Massive Mercer farm will be auctioned in 54 tracts

Anderson Circle Farm, consisting of more than 5,500 acres in Mercer County amassed by the late business executive Ralph G. Anderson, will be auctioned in November.

The property, which was used primarily as farmland for cattle and crops, will be divided into 54 tracts ranging in size from 2.6 to 405 acres. Most of the tracts, which include more than 3,500 acres of tillable farmland, adjoin one another.

"With this much land, it's really important to offer it in tracts like this because it allows more people to participate," said Carl Carter, spokesman for auction conductor Schrader Real Estate & Auction Co. of Columbia City, Ind. "With something this size, we're going to need a lot of participants."

Anderson, a Mercer County native, "essentially just kept buying the property next to him," Carter said.

Anderson, a 1950 graduate of the University of Kentucky who died Feb. 13, 2010, at age 86, founded Cincinnati-based Belcan, one of the nation's largest engineering firms. His legacy includes the UK engineering building named for him; he was the lead donor for the $25 million building.

"Anderson Circle Farm was my father's passion, but now that he's gone, we're not using it to its full potential," Candace Anderson McCaw, Anderson's daughter, said in a statement. "We got together as a family and decided that it would be better for us and for the Harrodsburg community to sell it at auction and put the land and homes in the hands of people who can enjoy the property for generations."

Schrader representatives will conduct the Nov. 16 auction at Lexington Center.

The property includes a number of estates with homes, including Walnut Hall, Chapline and Wildwood. Elsewhere on the property is a livestock sales barn that "is quite a structure in itself," Carter said.

The farm sold its cattle in October, according to its Web site.

This story was originally published September 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Massive Mercer farm will be auctioned in 54 tracts."