Look Up, Lexington! A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky
By Doug Gelbert
()
About this ebook
There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour is ready to explore when you are.
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.
By 1820, before steamboats tamed the Ohio River and drew industry to its banks, Lexington was one of the largest and wealthiest towns west of the Allegheny Mountains. If you wanted to engage in commerce you came to Lexington. If you wanted an education you came to Lexington. If you wanted to keep up with the latest news or borrow a book you came to Lexington.
Early on the growing of hemp used in ropes on sailing ships drove the economy. The tobacco became a cash crop for more than a century. There were local distilleries and in recent years education and technology have been the economic engine. But hovering above it all in Lexington since its founding in 1775 has been horse breeding.
The men from Maryland and Virginia who settled the town rode their best horses over the mountains or floated them on flatboats down the Kentucky River. The first census in 1790 showed more horses in Lexington than people. Kentucky's first races had begun informally three years earlier. An early law in the county was passed that was designed to keep the blood of race horses pure. Stallions were imported from England and Arabia and the breeding of thoroughbreds, trotters and saddle horses came to infuse every aspect of life in Lexington. Today nearly 50,000 horses are bred each year on the Bluegrass Country farms around Lexington.
Lexington has sometimes been called "the city in a park" for all the surrounding horse farms but our walking tour of the historic town will uncover nary a reference to race horses. Even the golden stallion weathervane that once lorded over the city from the top of the Fayette County Courthouse is no longer seen (although it is inside the building) and that is where we will begin our tour...
Read more from Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of The New Orleans French Quarter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Nashville! A Walking Tour of Nashville, Tennessee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, San Diego! A Walking Tour of Balboa Park Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of Williamsburg, Virginia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Look Up, Madison! A Walking Tour of Madison, Wisconsin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Walking Tour of Uniontown, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Long Beach! A Walking Tour of Long Beach, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Miami Beach, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Greensboro, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Aiken, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Georgetown, South Carolina Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Look Up, Savannah! A Walking Tour of Savannah, Georgia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Look Up, Tucson, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Tucson, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Oakland! A Walking Tour of Oakland, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Charleston! A Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina: The Battery Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of Wilmington, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Meadville, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Gettysburg! A Walking Tour of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Bordentown, New Jersey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Boise! A Walking Tour of Boise, Idaho Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Staunton, Virginia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Tampa, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New Bern, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Phoenix, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Phoenix, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of A Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Toledo! A Walking Tour of Toledo, Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of St. Augustine, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Salisbury, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Beaufort, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Look Up, Lexington! A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky
Related ebooks
A Walking Tour of Salisbury, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA New History of Lexington, Kentucky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy I Love Baseball Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Hidden History of Kentucky Soldiers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stone Age: Sixty Years of The Rolling Stones Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife in the Key of Rubini: A Hollywood Child Prodigy and His Wild Adventures in Crime, Music, Sex, Sinatra and Wonder Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSearching for John Hughes: Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know about Life I Learned from '80s Movies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Toward Fargo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Children Act - Top 50 Facts Countdown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJuan Marichal: My Journey from the Dominican Republic to Cooperstown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beatles: The BBC Archives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil War Lexington, Kentucky: Bluegrass Breeding Ground of Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5McLean Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prison From The Inside Out: One Man's Journey From A Life Sentence to Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings'74 and Sunny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPresidential Retreats: Where the Presidents Went and Why They Went There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pasadena in Vintage Postcards Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJoe DiMaggio - The Yankee Clipper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Fighting Irish Stories Ever Told Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTim McCarver's Diamond Gems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSouthside Virginia Chronicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Forty Years in The Big House: Michigan Tales from My Four Decades as a Wolverine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI'll Be Back Right After This: My Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wrigley Field: 100 Stories for 100 Years Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hail Victory: An Oral History of the Washington Redskins Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDown the Up Staircase: Three Generations of a Harlem Family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings10 Lessons I Learned from Gilligan, Mr. Ed and Primetime TV Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTime Has Come Today Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All for the Greed of Gold: Will Woodin's Klondike Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History For You
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win | Summary & Key Takeaways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything American History Book: People, Places, and Events That Shaped Our Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica is the True Old World, Volume II: The Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Napoleon's Hemorrhoids: And Other Small Events That Changed History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hidden Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of Roland S. Martin's White Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Constitution of the United States of America: 1787 (Annotated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft In The American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, & Endurance in Early America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Wall Street: The Wealthy African American Community of the Early 20th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Look Up, Lexington! A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Look Up, Lexington! A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky - Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky
a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com
by Doug Gelbert
published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 by Cruden Bay Books
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
1.
Lexington History Museum
215 West Main Street
This is the fifth courthouse to stand on this site and after so much tinkering with its predecessors it has stood largely unaltered in appearance since 1898. The building is an interpretation of the brawny Richardsonian Romanesque style often favored for important civic buildings of the 1890s. The courthouse features such hallmarks of the style as prominent gables, bold arches and conical towers. On the lawn are commemorative statues of two Lexington natives, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and John Cabell Breckinridge, America’s youngest Vice President. Since 2003 the former courthouse has hosted the Lexington History Museum.
FACING THE COURTHOUSE, THE SKYSCRAPER TO YOUR RIGHT, OVERLOOKING THE SQUARE, IS...
2.
Fayette National Bank
159-67 West Main Street at northeast corner of Upper Street
When the directors of the Fayette Bank, founded in 1870, decided to tear down their 1880s French Second Empire banking house on this corner in 1912 they went to New York City and came back with the greatest architectural firm in America - McKim, Mead and White. The New Yorkers were