Barlow House
a.k.a. BA-79
Jct. of Broadway and S. Fifth St., Barlow, KYThe Barlow House in Barlow, Kentucky is significant dueto its association with important local figures in Barlow's commercial development. It was the home of Clifton J. Barlow, the leading citizen of Barlow, Kentucky at the turn of the century and the town's main promoter of growth and economic development. His efforts led to a period of community expansion for Barlow between 1900 and 1910. The house meets criterion C by being the most elegant and monumental domestic structure ever constructed in Ballard County. The Barlow House is also one of the most significant turn-of-the-century structures located in the Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky. In this respect, the Barlow House ranks in importance with the Dieugud House in Murray, the Oakwood Farm in Hickman, Whitehaven in Paducah, and the Stilley House in Benton as an outstanding examples of turn-of-the-century architecture. Like all of these structures, the Barlow House has been the most notable domestic structure in the community since its construction and has always set the standard against which all other local architecture is compared.
The Barlow House is located in Ballard County, one of the eight counties that make up the Jackson Purchase, the westernmost region of Kentucky. Roughly square in shape, the county is bordered by the curving Ohio River to the north and west. The county is largely agricultural, with crops of tobacco, corn, and soybeans being raised, and the small towns in the county are agriculturally oriented in the goods and services they provide.
The first settlers came to the Ballard County area in 1818 to settle along Humphries Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River. In 1842, the Kentucky General Assembly created Ballard County from sections of McCracken County and Hickman County. In 1849, Thomas Jefferson Barlow moved to the county from Scott County and founded the town of Barlow, known in the nineteenth century as Barlow City. Thomas Barlow operated a hotel, a prosperous operation that took advantage of the town's location between the large communities of Cairo, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky. Barlow also sold lots for the newly-founded town that grew up around his hotel. A man of many talents, Barlow also served as the surveyor in 1863 for the construction of a road leading from Fort Jefferson on the Mississippi River to Caledonia. His surveying expertise must have also been helpful in the laying out of streets and lots for the new town.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1991.
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.