Noah McClelland Home, Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky

NOAH MCCLELLAND HOME

248 Market St., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1850s

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

John Anderson, who already owned property along the block opposite Transylvania University, bought a 50-foot lot here July 10, 1838, from A.O. Newton.

Newton had purchased from Henry H. Timberlake, whose wife, Mary S. was sole heiress of James W. Brand, partner of Matthew Kennedy. The executors of Thos. Hart, Jr., had sold the lot to Kennedy & Brand on Washington's birthday, 1812, when all the lots from Second to Third Streets were purchased at the sale. It fronted 50 feet on Market Street and extended back to "Cherry Alley."

The first deed-book records of the house here followed a court action in September, 1857, whereby Mrs. Sarah Sanders purchased the "house and lot upon which Noah McClelland formerly lived." When the deed finally was about to be made, "it was suggested to the court" that Mrs. Sanders had died and that the deed should be made to her daughter, Sarah W. Sanders, which was done. It described the property as "all that house and lot opposite College Lawn on which Rev. J.H. Morrison was residing at the time of said sale." Reverend Morrison, of Pemberton, Va., was rector of the Episcopal Church from 1857 to 1861.

D.A. Sayre bought the house in 1860 and sold it to Dr. Stoddard Driggs in 1862. Judge Hugh Payne lived here during the latter part of the war, succeeding Dr. Driggs.

Dr. Driggs sold it to James E. Polk, of New York City, in 1866, the house still being known as "the former residence of Noah McClelland."

R.T. and J.E. Anderson bought the property in 1879. The stone steps and iron railing lend a charming "old-timey appearance to the house.

The house next south occupies the site of a frame house of Matthew Kennedy's that was being used by Transylvania University as a grammar school when it burned in 1820. The local press carried a lengthy account of the fire. Kennedy sold the lot in 1837 to Dr. Robert Peter, who also owned the corner lot--known as "Dr. Peter's garden" for more than 30 years.

Transcribed by pb, April 2006