Wickland is the Georgian mansion on Bloomfield Road, half a mile east of downtown, that gave the country three governors from a single family: Charles A. Wickliffe of Kentucky, his son Robert of Louisiana and his grandson J.C.W. Beckham of Kentucky. Built between 1813 and 1817, it is quieter and far less visited than Federal Hill, and its cantilevered staircase alone is worth the detour. Tours have traditionally run from March to October, so check ahead: the house does not publish current hours online.
Three governors, one house
Charles A. Wickliffe, Kentucky
Charles Anderson Wickliffe built Wickland. He was born on June 8, 1788, in a log cabin near Springfield, studied at Wilson’s Academy in Bardstown and joined the bar in 1809. Like his neighbor John Rowan, he belonged to the Pleiades, the town’s lawyers’ debating club. He served as governor of Kentucky from 1839 to 1840 and later as U.S. Postmaster General under President John Tyler, per his Wikipedia biography. He died in 1869 in Maryland and is buried in Bardstown Cemetery.
Robert C. Wickliffe, Louisiana
Robert Charles Wickliffe, his son, was born at Wickland, moved south and served as governor of Louisiana from 1856 to 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.
J.C.W. Beckham, Kentucky
John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham, the grandson, was also born at Wickland. He became governor of Kentucky in 1900, at an unusually young age, after the assassination of Governor William Goebel, and served until 1907 before going on to the U.S. Senate.
A rare record
Three governors of two states from one house is a record few American homes can match, and the name “Home of Three Governors” has been on the signs for generations. Our notable people from Bardstown page puts the family alongside the town’s other famous sons and daughters.
The house and its staircase
Wickland was designed by John M. Brown and John Rogers, the Baltimore builder behind the St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. It is Georgian: symmetrical and formal, built to impress visitors from the moment the front door opened. The showpiece is the cantilevered staircase, which climbs through the house with no visible means of support, as the house’s Wikipedia entry describes. Look at the underside as you climb; the effect is of a staircase hanging in the air.
The property covers 66 acres with three structures and was listed on the National Register on February 16, 1973. It remained a lived-in house well into the 20th century; running water, electricity and furnaces arrived only in the 1930s. For the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, it was once a party house: the Colonels held their annual barbecue here on the Sunday after the Kentucky Derby for 25 years and placed a marker at the house.
Wickland in the Civil War
Charles Wickliffe was a Unionist in a divided state. When Braxton Bragg’s Confederates burned railroad trestles near Bardstown in 1862, the former governor personally hired workers to rebuild them. Our Civil War in Bardstown page covers the campaign that brought two armies through town that fall.
The Wickliffes beyond Wickland
The family’s reach went well past Bardstown. Charles Wickliffe’s time as Postmaster General put a Bardstown lawyer in the federal cabinet in the 1840s, and his son’s term in Baton Rouge carried the family name to the Deep South just before secession. The grandson, Beckham, took office in 1900 amid the turmoil that followed the assassination of Governor Goebel and went on to serve in the U.S. Senate. The Kentucky Colonels’ marker at the house records a later, happier chapter, when the house was the setting for one of the state’s best-known social gatherings. Charles Wickliffe himself is buried in Bardstown Cemetery, so the family story begins and ends in town.
Two lawyers, two houses
Wickland and Federal Hill make more sense seen together. Charles Wickliffe and John Rowan were near contemporaries in the same small bar, members of the same debating club and builders of rival showplaces on the same side of town within a few years of each other. Rowan chose the newer Federal style, lighter and more refined; Wickliffe’s house leans on older Georgian formality. Both men went on to national office, and both houses were meant to announce that Bardstown, a frontier court town a few decades from its founding, could produce men of consequence. Walking through the two in one morning is the best way to feel how much money and ambition the town had in the 1810s.
Wickland versus Federal Hill
| Wickland | Federal Hill | |
|---|---|---|
| Built | 1813 to 1817 | 1795 and 1818 |
| Style | Georgian | Federal |
| Family | Wickliffe and Beckham | Rowan |
| Claim to fame | Three governors, floating staircase | “My Old Kentucky Home,” state song |
| Tours | Seasonal, confirm ahead | Daily, on the hour, $18 adults |
| Crowds | Light | Busy on fall weekends |
If you have time for only one, Federal Hill has the better-documented tour and the song. If you have already seen it, or you prefer a quieter, more personal house, Wickland rewards the effort.
How to plan a visit
Wickland is at 550 Bloomfield Rd., on US 62 about half a mile east of downtown. Its online presence is a Facebook page, and the two Visit Bardstown listings for the house give different phone numbers, which tells you how informal things are. The practical approach: check the Facebook page for recent posts, then ask at the Bardstown Visitor Center on Court Square, which can tell you whether tours are running that week. Wikipedia describes the house as open for tours from March to October; do not count on winter access.
Kentucky Tourism’s 2023 roundup of Bardstown’s historic and spooky places mentioned a Spirits Tour with a professional medium but noted it was unavailable at the time. If ghost stories are your thing, ask; otherwise, the town has plenty, covered in our haunted Bardstown guide.
The staircase means stairs, and older houses rarely have elevators, so ask about accessibility when you call.
When to go
Spring and early fall are the best bets, inside the traditional March to October touring window and pleasant for walking the grounds. Summer afternoons in Kentucky are hot and humid, and an old house without modern cooling can be warm inside, so go in the morning. On Kentucky Bourbon Festival weekend in September and on the second weekend of October, when the Arts, Crafts and Antiques Fair fills downtown, the east side of town is quieter than Court Square, which makes Wickland a good escape from the crowds.
Pair it with
Wickland and Federal Hill are both on the east side of town, a short drive apart, and make a fine morning of rival lawyer-politicians and their houses. Then head back downtown for lunch and a look at the historic district’s architecture, where you can compare Wickland’s Georgian lines with the Federal fronts on Court Square.
