JHT Purchased The Pawling House

The James Harrod Trust recently purchased the Pawling House and has plan to make restorations to save this important, historic structure. Below is a "This Place Matters" article written by James Harrod Trust's very own historian, Amalie Preston.

This Place Matters
The Pawling House

   

The Pawling House
September 6, 2013

The brick house at the northeast corner of College and Factory Streets has been a fixture in Harrodsburg for a long time.  It was constructed on in-lot # 130 in the original town plat sometime before 1828.  We know this because on 4 September 1828 Dr. William Robertson made a deed for the property to William Pawling for a certain parcel of ground “on which the said Pawling’s brick residence is now erected.”  This was in the day when a man’s word was as good as his bond, and Pawling had apparently built his home without benefit of a legal deed to the property!  Dr. William Pawling may have practiced his profession at the house.  Among the personal property he mortgaged in 1831 are his medical library, medicines, and shop furniture.  After several years of financial struggle, perhaps brought on by the nation’s economic downturn in the 1820s, Dr. Pawling sold the property and moved to Danville where he continued to practice medicine until his death in 1872.   

The house was and is a fine home, built with a central hallway flanked by parlors on either side.  As with the better homes of the day, the front is laid in Flemish Bond with every course of brick alternating headers and stretchers, and it sports an impressive array of five chimneys.  The house shared the street with other great homes such as the Christopher Chinn House and with businesses such as the cotton carding and spinning factory, a carriage shop, and even a “racepath” for horse racing in downtown Harrodsburg.  Factory Street took its name from these industries.

In its 185 years of existence, the house has changed hands many times rarely staying with one owner longer than fifteen years.  This rapid turnover with use as rental property has been a major contributing factor to the present condition of the house.  The James Harrod Trust is the 31^st owner of the Pawling House.  Its architecture, its connection to the early history of Harrodsburg, and its role as a visual anchor in the historical vista of Factory Street make this an important structure.

THIS PLACE MATTERS!   

*Author & Researcher: Amalie Preston