Fayette estate honored
Waveland is Kentucky’s example
of plantation life during Civil War

A historic Kentucky plantation that became a Commonwealth showplace was honored in late June.

Waveland, a southern Fayette County estate that exemplifies plantation life in Kentucky in the 19th century, had a stone monument unveiled honoring the family that built it and the slaves who worked there. One side of the six-foot-tall marker lists the names of Bryan family members who established the plantation in the late 1700s. The other side lists 19 known slaves whose labor made Waveland a Kentucky showplace.

Established as a Kentucky historic shrine in 1971, Waveland is part of Kentucky’s state parks system. During its heyday in the 1800s, Waveland produced hemp and later tobacco, covered roughly 2,000 acres and functioned as a self-contained community with its own church, school, gun-powder manufacturing plant and gunsmith shop. The site now consists of 15 acres and is reflective of plantation life during the Civil War era.

The Greek revival home that still stands on the estate was built in 1847 by Joseph Bryan, a grand nephew of Daniel Boone. Family tradition holds that Boone surveyed the land where Waveland now stands for his nephew and namesake, Daniel Boone Bryan. The Bryans came from North Carolina about 1776 and, in 1779, built one of Kentucky’s first settlements, the Bryan Station fort near Lexington. The Bryan family had accompanied Boone through the Cumberland Gap to the Bluegrass Region.

Waveland’s name came from the many acres of grain and hemp waving in the breeze. The plantation also was known for its founder’s raising and racing of blooded trotting horses. Its outbuildings, slave quarters, smokehouse and icehouse are reminders of the social and economic climate of the 19th century.

Lexington's David McMurtry noted that Waveland was a relatively small plantation compared to the huge cotton plantations of the Deep South. This year, McMurtry published Waveland: Home of the Bryans, a book detailing the plantation's history.