Mill Springs honored for restoration
of battlefield’s West-Metcalfe House

A house that provided sanctuary for wounded soldiers at the Battle of Mill Springs has won a Historic Preservation Award for its battlefield association.

The West-Metcalfe House in Wayne County and the Mill Springs Battlefield Association were honored in May by the Ida Lee Willis Memorial Foundation for contributions to preserving Kentucky history for future generations.

The award, presented at the Governor’s Executive Mansion in Frankfort, cites Mill Springs “in recognition of its commitment to preserve and painstakingly restore the first brick house in the Wayne County region.” The house, in recent years, had begun crumbling from decades of decay and neglect.

One of the earliest brick homes in Kentucky, the West-Metcalfe House was built in 1800 with bricks that were fired on the property. Confederate Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer used the structure as his headquarters in November 1861 prior to the Jan. 19 battle of Mill Springs.

Restoration of the house required three years and was accomplished mostly by hand in order to replicate original woodwork and joinery.

Many area residents and visitors frequented the house in which Evangelist John (Raccoon) Smith preached and married couples. The house is one of two Civil War facilities on the Mill Springs Battlefield, the Brown-Lanier House the other.

In honor of the sesquicentennial of the Mill Springs battle, a re-enactment is scheduled Jan. 20-22. The event will commemorate the Union’s key victory.