Whitestone Family Papers, 1845-2008

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator:  Whitestone family

Title:  Papers, 1845-2008 (bulk 1945-1970s)

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Curator of Special Collections.

Size of Collection:  .33 cu. ft. and 1 wrapped volume

Location Number:  Mss. A W594

Scope and Content Note

The Whitestone family papers were compiled and maintained by various Whitestone family members and descendents after the death of Henry Whitestone, architect.  The bulk of the collection focuses on his architectural works in Louisville, Kentucky and consists of research notes, research papers, and newspaper clippings on his buildings.

Whitestone’s great-granddaughter, Douglas Peirce Morton (Semple), wrote and compiled research notes, correspondence, a senior paper, and senior thesis on his architectural work in 1945-1946 [folders 3 and 4].  Newspaper clippings were collected and maintained by Semple, her mother, Austine Barton Morton, and her grandmother, Henrietta Whitestone Barton, in loose and scrapbook form; they date from a photocopy of an 1845 article through 2008, but the bulk are from the late 1950s through the 1970s [folder 4 and volume 6].

The scrapbook also contains some of the research correspondence of Douglas Peirce Morton (Semple) from 1945, along with a handful of 1964 letters to Mrs. Austine Barton Morton from a researcher interested in Whitestone.  A final letter included in the scrapbook thanks Mrs. Henrietta Whitestone Barton for the loan of a book about her father, Henry Whitestone, in 1927 [volume 6].

The collection also includes genealogical material on the Whitestone family in Ireland [all in folder 5].  This consists of a volume dated June 1898 which was created by Henry Whitestone’s elder daughter, Austine, Mrs. John Chester White.  It contains 9 pages of handwritten genealogy, and is apparently her written copy of the second volume included with the genealogical material.  This second small volume, which is missing many pages (removed before donation to The Filson), has the name “Francis Whitestone” on the inside of the front and back cover, as well as “Henry Whitestone” on the front cover.   It contains genealogical information on the Thomas Whitestone family; Thomas was the father of Henry Whitestone.  Early material was recorded in the 1850s by Augustus (Augustine/Austin) Whitestone, Henry’s younger brother.  Henry wrote an obituary for Augustus within the volume on 25 January 1863.  The volume also includes a six-page account of Augustus’s voyage from Ireland to the United States, December 1852 – January 1853, which appears to be in Augustus Whitestone’s handwriting.  The book also contains 9 pages of news clippings on the 1893 death of Henry Whitestone; presumably it was maintained by one of his daughters after his death.  The folder of genealogical material contains transcriptions of some of the material in the volumes, as well as some additional genealogy notes (all undated, much in the handwriting of Douglas Peirce Semple Morton).

The correspondence file [folder 1] contains research inquiries from Whitestone’s great-granddaughter Douglas Morton; a letter of introduction for Henry Whitestone from Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeluer to Abbott Lawrence dated 1852; two letters from Whitestone to his daughters, dated 1891 and 1892; a 1921 letter to Whitestone’s daughter, Henrietta Barton, regarding a tablet from the second Galt House; a note and proof from Melville Otter Briney regarding an article on Whitestone in the Louisville Times, dated 5 July 1956; and a 1998 letter from Elizabeth “Penny” Jones, an architectural historian, regarding her research on Whitestone in Ireland.

Biographical Note

Henry Whitestone (1819–1893) was born in County Clare, Ireland.  Whitestone worked as an architect in Ireland before he came to the United States in 1852.  Upon arriving in the United States, he worked out of Cincinnati with noted hotel architect, Isaiah Rogers. Rogers and Whitestone opened offices in Louisville in the 1850s.  Rogers continued to work primarily in Cincinnati while Whitestone worked out of Louisville.  They were commissioned to create plans for the expansion and redesign of the Louisville Hotel after it was badly damaged by a fire in 1853.

The partnership dissolved in 1857 when Rogers took a position in Washington, D. C.  Whitestone opened his own firm in Louisville.  He designed homes for some of Louisville’s most affluent families.  During the United States Civil War, Whitestone was commissioned by the Union Army to build the commissary bakery in Jeffersonville, Indiana.  Whitestone is best remembered for his work on the Galt House, located at First & Main Streets, which he completed in 1869, but should also be credited for his great variety of commercial, residential, public, and institutional designs throughout Louisville.

Whitestone welcomed D. X. Murphy into his firm in 1874.  Murphy took control of the firm when Whitestone retired in 1881.  He later renamed the firm D. X. Murphy & Bro., Architects.  Today, the firm operates under the name Luckett & Farley, Inc.

Whitestone was married to Henrietta Sautelle Baker of Ireland; she died in 1865.  The couple had two daughters, Austine and Henrietta.  Austine Whitestone (1864-1936) married Major John Chester White in 1890; they did not have any children. Henrietta Whitestone (1865-1935) married Charles Peirce Barton; they had three children, Austine Barton, Charles Peirce Barton, Jr., and Henry W. Barton.  Austine married Edward D. Morton and had Henrietta B. Morton, Susanne S. Morton, Edward D. Morton, Jr., and Douglas P. Morton (Semple).

Separation Note

Photographs donated with this collection have been separated into the Filson’s Photograph Department; some had originally been in the Scrapbook and had fallen out; others had fallen out of the Douglas P. Morton 1946 Senior Thesis on Whitestone’s architecture.  Still others were loose family photos [013PC30]

 

Folder List

Folder 1: Correspondence, 1852-1998 [additional research correspondence can be found in Vol. 6]

Folder 2: Douglas Peirce Morton Research Notes and Drafts on Henry Whitestone, 1945

Folder 3: Douglas Peirce Morton Paper and Thesis on Henry Whitestone, 1945-1946 [Photos which came loose from DPM’s Thesis were separated into the Whitestone Family Photograph Collection 013PC30]

Folder 4: Newspaper Clippings regarding Whitestone’s Buildings, 1845-2008, undated

Folder 5: Genealogy on Whitestone and family, undated [includes two small volumes from late nineteenth/early twentieth century]

Volume 6: Scrapbook of Newspaper Clippings and Correspondence on Whitestone Buildings [loose materials were separated into the Newspaper Clippings folder or Photo Collection, as appropriate.]

 

Subject Headings

Architects – Kentucky – Louisville.

Architecture – Kentucky – Louisville.

Barton, Henrietta Whitestone, 1865-1935.

Bashford Manor, Jefferson Co. (Ky.)

City Hall, Louisville (Ky.)

Ford House, Louisville (Ky.)

Galt House Hotel.

Morton, Austine Barton.

Semple, Douglas Peirce Morton.

White, Austine Whitestone, 1864-1936.

Whitestone, Augustus, d. 1863.

Whitestone, Henry, 1819-1893.

Whitestone, Thomas.

Young Women’s Christian Association (Louisville, Ky.)