THORNTON HOME

328 N. Limestone St., Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky

James Weir, Jr., erected this home adjoining the one he had inherited from his father, at the corner of Limestone and Third Streets. He sold the house and lot, fronting 170 feet on Limestone and extending back to Weir's hemp factory, to Garland B. Hale, of G.B. Hale & Co., composed of Garland B. Hale, William Rodes, and John Macklin, May 2, 1845, for $10,000.

John McCracken acquired the property in 1861, and in 1861, sold it to Dr. Warren Frazer, who had just set up an extensive rope walk on North Broadway.

Dr. Frazer made some changes in the house, adding the wings for offices and erecting the grill-work balconies, popular in that day.

Robert A. Thornton, law partner of Senator James B. Beck and nephew of Senator Beck's wife, a relative of George Washington, bought the home in 1886, and it is usually known and referred to as the Thornton Home.

Mr. Thornton came to Lexington after the war, having left the University of Virginia to serve in the Confederate Army until 1865, when he completed a law course at the Cincinnati Law School. He formed a partnership in 1869 with Gen. John C. Breckinridge, which lasted until the death of that famous soldier and lawyer in 1875. Mr. Thornton married a daughter of General William Preston.

Garland B. Hale (Thornton) Home

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

Transcribed by pb, June 2006