John C. Breckinridge Memorial | |
Location | Lexington, Kentucky |
---|---|
Built | 1887 |
Architect | Henry-Bonnard Broze Co., NY |
MPS | Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS |
NRHP reference No. | 97000705 [1] |
Added to NRHP | July 17, 1997 |
The John C. Breckinridge Memorial, originally on the courthouse lawn of Lexington, Kentucky, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. It commemorates John C. Breckinridge, who was born and died in Lexington. He was Vice President for James Buchanan and ran against Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 United States presidential election, winning nine Southern states. He served in the Confederate States Army, and was the last Confederate States Secretary of War, fleeing the country after the South lost.
The memorial was prepared by New York's Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company. The pedestal is made of granite, with the statue cast in bronze. Breckinridge is seen standing contraposto. [2] The state government of Kentucky funded the construction of the monument.
Breckinridge's memorial was built in 1887, 24 years before the John Hunt Morgan Memorial, also on the courthouse lawn and part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS.
The statues had stood on Main Street on the same plot of ground where slave auctions were held before the Civil War. [3]
In 2010, the monument was moved about 50 feet to a new location facing Main Street. This was done as part of the Cheapside pavilion construction project. [4] The Old Fayette County Courthouse was renovated and reopened in 2018 to serve as a tourism, entertainment, and office hub. [5]
In November 2015, a committee, the Urban County Arts Review Board, voted to recommend removal of both the Breckinridge statue and the Morgan statue. [6] In February 2016 Lexington mayor Jim Gray announced the statues would stay, but later advocated to remove them after receiving pressure from local grassroots organizing. The monuments were removed October 17, 2017. [7] In November 2017, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council approved an agreement to relocate the Breckinridge and Morgan statues to the Lexington Cemetery. [8] The relocation was completed in July 2018. [9] An endowment, funded by private donations, covered the cost of removal, and will pay for future maintenance and security. [10] The Breckinridge statue was placed in his family's burial area in Section G. Morgan's statue was placed in the Confederate section of the cemetery. [3]
The John Hunt Morgan Memorial in Lexington, Kentucky, is a monument created during the Jim Crow era, as a tribute to Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, who was from Lexington and is buried in Lexington Cemetery. The monument was originally situated on the Courthouse Lawn at the junction of North Upper and East Main Street, but was moved to Lexington Cemetery in 2018.
The Ladies' Confederate Memorial is an American Civil War monument erected in 1874 in Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. Unlike most Confederate monuments in Kentucky, it represents grief rather than Southern patriotism.
The John B. Castleman Monument, within the Cherokee Triangle of Louisville, Kentucky, was unveiled on November 8, 1913. The model, selected from a competition to which numerous sculptors contributed, was designed by R. Hinton Perry of New York. The statue was erected to honor John Breckinridge Castleman at a cost of $15,000 by popular subscription from city, state, and other commonwealths. The statue is made of bronze, and rests on a granite pedestal. It stands 15-feet high, with a base of 12×20 feet. The monument was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 17, 1997, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. There have been attempts to remove the statue since January 2019 because Castleman was a Major of the Confederate army. The monument was removed on June 8, 2020, and is pending cleaning and relocation to Castleman's burial site.
The Confederate Monument in Cynthiana is located on the outer edge of Cynthiana, Kentucky in Battle Grove Cemetery. It was the first monument to the Confederate States of America dedicated in the State of Kentucky, and long believed to be the first Confederate memorial anywhere. Due to the 32nd Indiana Monument having been moved from its original location, the Cynthiana monument is the oldest Civil War monument still standing at its original location, where the second Battle of Cynthiana started, in the then-new town cemetery.
The Confederate-Union Veterans' Monument in front of the Butler County Courthouse in Morgantown, Kentucky, was built in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War, which helped alleviate the bitterness both sides felt toward the other when it was dedicated to the sacrifice of veterans of both sides of the Civil War. It is one of only two monuments in Kentucky that reveres both sides, instead of only one, and funds to build it came from both sides. Butler County had mixed loyalties in the War, with both sides well supported by the county.
The Confederate Monument in Danville, originally located between Centre College and the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Main and College Streets in Danville, Kentucky, was a monument dedicated to the Confederate States of America that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The monument was dedicated in 1910 by the surviving veterans of the Confederacy of Boyle County, Kentucky and the Kate Morrison Breckinridge Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). In 2021, it was relocated to a museum in Meade County, Kentucky.
Lexington, Kentucky was a city of importance during the American Civil War, with notable residents participating on both sides of the conflict. These included John C. Breckinridge, Confederate generals John Hunt Morgan and Basil W. Duke, and the Todd family, who mostly served the Confederacy although one, Mary Todd Lincoln, was the first lady of the United States, wife of President Abraham Lincoln.
The Confederate Monument in Murray is a statue located in the northeast corner of the Calloway County Courthouse in Murray, Kentucky. It commemorates the 800 citizens of the county who served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and is one of several Confederate monuments in Kentucky featuring Robert E. Lee. There is another one in Bardstown KY. Despite recent controversy, the Calloway County Fiscal Court voted to keep the statue on its grounds in July 2020.
The Confederate Monument in Owensboro, Ky., was a 16-foot-tall, two-part object — a 7-foot-tall bronze sculpture atop a 9-foot-tall granite pedestal — located at the southwest corner of the Daviess County Courthouse lawn, at the intersection of Third and Frederica Streets, in Owensboro, Kentucky. Nearly 122 years after the monument was dedicated in September 1900, the monument was dismantled in 2022, beginning with the removal of the sculpture in May 2022; the sculpture was placed in storage, pending a decision on what to do with it.
The Confederate Memorial in Nicholasville is a historic statue created in the Jim Crow era and located on the Jessamine County courthouse lawn in Nicholasville, Kentucky, ten miles south of Lexington, Kentucky.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Fayette County, Kentucky.
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
There are more than 160 Confederate monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures that have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five of which have been since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
The Confederate Soldier Memorial, or Confederate Monument, is located in the Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
Henry A. Tandy was an American building contractor and entrepreneur, specializing in decorative stone masonry and brickwork. Of African-American descent, he was born enslaved in Estill County, Kentucky, and rose to become one of the wealthiest African Americans in Kentucky by the early twentieth century. His best-known commission is the historic Fayette County Courthouse in Lexington, Kentucky (1898–1900). In 2020, the downtown Cheapside Park, which is adjacent to the courthouse, was renamed the Henry A. Tandy Centennial Park in his honor.
The Old Fayette County Courthouse (Kentucky) is a mixed-use commercial and civic office building located at 215 West Main Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, USA. It was originally built in 1898–1900 and designed by Cleveland-based architects Lehman & Schmitt, the fifth structure to be used as the Fayette County Courthouse. The building now contains civic offices, event spaces, and commercial retail space. It has been called the "most iconic building in Lexington."
Media related to John Cabell Breckinridge Memorial at Wikimedia Commons