Watercolor of Monument Design
After Clay died in 1852, there was a design competition to construct a monument in his honor. John Hamilton submitted this design for a large Gothic Revival style monument, painted in watercolor on paper.
Hamilton's design was originally selected as the winner of the competition, but it proved too expensive to construct. The monument that stands today in the Lexington Cemetery, designed by Julius W. Adams, is a very different design. Adams' limestone column and sculpture were completed in 1861; that monument is the mausoleum of Henry and Lucretia Clay.
More information about Adams' monument can be found through the National Parks Service, the National Register of Historic Places, and the Ashland estate.
