Somerset Hall

Somerset Hall is an important American Greek Revival villa, built in the 1840’s as a “northern”
residence by the plantation-owning Kenner family of Louisiana. The Kenners intermarried with the
Ludlows of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and engaged in villa building, town planning, and
horse racing on their Ohio River site. They apparently intended Somerset Hall and their new town
of Ludlow to be a seasonal retreat from their plantations and the heat and diseases of Deep South summers, with steamboats providing the critical transportation link.
 

Somerset Hall is a multipart villa, constructed in stages. Bold and impressive outside, its planning
included natural cooling strategies, large spaces for entertaining, private living and sleeping areas for the Kenners and their guests, and internal lodging and workspaces for their servants. The villa synthesized northern and southern planning strategies.

Somerset Hall is well-preserved and is unique in the American architecture of its period. Its most
impressive feature, a 120’ long gallery-veranda, overlooks a rear yard that now serves as a
beautiful urban green space and an amenity for its neighborhood and city. The building and its
surrounding space have high historical, architectural, and preservation value.

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A detailed history of the building and an architecture investigation can be found in the document below, presented by the Ludlow Historic Society.​​