At 7:00 pm (EST) on Monday, August 31, 2026, an online auction for a late 19th century brick house in Lexington, Kentucky, will end. As of a few minutes ago, the current high bid was $26,000. The dwelling, one of four, identical, 2.5-story houses with Richardsonian Romanesque detailing, suffered damage from a fire in November 2025. I can’t speak to the condition of the house, but as a solid masonry building, restoring the house should not be an insurmountable task.
Facade of 229 Rand Avenue, August 2026. Prior to 1904, it was 45 Rand Avenue.
In March of 1897, the Daily Leader reported that “Mr. and Mrs. George R. Warren have gone to housekeeping in a cosy home at 45 Rand Avenue.” Warren, head mailing clerk for the Lexington post office at the time, would later serve as postmaster.
Detail of the facade.
The house was likely built by contractor Joseph Coyle, a native of Madison County. Coyle, a “well-known architect, contractor and builder” was responsible for most of the houses on Rand Avenue, including his own residence at 47 Rand Avenue (now 233 Rand Avenue), a “fine two-story brick of twelve rooms.”
An 1895 rendering of Joseph Coyle.
The development of this block of Rand Avenue can be traced to an enterprising Methodist pastor, Reverend Edward L. Southgate. In 1891, he purchased a 12-acre tract between East Fifth and East Sixth Streets, near the spacious grounds of the Duncan House.
From the April 8, 1892 edition of the Kentucky Leader.
This new development offered “unequaled advantages for homes,” with “charming views” and “sites fit for palaces.” Many houses were speculatively built for prospective investors, and in a range of materials and sizes. Several of the houses on the street were intended as income-earning, with tenants from a variety of backgrounds and occupations. While Rand Avenue was predominantly of brick construction, Engman Avenue consisted of frame houses.
Section of the 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance map; blue arrow denotes the location of 229 Rand Avenue.
Coyle, a successful contractor with 35 employees and numerous buildings under construction, lived with his in-laws at 47 Rand Avenue, and the dwelling operated as family home and a boarding house.
Joseph Coyle’s own domicile on Rand Avenue.
By 1911, the house at 229 Rand Avenue was serving as the parsonage for nearby Epworth Church, a role it fulfilled until 1943. After the church sold the house, it was owner-occupied with rooms occasionally let for rent, a much more common practice in the mid-20th century than today.
A detail of the side elevation, showing the corbelling of the chimneystacks.
Rand Avenue has been undergoing a transformation over the last 20 years, as developers, investors, and flippers have changed the face of the neighborhood. While I love the overblown prose of the ads hawking the Epworth development in the 1890s, I think it’s telling that these same ads note that “every one can be suited, wage earner or millionaire.”
I hope that this house and its architectural integrity are saved, and I also hope that will not be priced beyond the means of everyday residents. Lexington suffers from a lack of affordable housing, and this walkable, close-to-downtown neighborhood has historically been home to people from all walks of life. We need more neighborhoods like it.
