The William Clinkenbeard House is on the west side of Paris Road (KY 627), about 2.4 miles north of the intersection with Interstate 64. The Clark County Survey of Historic Sites states that "this exceptional hall-parlor plan house has excellent Federal detailing and is most certainly a survivor from the late 18th century. Soon after its initial construction, a one-story brick wing was added." The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has been vacant for many years and has begun to deteriorate. The one-story addition has partially collapsed, and the main block is in decline. The house is on the farm of Dr. Mark Simon, who moved there several years ago. Dr. Simon has installed a new roof and removed threatening trees in an effort to stabilize the historic structure.
William Clinkenbeard (1761-1844) was a fourth-generation descendant of Willem Klinckenberg, who emigrated from the Netherlands. After his mother died, William lived for a time with his grandmother in Pennsylvania, near the Maryland line. He rejoined his father, William Sr., in Shepherdstown, Va., when his father remarried. At the age of eighteen, William and his older brother Isaac came out to Kentucky by way of the Wilderness Road. They stopped briefly at Boonesborough, then went on to John Strode's Station which they helped erect in the fall of 1779. Many of the first residents there came from Berkley County, Va., where William was from. (Dr. Ellen Eslinger published a study on Strode's Station in which she concluded that the settlers at the fort were united in a web of kinship. Eslinger will give a presentation of her work at the Second Thursday program, April 2007, at the Bluegrass Heritage Museum.)
