The Historic Stafford House

The Historic Stafford House The Stafford House was built circa 1843, making it the oldest standing home in Paintsville. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Francis M. Stafford House is a historic house located at 102 Broadway, Paintsville, Kentucky, United States. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places not only for its architecture, but for its family's importance in the founding and development of Paintsville. In 1843, John Stafford, the original owner of the house, helped establish the city of Paintsville. In the 1930s,

the Stafford family sold most of their 1,000 acres (400 ha) farm to the city, doubling the town's size. The rear part of the home was built circa 1843, making it the oldest house in Johnson County. Although the home was originally built for John Stafford, it is named for his son, Francis Stafford, who accumulated his father's property after he died in 1869. Francis would later be responsible for building the main part of the home in 1888. At one time, the Stafford farm included several other buildings, among which were a smokehouse, a store house, a coal house, several barns, a corn crib and a grist mill, which was located below the home on Paint Creek. Since 1979, after the death of May Stafford, the daughter of Francis M. Stafford, the house has remained vacant. For more information contact Paintsville Tourism at 606-297-1469 or the City of Paintsville at 606-789-2600.

03/20/2023
Painting it again for the first time in many years- 1991
01/12/2022

Painting it again for the first time in many years- 1991

01/11/2022

Written by Virginia Caudill:
As a young man, my great grandfather worked hard doing various jobs, including taking rafts of timber to Cattlettsburg and then he would walk back to save a dollar on riding the Steamboat! By the time he was twenty, he had saved up $2,000. and began buying all this land from his brothers and sisters. He kept on until he had bought it all. Besides rafting, he took cattle, calves and hogs on the steamboat to the stock market in Cincinnati, and was the first man in the country to deal in oil leases, and interested oil men in Pennsylvania to come to Paintsville in the oil business. He was very strong on education. He wanted his girls to be teachers and four of them were: Carrie, Edna, Dora, May. When they were trying to get Morehead College here, he offered to give them 40 acres in the middle of Stafford Addition for the school. But, politics kept it from coming. The committee said it was a very desirable location, but the politicians pulled it to Morehead. The Stafford house was part of a big farm. F.M. and Marietta Lavendar Stafford owned all of Stafford Addition, about a hundred acres of bottom land and seven hill tracts reaching to Hager Hill, all of Bridgefort, Blackberry and Southside up to Jennys Creek Hill. The home place included the land all around the home and down to the Mill Branch Road, as well as the hill behind the house, where the family cemetery is located. There were a number of buildings surrounding the house, including a barn, corn crib, coal house and storehouse, where all the supplies such as bags of flour, coffee, sugar and etc. were kept. There was a separate smokehouse, where all the hams were cured. When Stafford addition was just a field, great grandfather raised wheat, corn and had about three hundred cows grazing in the field, during the summers. When the bottom was in wheat, the threshing machines would come, along with crowds of workers, to harvest the crop. The Holly tree that still grows in the front yard was planted the first year of the Civil war! Virginia Caudill

Memories from past activities
01/11/2022

Memories from past activities

Reposting as there is an effort to help restore the cemetery
01/11/2022

Reposting as there is an effort to help restore the cemetery

Images from the Stafford Family grave that sits above the hill behind the house.

01/11/2022

We appreciate the interest of Paintsville Tourism and local volunteers in the preservation of this structure!

11/27/2019
11/14/2019
11/14/2019

Join us in showcasing Mrs. Sandy Salyers and her beautiful workmanship!

One like this sat at the Stafford House. It is an original from Big Sandy Hardware.
10/25/2019

One like this sat at the Stafford House. It is an original from Big Sandy Hardware.

Pumpkins for Punkins!
10/23/2019

Pumpkins for Punkins!

Address

102 Broadway Street
Paintsville, KY
41240

Telephone

+16062971469

Website

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