Cold Spring Seminary
The Kentucky Post 1919
This postcard of the Walnut Hills Academy
was submitted by Jeff Weimer courtesy of the Campbell County Historical Society.
Card is dated October 6, 1906
Hidden away in a beautiful grove of tall evergreen trees is one of Kentucky's most famous buildings. Although but a hundred feet from one of the most widely traveled roads in Campbell-co, the famous Cold Spring Seminary, now the Walnut Hills Academy is seldom seen by the traveler as he passes along the Alexandria Pike.
This building was erected nearly a century ago and the original structure was of logs hewn from surrounding forests. For years it was used as a private school building by Prof. John Peteis. Within its walls many of Kentucky's brightest men obtained the fundamentals of their later education.
Albert S Berry, former Kentucky congressman, James C Wright, leading lawyer of Newport; William R Nelson, former Newport mayor and leading barrister; Colonel Leonard J Crawford; Courtland Baker, Newport lawyer; Dr. James Digby, Campbell-co commissioner and many others attended classes in this building.
The original building was remodeled and brick and stone substituted for the wood structure. Scores of the original fir trees planted when the log house was erected still stand and tower nine feet above the roof of the building. This building has been used as a schoolhouse, church, meeting house for town trustees and a place for political meetings. While president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln once delivered an address in the walls of this building. The late William O'Connell, Kentucky's first Republican governor and first Republican United States Senator, too delivered an address.
No political campaign is complete without a meeting at the seminary.
Reprinted from The Falmouth Outlook December 1921
Picture and story to the Falmouth Outlook was furnished by Mrs. Effie Hendricks,
Butler, Kentucky R 1
The destruction by fire of the famous old Coldsprings (sic) Seminary, renamed the Walnut Hills Academy before the Civil War, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 1921, wiped out one of Kentucky's most famous structures. It was the principal place of education of many of northern Kentucky's most famous and brilliant men. Built a score of years before the Civil War, the Coldsprings (sic) Seminary was one of the few brick schoolhouses in this section of the country. In the pre-war days the structure was used strictly for religious and educational purposes.
Abraham Lincoln spoke in the building and so did General U. S. Grant. Richard P Ernst, now U.S. senator; Governor Edwin P Morrow; Augustus O Stanley, U.S. senator; James Crepps W Beckam, former U.S. senator; William Howard Taft, former president, and scores of other famous men have stood upon the platform of this little building.
In recent years the building has been used as a part of Campbell-co's graded school system, and more recently was used as a high school. It also was used as a place of worship by the citizens of Coldsprings. Pupils attending the school at Coldsprings destroyed by fire Tuesday will attend school at Lincoln Pike Baptist Church, commencing Monday, O S Deming, principal of the school, announced Wednesday.
William Knarr, deputy state fire marshal, said Wednesday he would make an investigation of the fire, believed to have started in the attic from a defective flue. According to fire officials the loss will amount to about $30,000 with only $3000 insurance to cover it. It is probable that a campaign to raise funds for the erection of a new building will be started soon.