Abner Gaines House, Walton

The Abner Gaines House in Walton, Kentucky, is the oldest surviving structure in town and one of the finest Federal-style buildings in Northern Kentucky. Abner Gaines came from Virginia in eighteen oh four, became a Boone County justice the following year, and in eighteen thirteen purchased a tavern on the Old Lexington Pike that had served travelers since at least seventeen ninety-five. He replaced it in eighteen fourteen with the brick Federal-style house that still stands, featuring three stairways and ten carved mantels.

Gaines opened a post office inside in eighteen fifteen, and the crossroads was known as Gaines Crossroads for years. He then launched the first stagecoach line between Cincinnati and Lexington, positioning himself at the center of early Kentucky commerce. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in nineteen eighty, the building is now the Gaines Tavern History Center, operated by the City of Walton.