375 S. Mill, Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Built 1812
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
In September, 1812, Robert R. Barr deeded to James Craig 41 feet on Mill St. "beginning at the east corner of Elijah Oliver's lot," and built this fine old brick house with its steps and rail, which he evidently used as a "town residence." He owned large tracts at South Elkhorn, given him in 1808, by Lewis and Elizabeth Craig, and in 1812 by Joseph and Sarah Craig.
Joseph McAdams ("horsdealer, S. Mill, bet. High and Maxwell" - 1838 Dir.) in April, 1835, purchased the house from James Craig and wife, Sally, "of Woodford Co.", the deed citing the fact that Craig had gotten the lot from Barr in 1812.
McAdams conveyed this house and one across the street to his wife, Ellen, in 1841, for "love and affection." He said this was a "two-story brick house fronting 45 feet on the West side of Mill St. South of Hill," with the house of Miss Virden on one side and a vacant lot of the Bryant heirs on the other.
The house was used as a parsonage of the Methodist Church meantime until No. 359 was built.
The next conveyance was from Mrs. Ellen Hood to P.T. Maccoun, October 16, 1865. The deed described it as being next to the Elijah Oliver lot--"being the same house and lot deeded by trust to Allen Davis for the benefit of the first party by her first husband, Jos. McAdams, and the same house and lot now occupied by her."
The Mill Street frontage from here to the next aged house (#359) remained unimproved from 1812, when David Bryan bought it, until 1865 apparently.
On July 22, 1865, the following deed was recorded: "General Wm. Bryan, exor. David Bryan, dec'd., to Rudolph DeRoode and David Enderlee, all that tract beginning at the east corner of the lot deeded by Robert R. Barr to James Craig on Mill St. Sept. 21, 1812," and extending 120 feet--being the same deeded by Robt. R. Barr to David Bryan Sept. 21, 1812."
Prof. DeRoode and his associate three days later sold the property to Judge Geo. Robertson, who conveyed it in 1869 to the Methodist Church, saying in the deed it was "between the house occupied by P.T. Maccoun and the Methodist Church parsonage."
(David Bryan owned an extensive plantation at South Elkhorn, which he willed to his wife, Margaret, and his sons and daughters: William Bryan, Elizabeth Hart, Nancy Hart and John J. Bryan. He died in 1834. His son, Gen. William Bryan, who conveyed his father's "lot on Mill St." in DeRoode and Enderlie, married Mrs. Margaret Headley, of Jessamine County, in 1867. He had a son, John J. Bryan, and two daughters, Mary T. Shropshire and Eliza Bryan.)
Transcribed by pb June 2004