Established | October 2003 |
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Dissolved | July 2012 |
Location | 215 West Main Street Lexington, Kentucky, United States |
Coordinates | 38°02′52″N84°29′52″W / 38.047732°N 84.497751°W |
Type | History museum |
The Lexington History Center once housed several independent history museums in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. It was located in the former Fayette County Courthouse until 2012 when the city closed the building for renovation. [1] Prior to the closing of the building, the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum moved to a new location on Georgetown Street. The building has since been renovated into a multi-use commercial, tourist, office and event center.
The building was opened as a museum center in October 2003 under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Lexington-Fayette Urban-County Government (Lexington, Ky.) and the Commonwealth of Kentucky that stipulated the municipal government would spend a "minimum $1,000,000" to renovate the Old Fayette County Courthouse as the Lexington History Museum—an amount that was never fulfilled. After evicting the Museums (see below) from the building, the city has committed to spending $30 million to renovate the building for commercial space.
The Lexington History Center was formerly host to several museums:
Lexington is the second-most-populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the 60th-most populous city in the United States. It is the county seat of Fayette County. By land area, it is the country's 30th-largest city.
Paris is a home rule-class city in Bourbon County, Kentucky the county seat. It lies 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Lexington on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River. It is part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2020, it had a population of 10,171.
The Kentucky Theatre is a historic cinema in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, United States, that first opened in October 1922. The building is currently owned by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government and leased to a non-profit that shows films and hosts concerts and events. The theater's schedule emphasizes foreign, independent, and art films, although more typical Hollywood movies are occasionally shown, as well. It is one of a few remaining movie palaces in the United States.
The International Peace Museum is a non-profit, peace museum located on historic Courthouse Square in downtown Dayton, Ohio, United States. The museum's mission is to promote, through education and collaboration, a more equitable, civil, and peaceful world. Its programs and exhibits are non-partisan, secular, and feature themes of conflict resolution, equity, social justice, tolerance, and protecting our natural world. It commemorates the 1995 Dayton Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia. It is "America's only brick-and-mortar peace museum."
Lafayette High School is a public high school in Lexington, Kentucky that has been open for 84 years, seen the beginning of racially-desegregated education in the city, and been overseen by eight principals.
The urban development patterns of Lexington, Kentucky, confined within an urban growth boundary that protects its famed horse farms, include greenbelts and expanses of land between it and the surrounding towns. This has been done to preserve the region's horse farms and the unique Bluegrass landscape, which bring millions of dollars to the city through the horse industry and tourism. Urban growth is also tightly restricted in the adjacent counties, with the exception of Jessamine County, with development only allowed inside existing city limits. In order to prevent rural subdivisions and large homes on expansive lots from consuming the Bluegrass landscape, Fayette and all surrounding counties have minimum lot size requirements, which range from 10 acres (40,000 m2) in Jessamine to fifty in Fayette.
Jim Newberry was mayor of Lexington, Kentucky from December 31, 2006, until January 2, 2011. He defeated incumbent mayor Teresa Isaac by the largest vote margin in the history of Lexington-Fayette's merged "Urban County" government. This was also the first time in Lexington-Fayette history that a challenger had defeated a sitting mayor.
Constitution Square Historic Site is a 3-acre (0.012 km2) park and open-air museum in Danville, Kentucky. From 1937 to 2012, it was a part of the Kentucky state park system and operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks. When dedicated in 1942, it was known as John G. Weisiger Memorial State Park, honoring the brother of Emma Weisiger, who donated the land for the park. Later, it was known as Constitution Square State Shrine and then Constitution Square State Historic Site. On March 6, 2012, the Department of Parks ceded control of the site to the county government of Boyle County, Kentucky, and its name was then changed to Constitution Square Historic Site.
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.
African Cemetery No. 2, also known as The Cemetery of the Union Benevolent Society No. 2, is a historic burial site located in Lexington, Kentucky, United States.
The Baltimore City Circuit Courthouses are state judicial facilities located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. They face each other in the 100 block of North Calvert Street, between East Lexington Street on the north and East Fayette Street on the south across from the Battle Monument Square (1815-1822), which held the original site of the first colonial era courthouse for Baltimore County and Town, after moving the Baltimore County seat in 1767 to the burgeoning port town on the Patapsco River established in 1729-1730.
21c Museum Hotels is a contemporary art museum and boutique hotel chain based in Louisville, Kentucky. The chain also has locations in Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Bentonville, Arkansas; Durham, North Carolina; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri;. Each of these eight properties comprises a boutique hotel, a contemporary art museum, and a restaurant. It was acquired by the French hotel group Accor in July 2018 for $51 million.
James P. Gray II is an American politician who is the Kentucky Secretary of Transportation in the administration of Governor Andy Beshear. He is the former mayor of Lexington, Kentucky from 2011 to 2019. Gray served as the city's vice-mayor from 2006 to 2010 before being elected mayor in November 2010. Gray won re-election to another four-year term on November 4, 2014. In 2016, he ran for the United States Senate seat held by U.S. Senator Rand Paul. Gray won the May 17 Democratic primary with nearly 60% of the vote but lost the November 8 general election to Paul. Gray was Chairman and CEO of Gray Construction, an engineering, design, and construction company headquartered in Lexington. Once elected, he took an advisory role as Chair of the Board of Directors to focus on his role as mayor.
The following is a timeline of the history of Lexington, Kentucky, United States.
The Fayette National Bank Building, also known as the First National Bank Building or 21C Museum Hotel Lexington, is a historic 15-story high-rise in Lexington, Kentucky. The building was designed by the prominent architecture firm McKim, Mead & White and built by the George A. Fuller Company from 1913 to 1914. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 27, 1980.
The Lexington Opera House is a theatre located at 401 West Short Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. Built in 1886, the Opera House replaced the former theatre, located on the corner of Main and Broadway, after fire destroyed it in January 1886. The new Opera House was designed by the renowned architect Oscar Cobb and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its historical and architectural significance. It is currently owned and operated by the Lexington Center Corporation, and it hosts ballets, opera, children's productions, family shows, comedy, music and professional national Broadway tours. The Lexington Opera House is one of 14 theatres in the country built before 1900 with less than 1,000 seats that is still in operation as a live performance venue.
The Carnegie Library in Lexington, Kentucky was built in 1905 and served as Lexington's main library until 1989. It is now home of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. It is one of 29 sites on a National Park Service-recommended list of places to visit in Lexington, "Lexington, Kentucky: Athens of the West, a National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary.
The Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center is a nonprofit, city-owned, multi-use arts and performance venue located at the corner of Third Street and Elm Tree Lane in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Opened in 1948 as a cultural hub of Lexington's segregated African-American community, the Lyric closed in 1963 and remained in disrepair for almost 50 years. Planning for this renovation began in the 1990s. In 2010, the Urban County Council of Lexington allotted $6 million to revive and reopen the theater under a new mission as a center for art, community, history, and education. The renovated building seats 540 in its proscenium theater and now includes an African-American culture museum, rotating gallery, courtyard, and 325-capacity multi-purpose room. The Lyric hosts arts performances, rental events, luncheons, movie viewings, youth programs, and other events.
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."