MCCAULEY HOUSE

Maxwell and Lexington Avenue, Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1851

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

Concealed today by the church erected flush in front of it, this house, with its beautiful porch, was the first residence built on Maxwell Street from Limestone to Rose Streets.

The architect probably was John McMurtry. It is now a sorority house.

When John McCauley, bagging manufacturer, bought the property June 18, 1850, and built his home there was no side street here, and as he owned five acres, it had an expansive "yard."

The entire south side of Maxwell Street, from Limestone to Rose Streets, had been purchased in 1814 by Luther Stephens and Hallet M. Winslow from John Maxwell, one of the founders of Lexington and owner of the entire section of the city south of Maxwell Street. John Maxwell's home was the only house, besides a log cabin, originally between the present University of Kentucky and High Street.

Stephens and Winslow, together with Major W.S. Dallam, bought and developed vast tracts in and around Lexington. Luther Stephens, upon his death, devised the "five acre lot on Maxwell St." to his granddaughter, Mary Saunders. She and her husband, Wm. G. Ford, sold the five-acre lot here in 1850 to John McCauley.

In 1966, Christ Church Seminary was established here by the Rev. Silas Totten D.D. It was a large and prosperous school for many years (the building is depicted on the 1877 map as the Seminary). Its principal, Dr. Totten, was a man of great learning and high standing in educational ranks. He was born in New York in 1804, was a tutor in Union College for some time after his graduation there, was for three years Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Trinity College at Hartford and then called to its presidency, which he held for more than twelve years. Afterwards he held a professorship in William and Mary College and was President of Iowa State University.

Dr. Totten frequently officiated in Christ Church after he came to Lexington. He died here in 1873, and the Seminary from that time until 1884 was successfully conducted by his daughters. The school was strictly a Church institution.

Transcribed by Pam Brinegar, June 2000