Tag: Fayette

The First Successful Leg Amputation Surgery. In Kentucky

Throughout the Commonwealth, roadside historic markers dot the landscape in both our cities and rural areas like. On this website, I have often profiled some significant (and not so significant) historic markers. Regardless of their recognition or renown, each represents an interesting piece of the Kentucky story. Each Monday, I will profile a different distort marker in a new series called #MarkerMonday.

“Success Surgery” – Bardstown, Ky.

Near the old courthouse in downtown Bardstown, stands a historic marker of medical significance. Fred was in this community, in 1806, that Dr. Walter Brashear performed the first successful imputation of the leg (hip joint down). Marker #1282 reads:

The first successful amputation of a leg at the hip joint in US. Done here by Dr. Walter Brashear in 1806 without any precedent to guide him. The patient was a seventeen-year-old boy whose leg had been badly mangled. Dr. Brashear was born in 1776, came to Kentucky, 1784, and studied medicine under Dr. Frederick Ridgely of Lexington. He died in 1860.

Ridgely House – Lexington, Ky.

The reference to Dr. Ridgely should not go unnoticed for Lexington history enthusiasts, for his house still stands at 190 Market St. in Gratz Park.

And as for Dr. Brashear, he was married to Margaret Barr of Lexington in 1802. After the succesful surgery, he continued to practice medicine until 1822. Then, he moved his family and slaves to Louisiana where he developed his sugar plantations.

It is peculiar to note that some records identify Dr. Brashear a United States Senator from Louisiana, though official biographies of members of Congress are silent on the matter

Last Week’s #ThrowbackThursday a Clue to this Week’s Blue Grass Trust deTour of First African Baptist Church

Last Week’s #TBT Photo

The Streetsweeper successfully guessed that a connection might lie between last week’s #TBT post and this week’s Blue Grass Trust deTour of the First African Baptist Church.

I had significantly cropped the contest photo, displayed above, from the original. In so doing, I actually masked the church from view. In the foreground is a Sunday School class from what was known in its day as the First Baptist Church (Colored) while the background showed the streetscape of Short Street ca. 1911 looking west from Deweese Street. At the time it was highly residential and quite different from its present form.

The uncropped photo follows after the jump.

1911 Photo of First African Baptist Church Sunday School – Lexington, Ky.
Photo: University of Kentucky.

The uncropped photo also shows the church as it originally appeared, prior to the 1926 Collegiate Tudor addition.

Further back in history, this congregation was the largest in the Commonwealth. The church acquired the property in 1833 and the extant structure was erected in 1856. But the congregation itself traces its roots back to 1790 and its first minister, Peter Durrett.

To learn more about this beautiful piece of Lexington’s East End history (and how you can help preserve her), join the Blue Grass Trust deTour tomorrow evening (that’s Wednesday at 5:30). More details are available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bgtdetours/events.

Also, be sure to check out Merlene Davis’ column which appeared in today’s Lexington Herald-Leader, “Efforts continue to purchase Lexington’s historic First African Baptist Church.”

Eleven Pocket Museums Tell Pieces of Lexington’s History

After the judiciary left the historic Main Street courthouse in favor of more spacious facilities on South Limestone, the 1898 courthouse was transformed into the Lexington History Museum. Nearly a decade later, the courthouse was shuttered by the city due to various public safety concerns. Efforts remain underway to restore the historic facility with The Courthouse Square Foundation leading the charge.

But for the Lexington History Museum, a change was needed to ensure that they could continue sharing the history of Lexington with the community. A return to the historic courthouse would be ideal, but that vision is years away from realization and a generation of our history would be lost on young Lexingtonians in the meanwhile.

Tribute to Dr. Clark in the Congressional
Record, signed by Sen. McConnell

So the idea to create pocket museums – small displays with rotating content in various locations was born. In time for the Fourth of July holiday last month, the LHM began phase one of the pocket museum program with locations at Victorian Square, the library, the government center, banks, and more. The current eleven topics include Belle Brezing, Dr. Thomas Clark, hotels of Lexington, and Prohibition.

I ventured into the Lexington Public Library recently where I found Pocket Museums on Prohibition in Lexington and Dr. Thomas D. Clark. On the former, a number of local bourbon bottles were available leaving the evidence of the variety of distillers once in the area. Explanation of the Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment laid the groundwork for a “pocket” understanding of the era and its impact on Lexington.

The “pocket museum” on Dr. Thomas Clark told the story of the now-deceased historian who told Kentucky’s history better than any other. Originally from Mississippi, Dr. Clark was also influential in the foundation of the Lexington History Museum. 

All of the current Pocket Museums are downtown and it is definitely worth exploring.

More information about the Pocket Museums can be found on the website of the Lexington History Museum, lexhistory.org.

Short and Upper Streets, ca. 1898

A number of people recognized last week’s #ThrowbackThursday as being at the corner of Lexington’s Short and Upper Streets. Cropped from the original picture were St. Paul’s Catholic Church and Cheapside, as I figured those made for too easy of clues.

Still, many recognized the long gone parapet atop the extant Northern Bank Building (home of Parlay Social).

Also remaining on the blog between Market and Upper is the old First National Bank building with its iconic arched entryway at 215 West Short.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s #Throwback Thursday!

The George H. Bowman House is Gone but Not Forgotten

Bowman House - Lexington, Ky.
Bowman House – Lexington, Ky.

Earlier this spring, I spotted a sign in front of 4145 Harrodsburg Road indicating that a zoning request for the parcel would be from R-1D to R-1T. I rode onto the property, site of an abandoned home, to investigate further.

As it turns out, the residence was the George H. Bowman House, a ca. 1860 Greek Gothic Revival according to the Kentucky Historic Resources Survey conducted on the property in 1979.

Site Layout of Bowman House
Layout of Bowman House (Source: Resources Inventory)

Property owners, according to early county maps, identify the owner in 1891 as John McMeekin who was the son of Jeremiah McMeekin. The elder was a butcher who had purchased Helm Place in 1873.

The owner in 1871 was J. S. Burrier, originally of Jessamine County, who acquired the home and 165 acres that year. He was married to Alice Craig, daughter of Lewis and Martha (Bryant) Craig.

It is believed that George H. Bowman constructed this house ca. 1860, though he remained only a few years. After inheriting Helm Place from his father, pioneer Abraham Bowman, George H. was forced to sell much of his inheritance to satisfy a gambling debt.

A. J. Reed took advantage of the younger Bowman’s misfortune and acquired the Helm Place property in 1859. It is believed that our subject house was built for George’s occupancy after the liquidation of Helm Place. Within the decade, George H. Bowman had passed away and his children divided and sold their father’s property.

Back to the present. The zoning change mentioned permitted the demolition of the Bowman House and the erection of four townhouse units in its place. It is worth noting, however, that the data relied on in the Map Amendment Request (MAR) included inaccurate data from the Fayette County PVA office.

The existing house was build in 1940, according to PVA records. Unfortunately, since the grant of the previous zone change (and prior to the purchase by the applicant) the house has fallen into a state of disrepair. There are structural issues relating to the foundation. Also contents and mechanical systems of the house have been torn out by unknown persons. Exterior decay issues are present. For all these reasons, it is impossible to preserve the house. (MARV 2013-3 Amd.pdf)

Interior of Bowman House
Interior of Bowman House. Impossible to repair?

I truly doubt that preservation was an impossibility. Impracticable, perhaps. But not impossible. Several additional references existed in the MAR to the “1940 house.”

I have heard that the sitting PVA has plans to update historical property data to correct errors such as the one that may or may not have altered the decisions surrounding the Bowman House. In either event, this is a worthy cause and would be an excellent step forward by the Property Value Administrator and his staff.

I was glad to have snapped these pictures before the old Bowman House was demolished. (I’m assuming demolition has occurred – any updates to the project?)

Inactive Fourth Street Church has Multiple Denominations in its History

St. Andrews Episcopal Mission Church – Lexington, Ky.

A carriage factory on West Fourth Street served as a house of worship for Lexington’s black population from the time Br. Thomas Phillips and his former master, John Brand, opened the Antioch Christian Church in April 1851. Brother Phillips departed this world in 1859, but his congregation continued to grow. In 1874, the old carriage factory was torn down and the congregation built a structure of its own.

One of the most impressive church buildings built for Lexington’s black community immediately following the Civil War, the structure was a simple brick three-bay church with a simple rose window above the inscription, “… the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26, KJV)

In only a few short years, though, the Antioch (Colored) Christian Church found it necessary to find larger quarters and they relocated to a newly constructed church on Second Street. Thereafter, that church would move again (to Constitution Avenue) but would remain known as the (East) Second Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The old Fourth Street house of worship would not remain empty for long. Thomas Underwood Dudley, the second Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, sought to expand the reach of his Episcopal Church. Overcoming many racist, segregationist views as well as the ghost of his own past as a Confederate veteran, Bishop Dudley pursued an integrated church: “God hath made of one blood all nations of men.”

The Episcopal diocese constructed a new church in the 1950s, but the mission founded by Dudley remained active until that point. Today, the old church structure is inactive and is used by its present owners for storage.

Sources: East Second Street History; NRHP

“Old Blue” Gave Tours at the University of Kentucky in British Style

Passengers Boarding “Old Blue” at the University of Kentucky, ca. 1976. Photo: UKY

In the UK – the United Kingdom that is – the red double decker bus is ubiquitous. In a city the size of London’s it has long been twice as efficient to carry two sets of passengers stacked on top of one another as part of transit planning.

On our side of the pond, we’ve long eschewed the monarchy (though you’d have been hard pressed to know it yesterday with the birth of the new prince) as well as the double-decker bus and the cabby.

The 1953 model double-decker, however, found popularity in a different UK years ago. The University of Kentucky, that is.

And “Old Blue” is the answer to last week’s #ThrowbackThursday.

Owned by the Alumni Association, the double-decker with signage guiding passengers to the Picadilly Circus actually transported campus visitors around campus and alumni to home football games.

Of course, when the bus was acquired in 1974 it was stripped of its traditional red hue and replaced with a blue befitting the University of Kentucky. Her maiden voyage through campus was on September 16, 1974.

Whatever happened to Old Blue? Well, an article by Don White reveals the tale but suffice it to say she has been mothballed for the time being in Lawrenceburg.

The winner from last week’s #TBT was none other than the University of Kentucky herself:

A “Most Attractive” Church at Mt. Horeb

Photos of the Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church – Lexington, Ky.

Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church is another of the small country churches that dot the bluegrass landscape. The congregation was founded April 21, 1827, at Cabell’s Dale – the home of Mary Cabell Breckinridge.

Robert Jefferson Breckinridge
Photo: Public Domain

Also born at Cabell’s Dale, albeit twenty seven years earlier in 1800, was Robert J. Breckinridge who would serve as the minister of the Mt. Horeb Church. He would also serve as a minister of great influence at Lexington’s First Presbyterian Church.

A historic marker at the church, no. 1687, reads

This church was organized April 21, 1827, at nearby “Cabell’s Dale,” home of Mary Cabell Breckinridge, widow of John Breckinridge, U.S. Senator and Attorney General in Thomas Jefferson’s cabinet. The original brick church, constructed in 1828 on this site, burned in 1925. Present building of similar design was dedicated in 1926. Presented by Kentucky Breckinridge Committee.

Old Mt. Horeb Church, ca. 1898. Photo: KDL

A photograph of that original ca. 1828 appears above, though it “was struck by lighting Saturday afternoon [June 6, 1925], during a severe electrical storm, and burned to the ground.” The congregation immediately went to setting plans to rebuilt and voted to rebuild eight days later.

Between the time of the fire and the completion of the new church structure, the congregation met first under a tent on the church grounds. As winter set in, the congregation began holding services on November 1, 1925, at the Russell Cave school.

On October 3, 1926, “impressive services … marked the dedication of the new building of historic Mt. Horeb Presbyterian Church, five miles from Lexington. … The edifice [is] a beautiful stone structure, described as one of the most attractive and completely equipped rural churches in the [Presbyterian] Synod.”

More photos of Mt. Horeb Church on flickr.
Source: local.lexpublib.org.