Whitney, Andrew M., House and Barn
a.k.a. AL-22;AL-23;John Whitney Plantation
KY 1855 NE of Scottsville, Scottsville, KYThe A.M. Whitney House and Barn (AL-22 and AL-23), located in eastern Allen County, Kentucky, meets National Register eligibility criterion B and is significant within the historic context of Motorized Transportation in Kentucky, 1900-1945. The house is an important local resource for showing the success of Whitney, an early trucking magnate. While the site was a farm early in the nineteenth century, and the main residence predates the Civil War, the property is proposed for nomination for its more recent association with Whitney. Whitney, through his family, has been associated with the farm since his birth. The Period of significance has been selected to highlight both his success in the trucking business and the physical changes he made to the farm in response to that success. Whitney started his trucking business in 1923; the Period of Significance begins in 1930 when Whitney made the first noticeable changes on the farm and ended in 1941 when he sold the trucking company which he founded. Whitney pioneered an over-the-road trucking business in the early 1920s when Kentucky's highway infrastructure was poorly developed. Whitney's company, headquartered in Bowling Green, grew during an era when trucking companies throughout the nation began to displace railroads as the main cargo carriers. His company's rise despite the economic slowdown of the Great Depression makes it a paradigm of this transition. With retirement in mind, he made several changes to update the property in the later 1930s. The property is currently owned by Whitney's family descendant and remains highly similar to its 1930s appearance.
This property is one of several extant properties associated with Whitney. His main operations office and residence stand in Bowling Green. Those properties also foster awareness of Whitney and his accomplishments and could be seen as having statewide significance. The historic context developed for this nomination would find those properties as significant to our understanding of his value, and so, be eligible for National Register listing. The property nominated in this submission is of local significance because it illustrates Whitney's personal side more so than it speaks of his multi-state trucking business.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.