Throwback Thursday – Walnut Lawn Historic Home

In past segments, Throwback Thursday has shared stories of the Hobson family in Bowling Green and their home at Riverview and Hobson Grove. The Hobsons also had a second lesser-known home nearby. Called Walnut Lawn, the home is on the National Register of Historic Places and is still standing on the other side of Jennings Creek.

Originally part of a farm built in 1805, the property traded hands a few times before Colonel Atwood Hobson from Riverview purchased the farm in 1872. He gave it to son, Colonel William Hobson, to raise his family in 1885. The Bittner family was hired to remodel the home with a Victorian-era Eastlake architectural look, much like they did for the Riverview house.

The Hobson family spent more than a century living at Walnut Lawn, watching Bowling Green and the Jennings Creek area grow into what it is today. Currently the Walnut Lawn home is owned by private owners and not available for public viewings.

One of Walnut Lawn’s most significant historic features could be found in its garden. A portion of the original stone fountain from Bowling Green’s Fountain Square Park can be found there. This original fountain piece was in the city’s center from 1871 to 1881. It is also said that three of Bowling Green’s original cast iron gas lamp posts are in this garden.

The Hobson family spent years exploring Jennings Creek, as the creek borders Walnut Lawn farm. Jennings Creek played an important role in Bowling Green’s milling industry at the turn of the 20th century, and still winds through neighborhoods and part of the city’s greenways trails around Preston Miller Park.