176 N. Mill St., Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Built 1803
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
The 1806 Directory lists "Henry Clay, Attorney at Law, Mill St., in its "occupation" addresses.
This is rather indefinite, as also are traditions that undertake to cite some four places as the office of the distinguished Mr. Clay, but the deeds to this house authenticate it over and over. There is but one tradition that the deeds necessarily fail to verify--that it was here Mr. Clay had his memorable interview with Aaron Burr.
Henry Clay had purchased two 66 foot lots--Nos. 44 and 45 in McDermid's Square--from George Shepherd, one of the heirs of Francis McDermid, having the deed recorded July 27, 1804. Judging from dates of other deeds, he already had set up his office here.
Mr. Clay sold John W. Hunt 33 feet of Lot. No. 44, adjoining "said Clay's office lot," on November 7, 1815.
He conveyed 100 feet (Lot No. 45 and one-half of Lot. No. 44) to Jas. B. January the same day, saying this property had been "heretofore known as the office lot of said Clay and is at present in the occupancy of Daniel Bradford." His father, the famous John Bradford, had bought the corner house across the street in 1806.
The next conveyance was to Thomas Arnold, "of Paris, Ky.," March 28, 1816, still "known as the office lot of Henry Clay, Esq., and lately in the occupation of Daniel Bradford." Smith, "of Bourbon County, Ky." sold to Wm. Swift in September, 1830, for $1,600 (Clay had sold it to January for $1,500), indicating that up to this time the house was small.
William Swift must have added to the house, as he sold it for $3,500 to Mrs. Juliett Sutton on November 21, 1842. Wm. Swift was librarian for several years until he removed to Henry County in 1868. He came to Lexington in 1816 (born in Massachusetts in 1794) and was a candle manufacturer.
Dr. J.M. Bruce, who died here, purchased the property from Mrs. Sutton in 1850, and it remains in the Bruce family today.
Henry Clay, when he erected his law office here 135 years ago, was living across the street in a home built for him and his wife by his father-in-law, Col. Thomas Hart, Sr. He sold the latter also to Jas. B. January and removed from there to historic "Ashland" in 1806, according to the late Capt. Tom Clay.
It is impossible to tell from the recorded deed dates as to when properties are sold or acquired. No better example, out of a multitude of similar cases, is to be found than in the deed of Mr. Clay of his Mill Street residence to Mr. January. It was dated August 26, 1813, whereas a deed to adjoining property recited that Jas. B. January was living in the Henry Clay house in June, 1809.
Likewise, Col. Hart's deed of the house on the corner to his son, Thos. Hart., Jr., in 1803, is the first deed-book reference to the house, yet a deed to adjoining property in 1798 said it flanked "Col. Hart's garden."
Transcribed by pb May 2004