INGLESIDE

S. Broadway, Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1852

Wm. A. Leavy and wife, Mary Ann, sold some 302 acres here in 1843 to Joseph Bruen, the wealthy iron manufacturer.

Bruen decided to make his daughter, Elizabeth, a handsome wedding present, so he took John McMurtry, the architect, abroad to procure plans for a mansion befitting the vast acreage of this estate.

McMurtry, upon his return, erected this house and "Loudon" (at the north end of the city)—both "English Castles." It took its name "Ingleside" from D. Boone Ingles, Bruen's son-in-law.

The estate still comprised more than 300 acres when it was sold early in 1868 to Colonel J.W. Kearney by "Elizabeth Ingles, daughter of the late Joseph Bruen, (M.C. Johnson, executor), Walter Payne and wife, Maria, one of the daughters of Elizabeth Ingels; Joseph Ingels; Eliza Ingels; Evans Ingles; children of Elizabeth Ingles, and Mary Pindell Shelby, only child and heir of Amanda Shelby, who was one of the daughters and devisees of Joseph Bruen."

Colonel Kearney conducted a trotting horse nursery here.

The house has been owned by the Gibson estate for some time, and is rich in latter nineteenth century history.

Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.

Transcribed by pb, October 2006