A Traditional Irish Farmhouse

A Traditional Irish Farmhouse. . Hugh Rogan built his family home to resemble those in his birthplace. Completed about 1800, the house originally stood on the Rogan farm three miles northeast of here. , The Rogan Family Home , Hugh Rogan was in his early fifties when be brought his family to Sumner County. Not long afterward, he began building this house, which he completed around 1800. His son, Bernard, an infant when Hugh first came to the New World in 1775, was now a man of twenty-two. No doubt he helped his father build this comfortable two-room house modeled after those in the family's native Ireland. , The Center of a Catholic Community , Several generations of Hugh Rogan's descendants lived on the Rogan farm. The small Catholic settlement that grew up around it and took its name persisted well into the twentieth century. Rogana stood about three miles northeast of here for over 200 years. In time, the structure fell into disrepair. To insure Rogana's preservation, in 1998 the Bledsoe's Lick Historical Association moved the house stone by stone to this location and reconstructed it. Rogana is significant for its association with Hugh Rogan and the Catholic Church in Tennessee, and as a rare example of traditional Irish farmhouse architecture. , Built in the Irish Folk Tradition , The rocky landscape of Hugh Rogan's birthplace, County Donegal is dotted with low stone houses much like Rogana, as this house came to be called. Rogan built his house in the Irish folk tradition, using dressed limestone, which is as plentiful here as in County Donegal. The house has a linear floor plan, believed to promote long life and family harmony. The doors and windows are placed to ensure the safe passage of the "good people," the fairies of Irish legend. , Another traditional feature is the central stone chimney that gives each room a fireplace. Two non-traditional features are the loft that runs the full length of the house and the enclosed stairway in the corner of the bedroom that provides access to the loft.