Rear of 219 N. Upper St., Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Built 1808
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
Back on the alley, to be seen between the two "John Clarke Houses," is the oldest building remaining on this block today.
It has had a long and interesting career from the day it was purchased as an adjunct to the Dr. Elisha Warfield House at Second and Market Streets and designated as "Elisha Warfield's Brick Stable."
Lewis Neil and Thomas Hurley, of Philadelphia Pa., bought the Second and Market Street house from Dr. Warfield September 5, 1811. Five days later, Charles Wilkins and wife, Jane, for $1,000 made the following deed to the Philadelphians for this stable:
"All that lot, beginning at the north-east corner of a lot sold by Wilkins to David Sutton, lying on Upper St., fronting a 10-foot alley 30 feet and running back 50 feet, it being a lot on which Elisha Warfield's brick stable now stands."
When Neil and Hurley sold the Warfield residence to John W. Hunt in March, 1814, the stable on Wilkins' alley was included. It was included again when Hunt sold to John T. Mason, Jr., in 1815, but then disappeared from the Warfield house deeds.
The stable next bobbed up as part of the property Gen. Thomas Bodley mortgaged to the Bank of the United States in 1819, together with the Bodley House, across the street, at Second and Market Streets. The "stable" was listed as "a house and lot on Upper St. now occupied by David Cobb as a Tobacco factory."
From that time on, it was an elusive tail to the Bodley House. John Tilford bought the Bodley house in 1834, but had to get the stable deeded later. When he sold to Daniel Vertner, the same thing happened. When Wm. A. Dudley bought the house after the war, he had to get an extra deed for the "stable." It managed to "stick along," however, until in recent years the present owner of the Bodley House disposed of it. The wonder is that it still is here after being "in circulation" for 135 years, as a trailer to houses far distant.
Transcribed by pb February 2003