Owings House was built in 1811-14 for Colonel Thomas Dye Owings by Benjamin Latrobe, who redesigned the interior of the US Capitol after the British burned it in the War of 1812. The house was a center of social life during the early 1800's, and Henry Clay, while US Sec. of State, attended a grand ball there. Reputedly, in 1814, someone posing as Prince Louis Philippe was a guest there. Thomas Dye Owings came to Bath County in 1800 from Maryland. An early ironmaster, he operated the Bourbon Iron Works and the Slate and Maria forges. Iron Works Pike from Owingsville to Lexington was built to haul iron from this area to the Bluegrass because there was no nearby river route. Owings was four times a state representative and a state senator from 1823-27, and the town was named for him in 1811.