In 1985, I decided to use ten million dollars from the proceeds of my sale of my minority interest in the Bingham companies to finance a not-for-profit foundation for the benefit of Kentucky women. I was aware from my years as a book editor at the Courier-Journal of the amount of work that women did at the Bingham companies, almost entirely in lower-paid jobs such as distributing mail, cooking and serving in the company cafeteria, working as secretaries, or cleaning. These women were about to lose their jobs with the sale of the companies. Survival issues would be at the forefront, but I could not hope with my limited means to secure their financial futures.
Having long learned through my personal experience as a writer and my observation of women artists—both as activists and as individuals with passion and talent—the effect of art created by women on the lives of other women, I decided to design a foundation that would support, with bi-annual grants, women artists in Kentucky working as feminists for social change. I was aware of the fact that large national foundations do little for this area.
The Foundation would focus on the power of feminist art and conduct outreach to areas of the state and minority populations seldom reached by other philanthropies. And no philanthropy offered stipends to women working as radical artists.
I served as the Foundation’s first director from 1985 before moving to New Mexico in 1991. I assembled a diverse and committed board of directors and we plunged into the work.
At the same time, I was securing the future of the 200 acres, Wolf Pen Branch Mill Farm, that I was buying in Prospect, with its historic gristmill, which I restored. I placed the land in conservation easements, held by River Fields, to ensure it would not fall to the developers who were even then making inroads into eastern Jefferson County.
Two hundred contiguous acres, owned by the Norton family, soon came on the market, and I decided that it was urgent for me to buy this land to preserve my original intent. The large frame farmhouse on this property was bought by Foundation with five acres, including two barns and a smokehouse. It was my intent and the intent of the Foundation that the house would be used by women for retreats, workshops, gatherings and education. A little later I bought five more contiguous acres and a tenant cottage, intending for it to be lived in by an executive director responsible for the house and its residents, and donated the house and cottage to the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Hoping that women would have fun there, as well as serious work, I named it Hopscotch.
Hopscotch’s first full time resident director, Patty Wren Smith, initiated outdoor as well as indoor programs, opening Wolf Pen Farm, which surrounds Hopscotch on four sides, for exploration. I furnished the house to be used by groups as well as individual women, adding paintings by Kentucky women artists and an important collection of a hundred years of books by Kentucky women writers.
First, the house served as a working retreat for women artists and writers during weekends or more extended periods, without charge, ably administered by Wren Smith, living in the tenant cottage. The smokehouse was converted into two studios and a chicken house (since demolished) was made to serve the same purpose.
While the Foundation was headed by Ann Stewart Anderson and Judi Jennings, programs in the house expanded, serving the wider community. A summer writers’ program was well attended, many artists worked there, but the house was also used by a variety of women’s groups for their meetings and retreats. Over the ensuing three decades, the house was used and loved by some three thousand women.
Hopscotch has sat empty and untended for the past two years. There have been occasional resident directors, but long periods when there was no one to supervise the house. As far as I know, no maintenance has been undertaken, although the current executive director, Sharon Larue, told me two years ago that there were cracks in the foundation and other serious structural issues. Her solution was to solicit me for a two million dollar donation to pay for an out-of- state male architect to design a two story glass box to attach to the frame farmhouse as well as other changes that seemed to me unnecessary as well as inappopriate. When I refused to make this enormous donation, given that the Foundation now sits on 16 million dollars, she apparently used my refusal as an excuse to close down the house and its programs
I am angered by the way the current executive director has managed, or mismanaged, this important community asset. Something must be done to save Hopscotch.
Andria Creighton says
I am confused. I never saw a restored mill unless it is the one right up on Wolf Pen Branch Road. It looks nice. I did not know this land was called Wolf Pen Branch Mill Farm as I have been to Hopscotch many times and did not see that history.
The last time I slept in the house beaucoup years ago one of the ladies was scared because of all the dead bugs in the upstairs bedrooms. I told her that the exterminator had sprayed the house and no one cared to check upstairs and vacuum. I am a country gal that is not afraid of a dead bug or a live one.
This could be a shake down cruise….or not. Just my personal opinion, but someone is telling lies or half-truths.
Sallie Bingham says
Thank you Andria – I have written a lot on this site about the mill and the land, you might be particularly interested in “What It Means To Save The Land” which is my first post about the farm and has some of the beginnings. Also “Wolf Pen Mill Grinds Again” which has video of the mill running back in 2015 when the restoration was complete. River Fields leads very popular seasonal tours of the farm and I encourage you to subscribe to their email list to receive news as they are announced. They do fill up very quickly!
Judith Daniel says
It is so tragic that this beautiful site may be lost to its original mission? What can be done to save Hopscotch House? Is there any leverage within the board of directors or any legal recourse? Does a board of directors have no oversight?
Sallie Bingham says
Thank you Judith, I did have to resort to filing a lawsuit last week. Unfortunately I can’t discuss further given the fact it’s ongoing but I will share updates when I am able to do so.
Lisa Briana Williams says
If there is anything the public can do to support your efforts let us know!