About · The Mansion
The Ferguson Mansion.
One of the finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture in Louisville. Built for one of the city's industrialists in 1905, restored and adapted by the Filson in the 1980s into the working library and museum it is today.
The architects
Designed by Dodd and Cobb.
The Louisville industrialist Edwin Hite Ferguson commissioned the architectural firm of Dodd and Cobbto design a house for his family on South Third Street. The mansion was completed in 1905 and quickly became a showcase of Ferguson’s success and his family’s social standing in Louisville.
The house is one of the finest examples of Beaux Arts architecture in the city — classical proportions, a public floor designed for hosting on the scale Louisville’s industrial era expected, and family quarters above. After the Pearson family bought the mansion in the 1920s, it changed hands twice more and served as a funeral home for nearly half a century.
From house to library
Purchased 1984. Renovated 1985–86.
By the early 1980s the Filson had outgrown its 1929 home on Breckinridge Street. The Society’s board went looking for a building that could house growing collections, expanded staff, and additional programming space. Members and the community raised $3.3 million — and in 1984, the centennial of the Filson’s founding, the Mansion and its carriage house were purchased.
Renovations and the addition of six levels of climate-controlled, secure stacks were carried out through 1985 by the architecture firm of Grossman, Chapman, Klarer. In summer 1986, the collections and staff moved in — the mansion housing offices and library/archival storage; the carriage house housing museum storage and display. The adaptive reuse won the firm and the Filson architectural awards.
The conversion was done with restraint. The public rooms on the first floor remain much as Ferguson knew them — the entry hall, the conservatory, the drawing and dining rooms are still the rooms a 1905 visitor would have crossed. The working transformation happens where guests don’t see it.
The 2016 expansion
The Owsley Brown II History Center.
In October 2016, the Filson opened the Owsley Brown II History Center — the third building on the campus, designed by de Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop. The History Center created exhibition galleries, expanded library and special collections reading rooms, and program and event-rental venues.
In 2022, the building received the AIA Architecture Award. The award’s nine-member jury selects submissions that demonstrate “design achievement, including a sense of place, purpose, history, and environmental sustainability.”
See it in person
Free guided tours, Monday and Thursday at 2 PM.
A 45–60 minute tour of the campus — the historic Ferguson Mansion, the Wood Carriage House, and the Owsley Brown II History Center. Reservations required.