Draft:Elley Villa

Lexington Fayette County, Kentucky

Elley Villa, also known as Aylesford, in Lexington, Kentucky, is a Gothic Revival residence built c. 1850 in style reminiscent of New York State-based architect Andrew Jackson Downing.

"The villa was adapted from Design XXV in Downings's The Architecture of Country Houses, first published in 1850."

"When erected in the early 1850s, this spacious two-story Gothic Revival residence of brick construction was surrounded by an eight-acre estate, but through the years, the site has been reduced to a 165 x 150 feet city lot. John McMurtry (1812-90), a native of Lexington, was the architect involved. However, he obviously borrowed from two designs in A. J. Downings's 1850 The Architecture of Country Houses for the house's plans. The front elevation of Elley Villa more closely follows Design XXXI, "A Villa in the Pointed Style," while the arrangement of rooms is strikingly similar to XXVI, "A Country House in the Pointed Style" (see Appendices). As constructed, this residence, like XXXI, is less heavy than XXVI and its effect is one of airiness

"derived from higher eaves resulting from taller walls, with small gables in the front to right and left of the central pavillion; the subordinate rakings break the horizontal cornice and permit a raised center light to the tripartite windows, accented by a hood-mold /see photo j>/.». Instead of the squat V /Ss in XXVI; taller in XXXl7 round or octagonal columns with capitals, on which the porch arches are set in the publication, there are eight-sided piers at Aylesford, with bases, but without capitals /see photo £J> the chimney-stacks have four sides Asee photo 77. .. /and the/.. I verge-boards of the main gables /see photo §7 have been faithfully carved from the original figure /of the same design/.

Q: How cite the citation that is within the NRHP doc, which I have not myself seen?

A.J. Davis vs. Andrew Jackson Davis vs. Andrew Jackson Downing?

Year of construction: 1850

Historic function: Education; Domestic; Health Care Historic subfunction: Single Dwelling; Institutional Housing; Hospital; Educational Related Housing Criteria: architecture/engineering, person Number of contributing buildings: 1

It is located at 320 Linden Walk in Lexington, about .5 mi southwest of Lexington's City Hall and .5 mi northeast of the campus of the University of Kentucky.