The Zachary Taylor House, known since it was built as Springfield, stands in Louisville, Kentucky. It is where the twelfth president of the United States grew up, where he was married in 1810, and where five of his six children were born. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1961.
It is also a private residence, and it is not open to the public. That is the single most useful thing to know before planning a trip, and most listings do not say it clearly. This guide covers the house’s history and architecture, what happened to the 700 acres that once surrounded it, and what you can actually visit nearby.
Springfield at a glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Springfield, also known as the Zachary Taylor House |
| Location | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Built | Around 1790; western section about 1795, eastern section between 1810 and 1830 |
| Style | Georgian Colonial, two and a half storeys, red brick, L-shaped |
| Taylor’s residence | 1785 to 1808, with returns throughout his life |
| National Historic Landmark | Designated 4 July 1961 |
| Original estate | About 700 acres; now roughly three quarters of an acre |
| Public access | None. Private residence |
Who was Zachary Taylor?
Zachary Taylor was the twelfth president of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850, sixteen months into his term. Before that he was a career army officer for four decades, becoming a national figure through his command in the Mexican-American War, which is what carried him into the presidency with almost no political background.
He was born in Virginia in 1784 and brought to Kentucky as an infant when his family moved west. He was also a slaveholder, and owned plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi worked by enslaved people, a fact that is inseparable from how the family’s wealth and the Kentucky estate were sustained.
He is buried at the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, a short distance from the house.
The house
Springfield was built around 1790, and it grew in stages rather than at once. The western section is the older part, dating to roughly 1795; the eastern section was added at some point between 1810 and 1830. The result is an L-shaped Georgian Colonial house of two and a half storeys in red brick, substantial but not grand by the standards of later presidential properties.
Taylor lived there from 1785, as an infant, until 1808, when he entered the army. He came back repeatedly across the rest of his life. He was married at the house in 1810, and five of his six children were born in it. For a man who spent his career moving between frontier postings, it was the closest thing he had to a fixed home.
Its designation as a National Historic Landmark, on 4 July 1961, reflects that association rather than any architectural exceptionalism. It is a well-preserved example of its type, and it is the surviving building most closely connected to Taylor’s life.
What happened to the land
The estate originally ran to around 700 acres. It stayed largely intact until the 1950s, when it was subdivided for suburban development as Louisville expanded outwards.
Today the house sits on roughly three quarters of an acre, surrounded by ordinary post-war housing. That is a reduction of more than 99 per cent of the original holding, and it explains why the property does not read as a plantation house when you see it: the landscape that gave it its meaning is gone, replaced by a residential street.
This is a common fate for historic properties on the edges of American cities, and it is usually irreversible. Where an estate survives intact, it is generally because an institution acquired it, as happened with the property described in the guide to the Chase Lloyd House in Annapolis.
Can you visit the Zachary Taylor House?
No. Springfield is privately owned and occupied, and it is not open to visitors.
This needs stating plainly because National Historic Landmark status is widely assumed to mean public access, and it does not. The designation recognises a building’s significance and provides a degree of protection; it does not oblige an owner to admit anyone. A substantial number of landmarks in the United States are private homes.
For that reason this article does not publish the street address, which appears in various listings. People do turn up, and the occupants are private individuals with no connection to Taylor.
What you can visit is the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery nearby, which is administered by the federal government, contains Taylor’s grave and a monument, and is open to the public. If you want to make a Taylor pilgrimage in Louisville, that is the destination.
Which Zachary Taylor house do people mean?
Two other properties sometimes come up under the same search and are worth separating out.
The first is the White House, where Taylor lived for sixteen months and where he died in July 1850. The second is his Louisiana holdings, near Baton Rouge, connected to his army postings and his plantation interests in the state. Neither survives as a Taylor site in the way Springfield does.
When people search for the Zachary Taylor House, they almost always mean Springfield in Louisville. Presidential properties often exist in this scattered form, with a birthplace, a family home and a later residence in different states and different conditions, a pattern set out in the account of Richard Nixon’s houses.
Sources
- Wikipedia on the house’s construction dates, architecture, Taylor’s residence there, its National Historic Landmark designation and its private status.
- ExploreKYHistory, from the Kentucky Historical Society, on Springfield’s history and the subdivision of the original acreage.
- Historic Louisville on the property’s landmark status and local significance.
- Wikipedia on the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, which is open to the public.
