JACOB ASHTON HOUSE
"THE LITTLE INN"

145 East High St., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1834

Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.

Jacob Ashton, son of the famous coach-maker, Richard Ashton, built this charming brick cottage in 1834, and the architect probably was the noted Gideon Shryock. (Note the portico front and pillared porch back). Ashton was a tailor, located "in a frame house painted red" on the south side of Main Street (No. 152 today) just east of Upper. His father had bought a 19-foot Main Street lot, extending back to "Morton's alley," from William Morton in 1830, "on which the said Ashton has erected the house now occupied by his son, Jacob Ashton, as a Tailor's Shop and Clothe Store."

Jacob Ashton in early 1829 advertised his "new clothing store on Main St. opposite the Post Office" where he had just received from Philadelphia and New York "a full supply of Gentlemen's Ready Made Clothing." He carried "Cloaks, Coats, vests, pantaloons, shirts and shirtees, cravats," etc.

Samuel D. McCullough, in his Reminiscences of Lexington, mentioned the senior Ashton: "The two-horse car ran from this city to Frankfort (the Lexington & Ohio Railroad, 1831) over the 'flat iron rail' until 18__, when a little steam locomotive called the 'Nottaway' made one trip to Frankfort and back the same day. It drew one passenger coach, built by Mr. Ashton, a venerable coach builder of this city. The inside would accommodate about as many as a modern omnibus, and seats on the top, with an iron railing all around, would seat many more." Richard Ashton is listed in the 1806 Directory as a coach-builder, and evidently built many stage-coaches.

The assumption that Gideon Shryock designed the house today known as "The Little Inn" arises from the fact that when Shryock went to Philadelphia in 1823 to study under Strickland, Jacob Ashton accompanied him, the latter going to Pennsylvania to visit his grandfather. Then, too, the Ashtons and the Shryocks were warm friends and neighbors, Richard Ashton living on North Broadway (site of the Lexington Opera House) and Mathias Shryock, father of Gideon, next door (south). Both died during the dread cholera plague in 1833. Ashton, as did hundreds of others, left the city, but his wife died overnight from the cholera upon their arrival in the country. The Shyrocks were shocked to learn this news, but probably were not soon aware of the death shortly afterwards of Richard Ashton, from the same cause, as Mathias Shryock had succumbed to the plague. Gideon, his son, assisted by a friend with his wagon, took the body to the old Third Street Cemetery for burial, only to find the grave-digger had fled and they had to dig the grave themselves, being until almost dark at the job.

Richard Ashton, in his will, made little more than a month after the death of Shryock, Sr., gave his son William "the house and lot upon which I reside on Main-Cross St. in Lexington, lying between the Tavern House owned by Patterson Bain and the late residence of M. Shryock, dec'd," and his son Jacob "my interest in the house and lot on Main Street at present occupied as a residence and clothing store by my son Jacob."

The next year (1834) Jacob Ashton bought a 72 foot lot on the "left side East High St. above South Mulberry" (1838 Dir.) from John Norton and Richard Higgins, "the lot conveyed by Wm. Whittington and J.C. Long as trustees of James Dunn, dec'd, to Edmond L. Brigs." Gideon Shryock had just completed his masterpiece, Morrison College, and two or three residences in Lexington with porticos similar to the "Little Inn," so he probably designed his friend Ashton's house.

On July 27, 1840, Jacob and William Ashton took a ten-year lease on the "Tavern House at the North corner of Broadway and Short Sts." from the Lexington Hotel Co., the famous hostelry mentioned as being next door to Richard Ashton. Evidently Jacob soon moved into the hotel,, as the deed to the High Street house to Griffin P. Theobald September 14, 1843, said that it was "now in ocupancy of Griffin P. Theobald." The Theobalds continued to live there for several years as they are listed in the 1859-60 and 1864-65 directories.

The house has a porch across the back, with a colonade, evidently for "grandstand seats" in viewing parades and the many events of early days that took place "over on Main St."

Transcribed January 2001 by pb