WM. EMMONS HOUSE

156-158 N. Upper St., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1806

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

The stuccoed house next adjoining the new brick on the corner was built on a lot in McDermid Square bought by Wm. Emmons, Sr., in July, 1794, from Devalt Cooper and wife, Margaret, heirs of Francis McDermid.

The deed called for 66 feet on Upper St. and 180 feet on "Middle St.," now Church St.

Emmons is shown as residing on the property in 1805--"Wm. Emmons, Short St." (Church St.). He sold Joseph Wingate the corner lot, fronting 29 feet on Upper St. and 39 feet on Church "Alley" to the end of the log house built on said "alley." The deed was recorded in 1814, but the 1806 Directory shows "Joseph Wingate, Blacksmith," here and adjoining deeds referred to his "blacksmith shop" or "shed." This all indicates that Emmons had been a pioneer blacksmith, had retired and had sold his shop to Wingate by 1806.

In 1814 Emmons "sold" the house to James R. Brown, and less than five months later gave it to him "for love and affection." It had been referred to as Emmons' residence in other deeds, so the inference is he built it when he retired in 1806.

In 1815 Emmons, Sr., conveyed to Wm. Emmons, Jr., 73 feet on Church St., which the latter sold to the Trustees of the Methodist Church in 1822--the year the church was built. (Emmons, Sr., had sold Robert Scott 18 feet 8 inches next to the church site--east in 1807.)

In 1817, Emmons sold the last of his lot to Mrs. Susanna Noble--"containing as many feet on Church Alley as are now covered by two log houses, being 40 feet between Jos. Wingate's Blacksmith Shop and Wm. Emmons, Jr., lot" (the old church). So you may visualize the two log houses as being where the back half of this new corner brick is today.

The deed to James R. Brown for the (now stuccoed) house said it began "at the west corner of John Keiser's Brick house on Upper St., now occupied by Dr. Brown," and extended "south-west 37 feet to Wingate's shed."

James R. Brown bought Mrs. Noble's log houses and sold his entire holdings to John B. Fanchier in 1815. (In 1815 surveyor's map of "houses")

Fanchier and Wife, Martha, in January, 1830,conveyed to Thomas Rankin the lot "having a two-story brick house on Upper St. and a log house one-story and a half on Church St."

Rankin and wife, Sarah T., still residing there, sold the entire corner, including the "shop," log houses, and brick residence in 1841 to Thomas Young.

Abraham T. Skillman bought it in 1842. His heirs sold the house to Dr. Heidelberg, and years later it was conveyed to Willette, adjoining deeds said.

The following ad in the Kentucky Gazette April 13, 1827, shows that Wingate's successor on the corner here was a gunsmith:

"The subscriber has commenced GUNSMITHING in the well-known Shop formerly occupied by Mr. Joseph Wingate, dec'd, immediately fronting John McCracken's Tavern…. J.E. WHITE."

Transcribed, Pam Brinegar, April 2000