© 2024 WUKY
background_fid.jpg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mary Todd Lincoln House Celebrating 40 Years As A Museum

photo provided

The Mary Todd Lincoln House in downtown Lexington is marking an important milestone this week.  The restored childhood home of the former First Lady began welcoming visitors for tours in June 1977.  Executive Director Gwen Thompson says it was former Kentucky First Lady Beula Nunn who spearheaded the effort to honor Mrs. Lincoln.

"She started her interest in restoring the Mary Todd House while her husband (Louie Nunn) was still governor, but she carried it on through the next gubernatorial administration and Julian Carrol was governor during the restoration and he provided a lot of support to the project," said Gwen Thompson, Mary Todd Lincoln House Executive Director.

The museum's website has extensive before and after photos of what it took to restore the home.

"By the early 1970's the house had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair.  It was being used as a warehouse for a wholesale hardware distributor so it was really run down," Thompson explained.  "In the mid 1970's our organization acquired the property and did all of the restoration work.  About a year and a half later we opened in June of 1977,"

The Mary Todd Lincoln House is holding a 40th anniversary Party and Open House from 5:30 to 7:30 this Wednesday night June 7th.

Additional details are available here.

Related Content