190 Market Street

The Ridgely House is the oldest house around the park.  Built about 1794, the house has archaic architectural features not seen in this region after 1817, such as a molded brick water table one foot above the basement and a belt course of projecting bricks between the first and second floors.  Among its many occupants were its builder Dr. Frederick Ridgely, who delivered the first medical lectures in the West at Transylvania; Dr. Elisha Warfield, his colleague, who bought the house in 1806; John Wesley Hunt, who built Hopemont at 201 North Mill Street in 1814; and Mary Todd, President Lincoln’s wife, who attended Ward’s Academy here in 1831.