Helm Place (Elizabethtown, Kentucky)

Helm Place is a white-columned, brick mansion built by John LaRue Helm in the 1830s, about one and a half miles north of the center of Elizabethtown, Kentucky.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.[1]

Helm Place
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Helm Place in 1915.
Location	Elizabethtown, Kentucky, United States
Coordinates	37°42′38″N 85°52′25″W
Built	1832
Architectural style	Greek Revival
NRHP reference No.	76000895[1]
Added to NRHP	1976

In 1831, John LaRue Helm purchased the old homestead of his grandfather, Captain Thomas Helm, from his uncle Benjamin. The purchase included his father's home several miles outside of Elizabethtown. John then sold his father's home and some 500 acres to Reverend Charles J. Cecil and the Sisters of Loretto, who used the property to create a girls boarding school known as Bethlehem Academy.[3]

After that, John began construction of a new home called Helm Place on the site of Helm Station, a wooden stockade fort. Helm Station was one of three forts built by Thomas Helm in 1780s in the form of a triangle, each spaced one mile apart, to protect against Indian raids. The settlers built their homes in between the three forts, forming a small community that developed into Elizabethtown in the 1790s.[3][4]

See also

• LaRue family
• Benjamin Helm House
• Larue-Layman House
• National Register of Historic Places in Hardin County, Kentucky

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. Mrs. Wilbur Terry; Mrs. Edmund S. Richerson (c. 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Helm Place" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2015-02-13. Photos
3. "John LaRue Helm (1802-1867) By Steven Lindsey" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2014-11-27.
4. Meranda L. Caswell (2005). Elizabethtown. Arcadia. ISBN 0738517860.