The massive three-story brick home situated on the corner of Third and Sutton streets in downtown Maysville known as Phillips’ Folly has been the subject of conjecture and journalism since its auspicious beginnings around 1828.

Even the original construction date of the stately home can be questioned as you conduct research through the myriad of documents housed at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, located next to the home at 215 Sutton Street.

Shifting through a stack of documents approximately one inch thick about the house, one can find information saying construction began in 1825, 1828 and even 1831, which is the date affixed to the home on the southern corner of the second story. One document states the home was begun in 1825 and completed in 1828.

For the most part, historical documents and newspaper articles housed at KGMC seem to favor a beginning date of 1828 and a completion date of 1831.

The home has been owned or occupied by the following families since its construction: W.B. Phillips, John Armstrong, Francis Woodland Armstrong, Mrs. Amanda M. Trueman, Miss Nancy Wilson, the Anderson Finch family, the Dr. John Reed family, Mrs. Lida Clarke Rogers, Mrs. Darlington E. Fee (Lida Rogers) purchased the home from her siblings after Lida C. Rogers death in 1919. Upon her death in 1961, Mrs. Fee bequeathed the home to her youngest daughter Mrs. Blaine E. Matthews (Catherine Fee), the Francis J. Breslin family, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Duke, Michelle Jackson-Rigg.

What’s in a name?

In 1828, William B. Phillips began construction of what could only be considered a mansion for its time. As the story goes, workers had constructed a skeleton frame of the home when Phillips disappeared from town without a word to anyone.

It was rumored he had run out of money and abandoned the project. As the story is told, the townspeople of Maysville began calling the home Phillips’ Folly, for Phillip’s foolishness in building a home so large and grandiose.

To everyone’s surprise, Phillips reappeared in Maysville several years later, with enough money to finish his stately home in the year 1831.

It is said he left Maysville for New Orleans, where he won enough money gambling to come back to Maysville and finish his house.

Phillips became mayor of Maysville in 1833 after the death of the city’s first mayor, Charles Erb Wolf, who died in the 1833 cholera epidemic. Phillips became mayor the same year Maysville was officially incorporated as a city.

In 1838, he sold the home to Maysville businessman John Armstrong, who according to one document, bought the home for his wife Sarah, one of Armstrong’s four wives.

Anatomy of a Folly

The architectural style of the home is a combination of Federal and Greek Revival, with its two-story front portico and Doric columned back porch.

The home’s foundation is a dry foundation of quarried stone carefully fitted together without mortar. Stone masons have visited the home to study the craftsmanship, which is now 176 years old.

The following is a description of the home’s interior according to information originally compiled by Ruth M. Craig, later adapted and corrected by Michelle Jackson-Rigg, the current owner, with information provided by Mrs. Richard M. (Molly) Munday, the granddaughter of Lida Rogers Fee.

The home has 12 large rooms, six bathrooms, a butler’s pantry, kitchen and wide halls which run the length of the home. There are 12 fireplaces still in existence, two other fireplaces have been sealed and the mantles removed.

There is a full basement, with the original kitchens complete with huge stone hearths and brick floors laid in a herringbone pattern. There are other rooms in the basement, one of which served as the medical office for Dr. John Reed, the father of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stanley F. Reed, when the family lived there from 1894 to 1904.

As recently as 1993, the basement contained two apartments. An old wooden jail cell is located in the right-hand side of the basement. It is said during Phillips’ tenure as mayor, the cell was used to house drunks and runaway slaves. The cell is built of wood and has a slotted window in the door. It has also been said the house was once a stop on the Underground Railroad during the time the John Armstrong’s son, Francis Woodland Armstrong, owned the property.

The house has an enclosed yard and the strip of land adjoining the yard at the back of the house is the oldest cemetery in Maysville.

Supernatural residents

The home reportedly has two ghosts: John Armstrong and John Pearce.

Armstrong died in the house in 1851. During his residency, he owned a Newfoundland dog. It is said when the moon is full, just at midnight, John Armstrong appears with his dog on the upstairs front porch and the pair can be seen wrestling and playing together.

The home’s second ghost is John Pearce, a visitor of the Finch family between 1890 and 1894. According to legend, Pearce committed suicide in the back parlor on the first floor in front of the fireplace. But according to Fee family legend, Pearce didn’t commit suicide, but died after fighting a duel. It is said that while climbing the stairs at midnight you can hear the formalities of a duel before the final fatal shot. It’s possible the cause of death was given as suicide because dueling was illegal at the time.

Information for this article provided by Kentucky Gateway Museum Center Research Library.

Contact Marla Toncray at 606-564-9091 ext. 275 or marla.toncray@lee.net