Frank goes through a detailed account of whether we think the porte cochere is original to the Mooreland House or not. There was a comment earlier this week on one of the videos featuring the porte cochere and we wanted to follow up with a video. Hope you don’t mind a midweek update.
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Mooreland House 
I think it is an “original structure” attached to the house
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That’s what be believe as well.
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Did the lady who was related to the original owners (she was in the original FB group and I believe lived in Louisville) pass away? I bet she’d know!
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You are talking about Susan. We still keep in touch. We think we solved the question. When people say it isn’t “original” they just meant that it wasn’t drawn up by the original architect. We are certain that it was built at the same time as the Mooreland House.
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I understand that the consensus is that the porte-cochere was built when the house was constructed. I think that this would be accurate, not only for the points that Frank made about it in the video, but because it was apparently common to add these onto a house after the plans were drawn. Take Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park PA for example. That mansion was constructed in the late 1800’s. It had a limestone exterior and a rear porte-cochere made mostly of metal and wood. Although elegant in its own right it did not appear to match the rest of the house. It isn’t until you look at the blueprints that you see it was not originally drawn but was instead penciled in after the plans were drawn but before the house was finished. I think that if Frank and Kerry had the formal plans for this house it would most likely be a similar story.
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It is an enigma for sure. We can’t figure out a reason that the stone band ends in the middle of the curved wall when all other bands on that wall continue. To us, that is a clue that something was planned for that spot when the walls were built. Remember, this house was built and decorated like a hunting lodge until the death of Col. Moore. We wouldn’t be surprised if he asked to have a car port on the side of his Romanesque Revival mansion.
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I imagine that the stone band ending where it does just reinforces the possibility that the porte-cochere was a mid-construction addition. There were probably no formal plans for it and the masons were probably informed on the site. I imagine the builder tells the masons generally where the porte-cochere would start and to be safe they end the band a little further back to be on the safe side.
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