibits and timelines, and then you can plan to visit during a time that interests you the most.
How fantastic that this home was built in 1857 and carried family stories all the way to 1984. Not many homes have such a long, detailed history full of family stories. When you visit, make sure to give a nod to Katharine Garrett for seeing the importance of her family home and the history it holds. I’m certainly thankful that she did!
Until next time, Happy Travels!
All Photos are courtesy of Kentucky Historic Travels (KHT), unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
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