This area was part of Virginia in 1775 when William McConnell and other frontiersmen set up camp. While camped here they received word of the first battle of the American Revolutionary War at Lexington in Massachusetts, so they decided to call their camp Lexington. A fort called Bryan Station was built in 1779 then in 1782 the town of Lexington was established. Although it lost out to Frankfort in 1792 in the race to be capital of the new state of Kentucky, Lexington grew rapidly as the main town of the Bluegrass Region. By 1820 it had become very wealthy courtesy of the tobacco and hemp produced in the area, as well as the breeding and training of high-quality horses. Lexington still likes to be known as the ‘Horse Capital of the World’. We visited in 2010 to find that the World Equestrian Games were in progress making the town very busy and accommodation difficult to find.
Patterson Cabin, 3rd Street
On Broadway at Third Street by Transylvania University stands a cabin built around 1783 which belonged to Colonel Robert Patterson a founder of Lexington. It was Petterson who chose the site of Lexington, he helped to build the fort and drew up the initial plan of the town. In 1784 he campaigned for Kentucky to be separated from Virginia. He left Lexington in 1803 to move to Dayton, Ohio.
Lexington Opera House
Lexington Opera House was built in 1886-7 to replace an 1856 opera house that had been destroyed by fire. It was designed by leading theatrical theatrical architect Oscar Cobb of Chicago and originally seated 1,250 people. It was a very opulent theatre and it even had an early form of cooling, a pipe from a nearby ice factory to bring in ice cold water. The Opera House opened on July 19, 1887 with a concert by the Cincinnati Symphony. On October 1, 1926 the Opera House hosted its last live performance before being converted into a movie house. By the 1960s, it had become run down and plans were afoot to demolish it. Curiously, it was losing its roof in a 1973 gale that saved the Opera House. Surveys showed that the structure was sound and that there was a wealth of theatre architecture hidden behind the movie house modifications. Planners realised that it would be far cheaper to renovate the Opera House than to build afresh. Lexington Opera House reopened for live performances in 1976 and it remains a major venue for theatrical and musical performances.
Hunt-Morgan House, 201 N Mill Street
John Wesley Hunt arrived in Lexington in 1795. Banking, horse breeding, agriculture and hemp manufacturing made him the first millionaire west of the Allegheny Mountains and in 1814 he used his wealth to build a Federal style house named Hopemont. Later it was home to his grandson, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, dubbed the ‘Thunderbolt of the Confederacy’ by southern sympathisers, but the ‘King of the Horse Thieves’ in the north. The house was the birthplace in 1866 of nephew Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan who won a Nobel prize for his work on fruit fly genetics. Saved from demolition in 1955, the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation now runs the Hunt-Morgan House as a house museum with a Civil War museum upstairs. Click Tab 2 to see the dining room.
Lexington
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Peter Paul II & Alexander Moore Houses, Market Street, Gratz Park Historic District
Gratz Park occupies a tract of land that was established in 1781 outside of the original boundaries of Lexington. The park itself was the home of Transylvania University, but around it were built fine houses for wealthy residents of Lexington. The park is named after Benjamin Gratz whose home stands on the corner of Mill and New Streets. Many of these houses are still standing and they now form Gratz Park Historic District. This picture shows two Federal style houses, the Peter Paul II House of 1816 and the 1836 Alexander Moore House.
Transylvania Pavilion, Gratz Park
Lexington is the home of Transylvania University which was founded in 1780 as a Liberal Arts University, focused more on general rather than vocational learning. Originally housed in a log cabin in Boyle County, in 1789 it moved to Gratz Park in Lexington. In 1816 University added to its two single storey buildings a 3 storey building designed by architect Matthew Kennedy. This building burned down in 1829 and the University moved to its present site on the other side of 3rd Street. Transylvania Pavilion is the only building left from the Gratz Park days. It is also known as the Old Kitchen, even though it was actually a classroom. Following the Civil War the University merged with Kentucky University and adopted their name but the Transylvania University name was restored in 1908.
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© Mike Elsden 1981 - 2025
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