"It's one of the most important structures of the federal era in all of The United States Of America, and it's right here," Mayor Linda Gorton said to a round of applause.
Built for Sen. John Pope and his wife, Eliza, the 1811 Pope Villa is one of only three surviving residences designed by renowned architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe. It survived a fire in 1987, which left most of the original structure intact. Now decades later, preservationists are applauding a $3.2 million deal with a Washington, D.C.-based preservation developer to rehabilitate the building.
After the announcement, Jonathan Coleman with the Blue Grass Trust stands in the hallway of the house, which he notes has a deceptively simple exterior.
"It's a really unusual building. It's kind of cube-shaped, but Latrobe was a bit sneaky. Once you make it up to the second floor, he has hidden a rotunda and a dome in the center," Coleman says.
For now, the interior has the look of a ruin-turned-museum, but the goal is to restore the major rooms to something like their original appearance.
"So the plaster work, the ornate woodwork, all of that will be returning. The dome, the oculus, the rotunda," he says.
Once complete, the house will be open to the public.