Gabriel Slaughter House, Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky

GABRIEL S. SLAUGHTER (HARVEY MAGUIRE) HOUSE

565 West Short Street, Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky
Built 1835

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

Harvey Maguire, a builder associated with Jesse Bayles, bought the former residence here of James Eades, from the Bank of the United States in 1835 and remodeled it into the present house.

Maguire and wife, Mary Ann, in December, 1843, sold the house, "now occupied by Maguire as a family residence", to Gabriel S. Slaughter, Logan County, apparently a nephew of Governor Gabriel Slaughter.

Slaughter and wife, Eliza, now of Boyle County, Ky., in 1847 sold to Bernard Shiddell, who conveyed the house in 1856 to Mrs. Rosa Klinger.

The history of the house before Mcguire's purchase goes back to December, 1805, when James Eades bought 50 feet here from Wm. Palmateer and 16 feet adjoining from his neighbor, Stephen H. Reed. (1806 Directory: "James Eades, Short St.")

In 1819, James Eades conveyed "the house wherein he now resides" to John Eades and Stephen Chipley, to cover notes they owed the Bank of the United States. A suit was brought by the bank against the trio, and the U.S. Marshall levied "upon the house and lot at that time occupied by James Eades as a family residence, on December 24, 1823." Being Christmas Eve, Eades must have been sadly grieved when he answered the door and found, instead of Santa Claus with a bag, the U.S. Marshall with the sack." The Marshall delayed the "ouster," however, until the following March.

Transcribed by pb, April 2006