This story originally appeared in the Dec. 9 edition of the LINK Reader. To get these stories first, subscribe here.
The Dinsmore Homestead is a 180-year-old historic home on a 700-acre property in Boone County – it’s also a museum that displays six generations of Dinsmore family history.
James Dinsmore, a businessman from Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, purchased 700 acres of farmland in Boone County in 1839. He began construction of his family house on the land. James sold his land in Louisiana and moved to the Northern Kentucky farm with his wife, Martha Macomb Dinsmore, and their three daughters in 1942.
The main house was the center of the large, antebellum Boone County farm. Enslaved people and tenants raised grains, grapes, sheep, and orchard produce for the Cincinnati market, while German immigrants produced willow baskets. Tobacco became the primary crop after the Civil War ended, and the homestead was home to five consecutive generations of the Dinsmore family.
Isabella Selmes Ferguson Greenway King was born at the Dinsmore Homestead on March 22, 1886. She was James and Martha’s great-granddaughter and the family’s most famous member. Isabella was an amateur artist and designer. She designed and constructed her hotel in Tucson, called the Arizona Inn. Isabella was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt – who attended her wedding. In 1933, she accepted the appointment to fill a vacant seat for Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she was elected in her own right the following year.
Martha Ferguson Breasted (1906-1994), a sixth-generation Dinsmore, was the last family member to inherit the Dinsmore Homestead.
A group of history buffs founded the Dinsmore Homestead Foundation in 1986. Through a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a team of consultants prepared plans to develop Dinsmore as a living history museum.
Martha gave the house and 30 acres to the Dinsmore Homestead Foundation as a museum on June 8, 1988. The ultimate purpose of the foundation was to develop an educational center focused on history and natural sciences.
Today, the homestead features the main house, outbuildings, and a graveyard. Some of its furnishings and textiles are from the first generation of the Dinsmore family. Nearly all its original buildings remain on the property, including a carriage house with carriages, a log cabin, a smokehouse, and a horse barn.
The main house features two floors of antique bedframes, toys, and heirloom textiles that date back to the first generation of the Dinsmore family.
Dinsmore’s downstairs features a porch entrance, a parlor, a front hall, a dining room, a supply pantry, a kitchen, a service porch, a milk kitchen (pantry), an office, a bathroom, a rear hall, the entrance to the second floor, a sick room, and a back porch.
Upstairs is a master bedroom with two closets, and six additional bedrooms. The second floor also features two bathrooms, a porch roof, and an entrance to the attic.
The outbuildings on the Dinsmore farm served as homes to enslaved African Americans, day laborers, and tenants.
Dinsmore’s graveyard is situated up the hill behind the house.
The homestead hosts events throughout the year to raise funds and increase exposure, including the annual Kentucky Derby celebration.
Tours are given every hour on the hour, with the last tour starting at 4 p.m. They offer tours on Friday through Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.