Vick Farm, North side Idlewild Road, 0.2 mile northwest of Idlewild & Maplewood Drive, Burlington

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY,8-BURL,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Significant as contributor to local rural Agrarian landscape. Description: The Vick Farm is a vacant, domestic, single-family dwelling constructed ca. The plan of this structure is cruciform, with victorian national folk influences. The gabled ends contain stick style embellished truss ornaments. The porches are decorated with spindlework and jigsaw cut trim detailing. The porches are supported by chamfered columns and pilasters. The structure's eaves are dressed with scroll brackets. The construction method is frame, with weatherboard and hardboard wall materials, continuous, cutstone foundation, and a cross gable roof configuration.

Little exterior modification has occurred, though the roofing material presently consists entirely of asphalt replacement shingles, a shed roof porch has been added to the northeast corner of the building, a deck added to the southwest face, and the windows have been replaced. Former ancillary structures associated with the Vick Farm included a smokehouse, a post and beam stockbarn, a privy, and four unidentified outbuildings. The style of these structures was predominately Folk Victorian. All seven of these ancillary structures are no longer extant. History: The property, known traditionally as the Vick Farm, is located on the north side ofldlewild Road, historically known as the Burlington-Petersburg Road or Petersburg-Burlington Turnpike.

The farm extended eastward to the present-day Bullittsville Road, formerly called the Burlington Bullittsville Road. The property was one of several large farms on the periphery of Burlington, the county seat. The Petersburg-Burlington Turnpike, connected two of the most important towns in the county, was a primary thoroughfare of central Boone County, and Lakes's Atlas of Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties depicts a tollhouse just east of the farm. Prior to its association with the Vick family, the farm was home to four generations of the Smith family. Boone County deed records indicate the Smiths acquired the property in a series of transactions beginning in the and family members transferred land among themselves several times.

Lake's Atlas also indicates that Smith family members owned property in the vicinity of the present-day farm. The original main house on the farm, a log dwelling located some distance from the road, may be the one labeled Smith" on the atlas. The log homestead was surrounded by a cluster of agricultural outbuildings including a barn, granary and corncrib. In William I. Smith purchased 31 acres for from Dr. Smith; the tract ofland was located on the north side of the Petersburg and Burlington Turnpike (book 28 page Although the construction date of the present house, which does not appear on the atlas, has not been verified, family tradition maintains it was built c. for James E. Smith, son of William T. Smith. In William T. Smith conveyed eight acres to James E.

Smith (deed book 45 page this deed, whose legal description appears to match that of the present dwelling, specifically included "all buildings now owned and occupied by James E. Smith as his home and homestead." After the VICK FARM HABS No. (Page 2) new house was built, it became the nucleus of a new group of fann buildings. The old log home was converted to a tenant house, then used for storage and finally dismantled. Boone County marriage records indicate James E. Smith wed Minnie Gaines in at the home of Ben R. Gaines, who was likely her father; their nuptials were witnessed by neighbors Edgar Cropper, John Rucker, and Dr. R. Crisler.

James and Minnie Smith's first son, Thomas Earl Smith, was born in Thomas Earl Smith spent most of his childhood on the family farm, as did his sons, James Gayle Smith and Joseph Smith. The Smith fann was a diversified operation including com, wheat, burley tobacco, hay, dairy cows, and beef cattle. At its most productive, during the and it included approximately 320 acres. In December, the family sold a 30-acre tract, formerly used as pasture, to the Boone Count 4-H and Utopia Club Council as the site of a new county fairground.

The fann remained in the Smith family until when Earl and Pauline Smith and Russell Smith sold 285 acres to Joe and Edna Vick (deed book page The Vicks owned the farm until when they sold the entire property, which totalled 7 acres, to the Kenton County Airport Board (deed book page 51 ). Interviews: James Gayle Smith, February 11, Monarch Drive, Burlington, Kentucky, Joseph Smith, February 11, 214 Buckingham, Florence, Kentucky, Primarv and unpublished sources: 3D/Environmental Services, Inc. Kentucky Historic Architectural Resources Survey for the Noise Impact Zone for the Extension of Runway Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Cincinnati: Landrum and Brown. Secondary and published sources: Lake, An Atlas of Boone. Kenton and Campbell Counties.

Originally published Philadelphia: Lake and Company. Lents, RV. "History of the Boone County 4-H and Utopia Fair," in Boone County Recorder, July 27, 12. "Gaines Family Geneology," photocopied, no date. VICK FARM HABS No. (Page 3) Historians: Warminski, Magaret; KEMRON Environmental Services, February 27, See Interviews and Secondary and published sources for project reference. Widener, Christopher, and John Edwards; McCall & Widener Architects, August 27, See Primary and unpublised sources for project reference. VICK FARM HABS No. (page 4) rn rn non-contributing B outbuildings [] w ~ post and beam stockbarn smokehouse privy foundation o []] residence ' ' L 0 feet 100 ldlewild Road