By Bobbi Dawn Rightmyer, Harrodsburg
The mansion once known as the “Biltmore of Kentucky” is now remembered only by its pillared facade. Here’s the story of the man who built it and how it came to be.
Kentucky horse breeder James Ben Ali Haggin was born on Dec. 9, 1822, in Harrodsburg. He was a descendant of the early families who settled in Kentucky in 1775, counting Ibrahim Ben Ali, an early American settler of Turkish origin, as one of his ancestors. Haggin’s grandfather, John Haggin, was the founder of “Haggin’s Race Path” in Harrodsburg, one of Kentucky’s first horse racing tracks. The younger Haggin became an attorney after graduating from Centre College in Danville. He was a rancher and owner and breeder of Thoroughbred horses. His star runner, Ben Ali, was the winner of the 1886 Kentucky Derby. Today, the Ben Ali Stakes, a race run each spring at Keeneland in Lexington, is named is Haggin’s honor.
Haggin married Eliza Jane Sanders of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1846, and they had five children. In 1859, he purchased the Rancho Del Paso horse farm near Sacramento, California, which became one of America’s prominent horse breeding and Thoroughbred racing operations. Although Haggin had a successful career in the horse industry, by the 1880s, he became a multimillionaire from investing in the California Gold Rush.
Eliza Jane died in 1893, and four years later, Haggin married Margaret Pearl Voorhies. Haggin was 75 at the time, and Voorhies was 28. The wedding took place in the home of the bride’s parents in Versailles. Few were in attendance to celebrate, but The New York Times described it as “the most romantic wedding in the small community’s history.”
Haggin bought Elmendorf Farm in Lexington in 1897 and expanded the property by purchasing many of the farms surrounding it. Haggin transformed Elmendorf into a nationally renowned stud farm with horses sporting distinguished bloodlines. It also was a dairy operation noted for its progressive practices. During the 1890s and 1900s, the 500-acre farm expanded to 13,000 acres.
After Haggin purchased Elmendorf Farm, he built a grand mansion as a wedding gift to his new wife. In March 1900, the Haggins began planning and reviewing improvements to the farm, including the new main residence. The mansion was built on a hill overlooking North Elkhorn Creek to the north and the stallion barn and training track to the west. The house was more than 12,000 square feet and built of brick and white marble. It included three stories and a full basement. A stone balustrade surrounded the roofline.
Mrs. Haggin named the mansion Green Hills because of the beautiful view of Bluegrass country. Henry L. Copeland, one of the architects who designed the mansion, stated, “The house stands upon an unusually beautiful country … a view of three counties [Fayette, Bourbon and Scott] from the front door … advantages of the eminence with its commanding outlook.”
Green Hills had 40 rooms, and its estimated construction cost was $300,000, which would translate to approximately $10 million today. To outfit the home’s interior, Haggin hired New York’s Herter Brothers—Gustave and Christian Herter—famed interior designers who catered to the affluent. They previously had designed the interior of Haggin’s brownstone on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
According to a Lexington Herald-Leader article from April 1919, the home was decorated in Louis XVI style with beautiful tapestries, splendid sculptures, frescoed paintings and decorative arts filling the ballrooms, dining rooms, entrance halls, salons and billiards rooms. One reporter wrote about Haggin’s mansion: “The whole building, exterior and interior, has the spaciousness and grandeur of some Old-World Castle.” Another reporter wrote, “I viewed Green Hills [as] an imposing gray stone pile perched high on an eminence overlooking thousands of fertile acres, hundreds of grazing Thoroughbreds, and mile upon mile of rolling Kentucky landscape.” Green Hills provided a country escape for the newlyweds.
In 1905, Haggin stopped using Rancho Del Paso as a horse breeding farm and concentrated his breeding efforts at Elmendorf Farm. He worked to develop it into the largest horse-breeding operation of its era in the United States. He invested more than $2 million to grow the size and scope of the farm. In its heyday, Elmendorf Farm was home to 2,000 horses, including stakes winners such as Salvator and Miss Woodford.
When Haggin died in 1914, the estate was broken up. In 1929, the owner, Joseph Widener, had Green Hills demolished to avoid paying taxes on the enormous unoccupied home. Only the columns remain.
Today, the pillars stand on private land on Iron Works Pike. They are not visible from the road.