An effort to save the former home and studio of an internationally-recognized Covington artist is getting a boost in the form of a federal grant.
The city of Covington announced Wednesday it is receiving a $300,000 Saving America's Treasures grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior to help pay for restoring the boyhood home of artist Frank Duveneck.
Duveneck gained fame for his realist paintings and sculpture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work includes the iconic "Whistling Boy" painting and a number of others well-known in the region and nationally.
Duveneck's stepfather built the property at 1226 Greenup Street in 1861. Covington Historic Preservation Specialist Kaitlin Bryan says it played a pivotal role in the artist's life all the way until he died in 1919.
"It's where he grew up, and then he left, went out into the world, studied art over in Europe and eventually came back home. When he came back home, that's when the art studio was constructed. That is where he did his work and had students over. He occupied that space until his death," she says.
Today, Duveneck's work hangs in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Art Museum among others. However, the house where he spent much of his time fell into disrepair years ago.
The city fought an eight-year battle with the property owners to gain a conservatorship because of the house's poor condition.
Duveneck Arts and Cultural Center owns the building. President Charles Alexander claims some of the damage was caused by a 2018 demolition next door, and says the group has been raising funds to restore the property. He says the group has tried to work with the city, but to no avail.
"We've got state historic tax credits to help us improve it once we get federal historic tax credits, which were in movement when they started taking us to court," he says.
The city says the group hasn't held up its responsibility to keep the house safe and up to code. Inspections detected problems with gutters, an unsafe chimney, a hole in the foundation, animal infestations and other issues, according to the city.
In September 2024, it won the legal right to make repairs.
"We were really concerned that the property was going to collapse because the foundation had collapsed inward, and dirt was filling the basement," Bryan says. "Sections of siding had been removed so the elements were getting into the property. We took steps to get the property stabilized, zipped it up, made it weather-tight and repaired that section of the foundation."
The federal grant requires a local match. The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development will pitch in about $287,000 toward the project and the city of Covington will contribute another $13,000.
The $600,000 project seeks to bring the property up to habitable standards while meeting federal historic preservation guidelines. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
The next inhabitant of the property hasn't been determined yet, but Bryan says an arts or other cultural organization could be a good fit.
"Our goal is to get it to an occupiable state where some other organization could move in and start using it," Bryan says.
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