N.E. Corner Walnut and Second Sts.
Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Built 1838
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
Rev. Robert Davidson, DD., inaugurated President of Transylvania University in November, 1840, erected this handsome house in 1838. He had just bought "Lot No. 1 of Nicholas Square" from George W. Anderson and wife, Eleanor (Hart). (1838 Dir.: Robt. Davidson, l.s. Constitution St. bn N. Mulberry and Walnut).
Dr. Davidson, son of President Davidson of Dickinson College, had succeeded Rev. John C. Young in 1832 as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington. He was born in Carlisle, Pa., February 23, 1808, and graduated at Princeton. He became widely known as the author of "History of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky."
In 1838 Dr. Davidson was made Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy at Transylvania University. When he was elevated to the presidency, he resigned his pastorate.
The Methodist Church took over Transylvania University in the fall of 1842, and Bishop Henry B. Bascom succeeded Reverend Davidson as president.
Dr. Davidson "and Adeline T., his wife, of Brunswick County, N.J." conveyed the house in 1843 to Mrs. Priscilla W. Brand.
Mrs. Brand in 1848 conveyed the property to her daughter, Elizabeth Higgins, "wife of Richard Higgins, Jr."; her daughter, Mary Brand, and her son, John Brand, Jr., saying she had received it in satisfaction of $2,800 of a debt.
The marriage records show that Richard Higgins, Jr., married Elizabeth B. Brand July 24, 1847, "upon consent of the lady's mother and the gentleman's father."
Mrs. Priscilla W. Brand sold "Lot No. 1 in a plat of 24 building lots known as Nicholas Square" to John P. Morton, of Louisville, Ky., August 14, 1856.
(1864-65 Dir.: Ernest Brennan, Clerk County Court, house n.e.c. Constitution and Walnut Sts.)
Morton and his wife, Harriet, conveyed it twenty years later (October 13, 1886) to Henry C. Brennan, of Lexington.
In 1893, Mary B. Swift, wife of Stephen Swift, purchased it at public auction and they resided there for several years. The house had been sold as the result of a suit of Gabriella Morton, Admx. of Henry C. Brennan, dec'd, vs. Mary B. Swift and her husband, James Brennan and John M. Brennan.
Transcribed by pb June 2004