Bill and Sally Johnston built their house at 645 West Short Street in 1986, so it is a relative newcomer to Lexington's Historic Western Suburb, where many structures date from the early 1800s. Painted a rich green with red trim, this contemporary structure nestles comfortably among its elderly neighbors as a testament to the successful blending of traditional and contemporary living spaces.
The Johnstons have lived downtown since 1972. Before that, they were typical suburbanites. "Nobody we knew lived downtown," said Sally, but after the couple attended the first annual Northside Home Tour at the invitation of a friend, they fell in love with the architecture and the feel of city living. At first they tried to produce the same feeling by building a brick patio in back of their home on Vernon Drive. It didn't work. The following Christmas, while on a drive back from visiting relatives in Cleveland, they talked it over and agreed to look for downtown property.
"We've pretty much always done things on the spur of the moment," said Sally, and by January they'd bought a house at 415 West Third Street. It was April before they could move in, however, and in that three-month interval, Bill said he had a large dose of buyer's regret. He dreamed of fences and barbed wire in the front yard, and he told the realtor that Sally most assuredly would not enjoy hearing about the house's purported ghosts. Once they made the move, however, everything worked out fine. "Sometimes you overthink and don't make decisions that work any better," Bill said.
At the time of the move, the couple's children, Erin and Scott, were ages 6 and 4, and the entire family embraced the history and culture of the city. Sally, an avid reader of home decorating magazines, found an article about a house in Savannah with interiors of deep, rich color, and she set about creating a similar setting on Third Street. The years passed, the kids grew up and went off to college, and Sally began to get restless. Although she loved the house, she admits to being in love with "all kinds of houses," and she wanted to try something new.
Bill wasn't so sure, but he remembers well the day they decided to take the plunge. It was March 29, 1983, the 23rd anniversary of the day they met, and they were on their way home from a play in Louisville when they decided it was time to look for an empty lot. The idea was to build a brand new house in the middle of the city, and the following week, they found just the spot on Short Street. Once again, said Sally, "we bought on a whim.
In sharp contrast to their late-19th century house on Third