Lincliff is a

Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, ...

house in Glenview near

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, built in the early 1910s by

William Richardson Belknap William Richardson Belknap (March 28, 1849 – June 2, 1914), for 28 years was president of the Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company''The Cincinnati Enquirer'', June 2, 1914, p. 2. based in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the largest hardware Am ...

History

Lincliff was built in 1911-12 for

, president of

Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company Belknap Hardware and Manufacturing Company, also known as Belknap Hardware Company or simply Belknap Hardware, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was at one time a leading American manufacturer of hardware goods and a major wholesale competitor of r ...

, one of the largest wholesale hardware firms in the United States at that time. The hardware company, founded by Belknap's father,

William Burke Belknap William Burke Belknap the younger (1885–1965) was the son of William Richardson Belknap and Alice Trumbull Silliman. He was an entrepreneur in the family of William Burke Belknap, the elder (1811–1884), son of Morris Burke Belknap of Bri ...

, is no longer extant, but some of its former buildings have been adapted for other uses. The

family was long active in civic, cultural, and philanthropic affairs in Louisville. Lincliff was the childhood home of genealogist Eleanor Silliman Belknap Humphrey, Land O' Goshen Farms horse breeder

, and their siblings. The Lincliff estate was sold out of the Belknap family in 1922 according to the Kentucky Historic Resources Inventory: JF-531 in the Jefferson County Office of Historic Preservation and Archives.

Subsequent owners

In 1945, it was purchased by the C. Edwin Gheens family. Mr. Gheens owned the Bradas and Gheens Candy Company. His widow, later Mrs. Richard H. Hill, was involved in many civic and philanthropic causes and lived at Lincliff until her death in 1982. Since 2000, Lincliff was one of the principal residences of the late writer

Sue Grafton Sue Taylor Grafton (April 24, 1940 – December 28, 2017) was an American author of detective novels. She is best known as the author of the "alphabet series" ('' "A" Is for Alibi'', etc.) featuring private investigator Kinsey Millhone in the f ...

and her husband Steven F. Humphrey. Grafton, a Kentucky native, thought she had left Kentucky behind for California until her husband found Lincliff, a "crumbling estate begging to be saved." Humphrey is the "driving force behind the restoration of the estate doing the work himself of returning many of the garden's elements to their original splendor."

National Register of Historic Places

The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1983. Lincliff was recorded in the Courthouse Deed Book 5344, p. JF-531 in 1911 as a property and residence on approximately 29.6 acres on Louisville's River Road along the Ohio River.

References

{{Sue Grafton, state=collapsed Houses in Jefferson County, Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Jefferson County, Kentucky Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Georgian Revival architecture in Kentucky Homes of American writers 1911 establishments in Kentucky Houses completed in 1911