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"The Gables"
Where Annie Fellows Johnston wrote “Two Little Knights of
Kentucky;”
where she met the Craig family, who served as models for many of the “Little
Colonel” characters;
and which she later purchased, after making Lloydsboro Valley her home
The Gables is believed to have been built around 1895 by Maria Dillingham
Bakewell,
sister-in-law of famous naturalist, John James Audubon.
Above the front door is a stained glass window bearing the Latin inscription,
“Parva Sed Apta”
– Small But Sufficient.
From the
post-office door, looking across the road to a grassy ridge beyond, one
could see the big inn that the year before had been turned into a home
for old Confederate soldiers. Farther on was the wide green slope of the
churchyard, and the little stone church with its ivy-covered belfry. The
manse stood just behind it. Next to that was the cottage with the
high green gables and diamond-shaped window-panes, where the Waltons had
lived one summer while their new house was being built. And next to
the cottage was the new house itself, set away back in the great grove
of trees which gave to the place the name of "The Beeches."
Annie Fellows Johnston,
In The Little Colonel at Boarding School (1903)
Chapter V
Annie Fellows Johnston describes this Dutch Colonial home with its
“diamond-shaped window panes and high green gables” in several of the
“Little Colonel” stories. However, she never mentions who lives in the
charming cottage located between the
Pewee Valley Presbyterian
Church and The Beeches, across
Central Avenue from gates of Edgewood.
In real life, it was Annie Fellows Johnston herself who lived here for
a time in the late 1890s and again, for a short period after returning to
Pewee Valley from
Arizona and later Texas. It was while living here that she first
became acquainted with Edgewood’s owners, the Craig family – matriarch
Annie and her three talented
daughters, Fannie Craig,
Mary Lawton and
Louise Culbertson, all destined to become
characters in the “Little Colonel” stories (Miss Allison, Mrs. Walton and
Aunt Elise). It was here, too, that she first became familiar with the
Pewee Valley Presbyterian Church, which she later joined after making
Pewee Valley her permanent home. And, it was here,
in the “blue
room” on the second floor, according to local tradition, that she
authored the third book in “The Little Colonel” series, “Two
Little Knights of Kentucky.”
Mary Lawton also lived in The Gables in fact as well as fiction while
she was building The Beeches. In 1911, Annie Fellows Johnston purchased
The Beeches from her long-time friend and two years later, purchased The
Gables for use as a guest cottage and as rental property. Some of the
people who lived in the cottage over the many years that Annie and her
stepdaughter Mary owned it, included:
- Peyton H. Hoge, II, along with his wife, Blanch Weissinger Smith
Hoge, and their infant son, Peyton, III (See
Home of Peyton Hoge.)
- Eugene and Mary Ella ("Minnie Mo") Malone, their widowed daughter
Laura, and Laura's fraternal twins, Laura and Herbert. Several decades
before they lived in the guest cottage, Mary Ella made cameo appearances
in the "Little Colonel" stories as Mrs. Mallard, the mother of
Katie Mallard (in real life, Kate
Malone, Mary Ella's oldest daughter), one of the day pupils at
Lloydsboro Seminary and a chum of the Little Colonel's in the novels.
- The Fred Gisiger family who rented The Gables from Mary Johnston in
preparation for the birth of their first child, Fred H. Gisiger, who was
born there on February 2, 1940.
- J. Chilton “ChiChi” Barnett, an amateur historian and owner of an
antique shop specializing in whiskey containers located on the site of
the old railroad station. His collection of whiskey jugs is now housed
at the
Oldham County History Center and the
library bears his name.
- Frank and Dorothy (Hughlette) Conn, and their sons James and Steve,
who rented The Gables from 1951 until Mary Johnston’s death in 1966, at
which time they inherited the property from her. It was owned by the
Conn family until Frank’s death in 1998.
According to Steve Conn, the house was originally white with forest
green trim, as shown in the photo below.
The Gables in 1936
In “35 Landmark Homes of Pewee Valley,” a walking,
cycling, driving or horseback tour booklet published in 1994, author Ann
H. Montgomery describes the close relationship between Mary Johnston and
the Conn family:
The
Conns were very good friends of Miss Mary’s (step-daughter of Annie
Fellows Johnston), who was living next door at The Beeches when they
came to Pewee. Miss Mary and Annie Fellows Johnston had resided at The
Gables before moving next door. As Dot Conn says, “Miss Mary fell heir
to them, and they to her,” and they looked after her until her death…She
and her huband, Frank, both enjoy reminiscing of times gone by…They told
of the time Miss Mary called breathlessly to say her coal stove had
blown up! Indeed it had; the top was in another room and Miss Mary was
covered with black coal dust, but still was able to humorously comment,
“I look like I’m going to the Minstrels!”
This Site:
Home Page
What's New? Biography of Annie Fellows
Johnston,
Books on Line (Complete
Original Little Colonel Book Series)
The Little Colonel (link to U. Penn))
The
Giant Scissors
Two Little
Knights of Kentucky
The Little Colonel's
House Party
The Little Colonel's
Holidays
The Little Colonel's Hero
The Little Colonel
at Boarding-School
The Little Colonel in
Arizona
The Little
Colonel's Christmas Vacation
The Little Colonel, Maid of
Honor
The Little Colonel's
Knight Comes Riding
Mary Ware, The Little Colonel's
Chum
Mary Ware in Texas
Mary Ware's Promised Land
Check our home page for more titles by AFJ on other sites
The People & Characters:
The Little Colonel, Papa
Jack and Mrs. Sherman, The
Old Colonel, Two Little
Knights of Kentucky,
Two Little Knights of Kentucky(2),
Uncle Sidney & Aunt
Elise, parents of the Two Little Knights of Kentucky,
Grandmother McIntyre,
Aunt Allison, The
Waltons, Rob and Anna
Moore, Betty,
Joyce Ware,
Jack Ware, Mom Beck,
Walker, Katherine Marks,
Gay Melville,
The Lees of Arizona,
Small Parts
Their Final Resting Places
The Places: in Pewee (Lloydsboro) Valley:
Map,
Map 2,
Where it all began, The Locust,
The Beeches
Edgewood,
The Little Colonel's Cottage,
The Railroad Station,
"Lloydsboro Seminary",
Clovercroft, The
Post Office, Churches,
The Haunted House at Hartwell Hollow,
Confederate Home
Rollington,
Minor Places In Old Louisville:
The Culbertson
Mansion, "Home of a Hero" Elsewhere:
The Cuckoo's Nest (Indiana),
Lee's Ranch,
Camelback Mountain &
Hole-in-Rock (Arizona),
San Antonio and
The Little Town of Bauer (Boerne),
Texas,
The Gate of the Giant Scissors (France)
Letters from Annie
Fellows Johnston and "Mrs Walton"
Scrapbook
Links
Cooking with The Little Colonel
Guest Book
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