Gilded Age mansion once home to ‘richest little girl in Central Kentucky’ hits the market
One of Lexington’s most historic and iconic homes — an 8,000-square-foot Richardsonian Romanesque estate built in America’s Gilded Age — is now on the market, and it can be yours to the tune of $2 million.
“It’ll be the first time it’s been sold in 38 years, and the second time in (its) history,” said seller’s agent Jimmy Turek of Bluegrass Sotheby’s International Realty, which the home is currently listed with.
The historic home located at 431 West 3rd St. was put up for sale last week with an asking price of $2,295,000. It includes seven bedrooms and about half as many baths, several fireplaces and even a wet bar, but apart from its grandeur, the house is also notable for its occupants.
First built in 1880 by local banker Richard T. Anderson, who directed Northern Bank of Kentucky, the home was the last in a series of architectural projects commissioned by him. At the time of his death in 1911, Anderson’s estate was said to be the largest in Lexington’s history.
A lifelong bachelor, Anderson ultimately left his fortune to his niece and nephew, Mildred “Minnie” Anderson Hart and Richard T. Anderson Jr.
‘Richest little girl in Central Kentucky’
Anderson’s home eventually passed to his great-niece Mildred Anderson Dunning (née Hart), who was born one year after his death. The home was where she grew up and later married her husband, junior U.S. Army officer Ellis Dunning, in 1941.
After her birth Dec. 26, 1912, one newspaper described Mildred Dunning as the “the richest little girl in Central Kentucky,” according to a biography compiled by the Blue Grass Trust, a beneficiary of her estate after her death in 1994. Other beneficiaries include Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate and Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.
A birth announcement for Mildred Anderson published in the Lexington Leader, an ancestor of the Herald-Leader, Dec. 29, 1912, described her as follows: “The little girl is called Mildred Anderson, in honor of her mother, and is being quite royally welcomed.”
In spite of the fortune she inherited, Dunning was remembered by her friends as a private person who didn’t enjoy showy displays of her wealth.
At a gathering shortly after her funeral, a cousin offered an anecdote, according to the Blue Grass Trust: “As the lunch progressed, the ladies went around the table sharing their most vivid memories of Mildred. Several recalled how each morning as Mildred arrived at school, she would slink down in the back seat of her chauffeured car so as not to let the classmates see her in this conspicuous conveyance!”
431 West 3rd St.
In the mid 1980s, after the home had been her family’s seat for more than 100 years, Dunning sold it and moved into a home at 319 Queensway Drive.
According to Turek, that’s how the home came into the possession of its current owners, the Cassidy family.
“I can’t say enough good things about it,” said Turek, while also adding the house “speaks for itself.”
Turek said the house has been “very lovingly restored” with period specific materials and is in working order. While a new owner might seek to make changes to the home’s interior, any external changes must first be approved by Lexington’s Board of Architectural Review, given the home’s location within a historic district.
Key facts about the property:
Listing price: $2,295,000
Built: 1880
Square footage: 8,116
Bedrooms: 7
Bathrooms: 3.5
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