The road taken to get to this historic site is quite a unique one. As you all likely know, I traveled to Lawrenceburg one afternoon a while back just by driving backroads. I snapped a photo of the Dowling House there on their downtown Main Street and posted it to my Facebook page. That post led me to visit the Dowling House later for a tour with the new owners. After my visit, I had to read about Mary Dowling, so I picked up a copy of the book The Mother of Bourbon: The Greatest American Whiskey Story Never Told by Eric Goodman and Kaveh Zamanian. Through that book, I learned about the Stuart Home & School, started by Dr. John Quincy Adams Stewart. You see, Dr. J.Q.A. Stewart had a son by the name of John Poage Stewart, who married Margaret Dowling, the daughter of Mary Dowling.
So, knowing all of the above, I did a little research and learned the school still exists and is still run by the Stewart family. Fast forward a few months to this past March, when I participated in the Dowling House Spring Vendor Fair. While there, I met a lady who had taught at the Stuart Home & School. It was then that she gave me the director’s business card. I emailed the director that weekend about a possible visit to the school connected to the Dowling Family.
See, I told you it was quite a unique road to get to the school! This past week, I took the literal road to Frankfort, KY, to visit this historic spot. A spot I didn’t even know existed until a few months before. Let me tell you, this spot has more history than I would ever have imagined.
Here’s the history of this historic site, and the road it took to becoming The Stuart Home & School.
Scanlan (or Franklin) Springs
Located about 5 miles southeast of downtown Frankfort is an area known as Farmdale. The area was named for Benjamin Farmer, who settled there around 1807. His sons, Thomas and Benedict, opened a store in the area around 1831. From what I can put together, in the area of Farmdale was a natural spring owned by Oliver Perry Scanlan. Scanlan opened his spring as a resort around 1837. It seems that Scanlan jumped on the bandwagon of the popular medical spa and social resorts. These had become the “hot” place to be in the early 1800s.
Due to many illnesses and few doctors, it was very common for Kentuckians to turn to natural springs for healing, and Kentucky was overflowing with natural springs. Most of Kentucky’s springs were salt licks which brimmed with salt, one of many healing minerals, and “some of Kentucky’s watering places boasted springs of several types. Most common were “salt, salt-sulphur, white sulphur, black sulphur, red sulphur, chalybeate (iron), vitriol, alum, copperas, and Epsom springs, the use of which was diuretic and cathartic in effect.”1 Our pioneers would camp near the springs that were believed to help their specific ailment and would bath in and drink the “healing” waters.
The new spas imitated famous European spas and became more resort-like over time. Owners had cabins and hotels built for visitors to stay and provided fine foods and beverages, dancing, gaming, walking, riding, hunting, and more for entertainment purposes. (Want to read a bit more about Kentucky’s spring resorts? Check out my book, “The Growth of Kentucky – From Frontier Taverns to Farming Estates,” found on Amazon.)
Scanlan built a beautiful resort building on his property sometime around 1837.
Scanlan’s resort didn’t last long, however. Just 8 years later, in 18452, Scanlan sold the property to Robert Thomas Pircairn Allen.
The Kentucky Military Institute
Colonel Robert Thomas Pircairn Allen was “a graduate of West Point, who was experienced in military and education.”3 After graduating in 1834, Allen served in the Seminole War. After retirement from the Army, Allen went on to become a civil engineer, a Methodist minister, and a professor at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and later at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he taught mathematics.
Somewhere along the way, Allen visited Scanlan Springs with his wife, Julia Ann Bond, whom he had met while visiting President Andrew Jackson at the White House, before his West Point graduation. (Julia, the President’s niece, and Allen were married in July 1834.) While at the springs, he noted He was impressed with “the beauty and country atmosphere.”4 He thought it would be a great location for a private military school.
He bought the property in 1845 and opened the very first private military preparatory school in the United States. It was chartered by the General Assembly as The Kentucky Military Institute in 1847.
“The school had a reputation for its excellent instructors, a demanding course of study and strict discipline. It attracted many students from the South and a few from the North. After the Civil War, the school changed its curriculum to prepare students for professional occupations.“
Kentucky Military Institute
The Kentucky Military Institute Barracks / Photos Property of KHT
Control of the institute was eventually turned over to Allen’s son, Robert D. Allen. Under his command, the school fell into bankruptcy and was closed in 1887.
The institute reopened a year later, but shortly left the Frankfort campus and relocated to Mt. Sterling, KY. KMI eventually moved its campus to Venice, Florida, and officially closed its doors in 1973.
The Stuart Home & School
In 1893, Dr. John Quincy Adams Stewart, who had been the superintendent of the Kentucky Feeble-Minded Institute, resigned his position and purchased the abandoned Kentucky Military Institute property, where he “started a private special needs boarding school.” 5
At that time, little support existed for those with disabilities. There was the state-run facility that Stewart had resigned from, and that was it. Stewart wanted to create something different.
“Stewart’s mission was to bring self-sufficiency and education to those with mental disabilities that could not be taught in a traditional school setting.”
Kentucky Historic Institutions
Dr. John Q.A. Stewart (1829-1898)
John Q.A. Steward was born in Kentucky on Feb 13, 1829, to Marchant and Sarah Thomas Stewart. He earned his law degree from the University of Louisville at 18 years old. He served as a magistrate and judge during the California Gold Rush of 1849. He later returned to the University of Louisville and earned his medical degree in 1859. He then headed out to Western Kentucky, where he opened his medical practice in Owensboro for about 20 years.
In 1876, he was appointed by Kentucky’s Governor James McCreary to serve as the Director of the Kentucky State Institute for the Intellectually Disabled. He stayed in this position for 16 years and served under four governors. During this time, he became very well known.
…”becoming a nationally known expert in the field of disability care with progressive programming, publications and lectures regarding education, training and vocational integration within the community.”
Stuart Home & School
The School Today
Dr. Stewart moved from his public service in 1893 and opened the doors of the Stuart Home & School. He and his son, Dr. John Poage Stewart, who had just graduated from medical school, worked together to create something special – a private, for-profit school for 13 students on 850 acres. (Remember Dr. John Poage Stewart from the beginning of my quest? He married Margaret Dowling.)
That school has now grown to just over 300 students. I’d say that’s pretty successful after 133 years!
All SHS students are men and women with special needs. SHS students live on campus, learn on campus, interact with peers on campus, and become independent on campus. Each student lives in a dorm building with a private bedroom. Three meals a day are served in the dining room of their dorm building. Students attend classes daily that are chosen based on student interest and under the supervision of their parents and/or campus advisor. A variety of classes are available, including horseback riding, computer class, art class, gardening, music, health & wellness, language arts, sign language, math classes, and so much more. The list is equivalent to class choices in high school.
Students also have recreational activities to fill their time when not in class. Clubs abound, and if a student has an interest that doesn’t match a club, a new one will be started. Students also take field trips to local sites and take class trips out of state. Those students who are capable of holding jobs in the community are encouraged to do so, and school staff drives students to those jobs.
The campus includes an immediate care center for health needs, a gymnasium for playing basketball, as well as a gym filled with gym equipment and a walking track. There’s a rec room for hanging out and playing board games with friends in the evenings. Basically, if you can think of it, Stuart Home & School has it for its students.
My Visit & Reflection
You know that I was wowed by the history and the architecture, but I was unexpectedly wowed by the campus, the community, and the friendliness. It was unexpected because I simply didn’t know such a fantastic place existed. After 27 years of teaching, you would have thought that I would have come across this special place. I always wondered about what would happen to my students with special needs when they aged out of public education. I’m so thrilled to learn that such a unique place exists. There’s nothing else like this in Kentucky!
The 5th generation of the Stuart Family continues to run the school today. You can read more about that legacy in an article written by Family Business and another written by Kentucky Monthly.
Photos of the Stuart Home & School campus, including interior photos of the original Scanlan Springs Resort building. / Photos Property of KHT
On the day of my visit, I was greeted by Director Sandy Bell. She welcomed me into her gorgeous office, where we spoke about the school and its history. I was then introduced to Kara, Kevin, and David, who all took time to tell me all the great things about SHS. I received the most wonderful tour of the campus, where I met a few of their students, who were all so happy to greet me.
It was a beautiful day and a beautiful experience. I am beyond thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit and meet the students and staff, and to tell the school’s history and purpose. That’s one incredible place full of amazing people, and I’m so happy I had the chance to meet them.
I know this is not my typical post, as this is not a tourist attraction. I simply couldn’t resist the connection to Kentucky’s history, and I thought you’d enjoy knowing its history as well. I hope that I was right about that!
Until next time…
Happy Travels!
- McDowell, Audrea, “The Pursuit of Health and Happiness at the Paroquet Springs in Kentucky, 1838-1888,” The Filson Club History Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 4, October 1995 via Bullitt County History ↩︎
- https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=rennick_ms_collection ↩︎
- https://www.kmialumni.org/kmi-history-allen.html#:~:text=KMI%20History,Assembly%20to%20Kentucky%20Military%20Institute. ↩︎
- https://www.kmialumni.org/kmi-history-allen.html#:~:text=KMI%20History,Assembly%20to%20Kentucky%20Military%20Institute. ↩︎
- https://stewarthome.com/about/history/ ↩︎