Crews work to save home of Covington’s most famous artist

A once-crumbling house tied to one of America’s most celebrated 19th-century painters now gains a new lease on life as the City of Covington and local structural experts lead an emergency preservation effort.

Frank Duveneck’s childhood home – the birthplace of a world-renowned artist whose work hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian – stood for years in near-collapse at 1226 Greenup St. Its back half sat directly on the ground without a proper foundation, and for at least a decade, runoff from a neighboring lot flooded the structure.

“Had this been any other structure in the city, we would probably have ordered its demolition,” said Covington Assistant Neighborhood Services Director Walter Mace. “The damage was just that extensive.”

Framing a piece of Covington’s artistic history

After the city gained legal conservatorship of the property last fall, it hired Structural Systems Repair Group (SSRG), a Cincinnati-based firm that restores historic buildings. SSRG’s inspection revealed widespread structural decay: bowed walls, collapsed foundations, missing stonework, rotted wood and layers of careless renovations.

“We’ve had buildings literally fall, whereas this building was about to fall,” said SSRG project manager Casey Culhane. “When we walk away from here, we want to give the City of Covington a stabilized structure that they know has no risk of falling over and deteriorating.”

Culhane and his crew spent the last two months stabilizing the structure. They reinforced the floor and roof, excavated the failed foundation, rebuilt it and reattached key structural elements. Mace described the process as a journey back through time that revealed decades of poor repairs workers had to undo.

“Preserving Covington’s rich cultural history is a top priority,” said Mayor Ron Washington. “Thanks to the work of SSRG and our City staff, we will be able to preserve and restore this cultural icon for the next generation.”

For artists, historians and residents, Duveneck’s home offers more than a link to the past. It provides a physical connection to the creativity and cultural identity that shaped Covington.

“The home and studio are evocative space that bring the artist’s practice, vision and imagination to life and inspire creativity in all of us,” said Julie Aronson, curator of American paintings at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Duveneck’s roots in a growing immigrant-led city

Duveneck was born in 1848 to German immigrant parents and spent his formative years in Covington’s Helentown neighborhood. The area, a vibrant enclave of industry and immigrant culture, thrived with small businesses, churches and densely packed homes. Local craftsmen and the Covington Altar Building Company, which created religious furnishings, gave Duveneck his earliest artistic training.

“Through his masterful works of art and influential teaching, Frank Duveneck brought a cosmopolitan, international perspective on art to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky,” said Aronson.

Duveneck’s artistic reach eventually spanned continents. Still, his modest childhood home and the immigrant community that nurtured him shaped his development. He later studied in Munich, Germany, mentored artists across Europe and the United States and drew global attention to the Ohio River Valley.

“What I identify with and find inspirational about Frank Duveneck’s legacy is his artistic and personal story of growth and evolution, with universal themes that are as relevant today as they will be 100 years from now,” said Rachael Parker, director of Northern Kentucky creative placemaking at ArtsWave. “Frank Duveneck put our region on the map. We should persistently be working to preserve, honor and share his legacy.”

Local historian Dave Schroeder, executive director of the Kenton County Public Library, underscored the preservation’s importance to Covington’s cultural story.

“One of this country’s most talented painters lived and worked in Covington, and his home still stands more than a century after his death,” Schroeder said. “Duveneck’s house, along with many others, tells the story of Covington in a way history books cannot.”

City of Covington