Jeffferson St. between Short and Second
Sts.,
Lexington, Fayette
County, Kentucky
Built about 1820
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
Robert Wickliffe, Sr., willed this double house to his daughter Mary Howard Preston, and also a double house (now a grocery) north of it. The will said (written January 31, 1857): "Two houses and lots on Jefferson St. at present occupied by Morgan and Fogle, tenants, and also two houses and lots on Jefferson St. adjoining the above lots including the alley on the east" (the latter is the grocery).
John Preston, Jr., and his wife, Mary H., who lived in Louisville, sold this house in 1860 to Chas. T. Conover. Some three years later separate deeds were made the same day by the Prestons, one to Mary O. Conover for the house "now rented to David Martin" and the other to Orville Biggerstaff for the house "now rented by Gabriel Martin."
The old house beyond this (the grocery) was the home of Andrew Jackson Shiddell. Shiddell had a long flowing beard, the result of an election bet with himself. He declared he would not shave until John C. Breckinridge was elected President.
Shiddell experimented with rat breeding and "Believe It or Not" produced tailless rats, which attracted national attention at the time.
Transcribed by pb June 2004