MARRS-REYNOLDS HOUSE

216 Lexington Ave., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1833 of 1806 brick

While this charming "old-brick" cottage cannot qualify for admission to the list of "Pioneer and Ante-bellum Houses" as to the time of construction, its materials date back farther than a great majority of those that are qualified.

The bricks were taken from Lexington's first real Court House, erected in 1805-1806 on the present Court House square and torn down in 1883 for a more commodious building. Its walls rang with the eloquence of Henry Clay and innumerable other notables. It was here Harman Blennerhassett had his examining trial. Its cupola boasted a "town clock" erected in 1816 (the copper face of which today is preserved in the Lexington Public Library). In the shadow of its walls, in the courtyard and on Cheapside, volunteers were enlisted and drilled for the War of 1812, the Texas Republic, the Mexican War, and the War Between the States.

Samuel W. Marrs had purchased a 50 foot lot "on the west side of Lexington Ave." from Wm. Lowry in 1877 and decided to build a home on it, in 1883, when the old Court House was razed and he could purchase the brick cheap.

Passing mention should be made of the fact that Lowry gave Lexington Avenue to the City (in 186_, deed filed in 1874). He owned this section from High to Maxwell Streets (117 feet fronting on High and 348 feet fronting on Maxwell), including the Joel Higgins Mansion, for which he had "swapped" 310 1/2 acres on the Maysville Pike 2 1/2 miles from Lexington. The trade was a $24,000 value, Higgins to pay $12,455 excess for the farm.

Marrs sold his brick cottage the next year to a direct descendant of the distinguished Aaron Reynolds—Chas. O. Reynolds (U.S. Storekeeper), from whom the present occupants bought it at the end of the century.

Aaron Reynolds, who stood on the stockade walls at Bryan Station siege (1782) and defied the boastful renegade, Simon Girty, to try to enter the fort with his horde of Indians, valorously distinguished himself a few days later at the ill-fated Battle of Blue Licks. In the disastrous retreat of the pioneers at Blue Licks, Reynolds dismounted and put the wounded Capt. Robert Patterson on his horse, thus saving the latter's life. Reynolds was captured a few moments later but quickly escaped. Capt. Patterson (the founder of Lexington) out of gratitude gave Reynolds 200 acres of first-class land, history says.

Chas. Reynolds, U.S. store-keeper; Frank W.B. Reynolds, associated with his father, and Will Reynolds, who went on a whaling expedition to Alaska, were great grandsons of Aaron Reynolds and lineal descendants. The father of these Lexington brothers was Otho A. Reynolds, grocer and produce dealer located on the south-west corner of Upper and Vine Sts. (1859-60 and 1864-65 directories).

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

Transcribed by pb, October 2006