User:FloNight/Thomas Lewinski

Thomas Lewinski (1802-1882) was an British born American architect. Lewinski was located in the central region of Kentucky during the the mid-1800's.

Personal life
Lewinski was born Britain, and trained as a Roman Catholic priest. He served as a soldier in the British Army. He taught at the University of Louisville before he arrived in Lexington in 1842.

Significant building
During the mid-1800's Lewinski designed numerous structures of historical significance in the central area of Kentucky including Allenhurst, Bell House, Eastern State Lunatic Asylum, Christ Church Episcopal (1848), Ashland, the home of Henry Clay, and White Hall.

White Hall and Ashland
Lewinski designed the Italianate style renovation for Cassius Marcellus Clay's house called the Clermont. The house, originally built in 1798, was a two-story Georgian brick structure. The structure was enlarged from 7 to 44 rooms by builder-architect John McMurty between 1861 and 1862 (need ref) and renamed White Hall. The new addition added such then modern amenities as indoor plumbing and central heating. Ashland -- cousin Henry Clay's home in Lexington. That project was completed in 1857. Similarities between the two Lewinski projects. Both White Hall and Ashland feature high, browed windows in the Italianate style, enlarged and reinforced cornices, and iron balconies and porches. Both houses also contain examples of the Greek Revival style, popular at the time, including plaster medallions around the bases of the chandeliers and elaborate plaster cornices that decorate the edges of the ceilings in some rooms.

The interesting and unusual features of White Hall itself include a central heating system that was fed by two basement fireboxes. The heat traveled up and into the rooms through ducts to openings in false fireplaces. Also rare for its time was White Hall's indoor plumbing: Rainwater was collected in a large cistern on the third floor of the house, which in turn fed the water closet, bath, and commode on the floor below.

Jacobs Hall
Jacobs Hall is a restored Italianate building on the campus of Kentucky School for the Deaf, the first school of its kind in the nation, was constructed in 1857 by John McMurtry of Lexington. Major Thomas Lewinski designed the building. Major Lewinski was the same architect for two other central Kentucky landmarks—The Ashland, Henry Clay's estate in Lexington, and The White Hall, the home of Cassius Marcellus Clay in Richmond.

In 1966, Jacobs Hall was designated a National Historic landmark. Jacobs Hall was constructed of hand-made bricks, choice extra-thick lumber and all other items of the best quality so that very little upkeep was necessary. The cost of the building was said to be $39,650.44, and the State of Kentucky acquired it for $17,500 plus the sale of land in Florida which was a land grant to the school by U.S. Congress in 1826.

The Italianate Renaissance-style building, which now houses KSD's superintendent's office, residence and a museum, has served as a classroom building, a girls dormitory and residence for teachers and various other staff members in past decades.

Named for John Adamson Jacobs, third superintendent of the school, who worked at Kentucky School for the Deaf for 44 years.