05/06/2026
Owned by since 1998, the restored Samuel Warfield House at 338 N Upper has compelling connections to several of the city’s leading African Americans.
Around 1845, Irish rope manufacturer James Weir built this late Federal-style residence as a speculative venture. His primary, adjoining property lay to the east on N Limestone and faced what is now the Carrick House. Weir sold the new building in 1846 to Samuel Warfield, a literate bricklayer and free African American; he resided there with his wife, Harriet, and their four small children until 1851. Dry goods dealer and cattle rancher Isaac W. Scott then owned the house, selling it in 1864 to William Caldwell, another Black bricklayer. In 1893, Emily O. Warfield, who by then was working as a schoolteacher or domestic laborer, reclaimed her childhood home. When she passed away in 1910, a legal dispute between her heirs and one line of the Caldwell family resulted in the property being exposed to auction.
The Warfield House was then purchased by Fannie Chiles, who had the distinction of being the first librarian for Lexington’s Colored Seventh Day Adventist Church. Her husband, J. A. Chiles, was the second African American to practice law in the city. Recently, he had risen to national prominence for suing the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway over its segregationist seating polices. Although Chiles lost before the Supreme Court, he attained renown as the first Black lawyer to prosecute a case before that body.
In 1914, the Chileses sold the Warfield House to family friend Dr. P. D. Robinson, who had agitated against Kentucky’s Separate Coach Bill twenty years prior. Hailing from Philadelphia, he relocated to Lexington to work as the city’s second Black physician; throughout his career, he advocated for investment in public health initiatives such as the construction of a citywide sewer system. Robinson resided elsewhere on N Upper and likely used the Warfield House as an incoming-generating property. He remained in the city until 1936, when he moved to Kingston, New York, to live with his daughter.
Sources
1850, 1920 federal censuses
1838, 1860, 1867, 1909 city directories
“Chiles, James Alexander,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database
“Furniture Sale,” Lexington Atlas, March 6, 1848
“Another Sale At Auction,” Lexington Weekly Press, November 13, 1850
“They Oppose the Bill,” Weekly Leader, March 24, 1892
“Talk about Town,” Kentucky Leader, October 26, 1893
“House and Lot,” Lexington Leader, January 26, 1910
“Colored Department,” Lexington Leader, June 20, 1915
“Leading Colored Physical Strongly Favors Sewer Bonds,” Lexington Leader, October 25, 1915
“Colored Notes,” Lexington Leader, December 28, 1943
