Housed in the historic George B. Blackburn Kinkead House, the Living Arts & Science Center fills the antebellum mansion in front of you. This is an art and education center set in an antebellum mansion in Lexington, Kentucky, a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house you see began as a two-story antebellum dwelling believed to have been designed by Major Thomas Lewinski, a British-born architect, engineer, and teacher of foreign languages.
Its Greek Revival bones remain visible even as the house grew: it was sympathetically enlarged during the Civil War period and took on Italianate features that soften and enrich the façade. Around 1853 a third-story attic was constructed, a further change in the mansion’s silhouette. The Kinkead family later entrusted this remarkable structure to the community when they donated it to the center in 1981, allowing the rooms and porches to serve artists, students, and neighbors.
Notice the Greek Revival bones beneath the Italianate features added during the Civil War period, and the third-story attic built around 1853 that gives this house its current silhouette.