Tag: Fayette

The House at Second and Mill Called “Home” by Several Notable Kentuckians

Hart-Bradford House at Second & Mill Streets – Lexington, Ky.
Photo: Library of Congress

I was slightly incorrect on last week’s  #ThrowbackThursday photo as I observed only two famous occupants. At least four are worthy of mention: Thomas Hart, John Bradford, John Hunt Morgan, and Laura Clay.

The property was accurately guessed quickly by Jason Sloan, the Historic Preservationist with the Blue Grass Trust. Jason had an unfair advantage, though, as the BGT was founded in the wake of the demolition of the photographed property.

The property was known as the Thomas Hart / John Bradford House, though I fully overlooked the first occupant.

Col. Thomas Hart was a veteran of the American Revolution and a Marylander. In the early months of 1794, Col. Hart sent letter to friends in Lexington to procure for him a house in Lexington. In an earlier letter to Gov. Blount of Tennessee, Hart wrote

You will be surprised to hear I am going to Kentucky. Mrs. Hart, who for eighteen years has opposed this measure, has now given her consent and so we go, an old fellow of 63 years of age seeking a new country to make a fortune in…

Hart had been both at Boonesborough and had been a principal in the Transylvania Company which, had it been successful, would have forever altered Kentucky’s lot. At the age of 63, Hart arrived in Lexington in June of 1794.

In the late 1790s, ca. 1798, Hart constructed for he and his family a home on the corner of Second and Mill Street. He owned the entire block – now bordered by Broadway, Short, Mill, and Church Streets – which he utilized for his many business ventures.

Hart may be best known for his son-in-law as his daughter, Lucretia, married Henry Clay. In fact, the nuptials occurred in this very house! As a gift to his son-in-law, Hart erected next to his own house a home for Lucretia and Henry. At the time, Clay practiced law across Mill Street.

Hart died in 1808 and after the house was sold to John Bradford.

John Bradford
Photo: U. of Kentucky

John Bradford purchased the Hart home from Thomas Hart, Jr. for $5,000. Bradford had begun the Kentucke Gazette in 1787; it was the first newspaper in the Commonwealth. Herald-Leader columnist Tom Eblen described Bradford as “a Renaissance man of the early Western frontier” before creating a laundry list of endeavors in which Bradford found himself actively occupied: “land surveyor, Indian fighter, politician, moral philosopher, tavern owner, sheriff, civic host, community booster, postal service entrepreneur, real estate speculator, subdivision developer, mechanic and mathematician.”

The Gazette changed names in 1789 when it adopted what we now view as the conventional spelling of Kentucky. The change was precipitated by an official act of the Virginia legislature.

One cannot underestimate Bradford’s contributions to the region. He was the man “behind the scenes” accomplishing much and bringing Lexington with him. It is a question whether Lexington would have become the Athens of the West were it not for John Bradford.

On March 22, 1830, Bradford died at his home on the corner of Second and Mill Streets. His burial location is unknown, but there is some evidence from the early 20th century that the location was under the western wall of First Baptist Church (the site of Lexington’s first burying grounds).  In 1926, the John Bradford Society dedicated and mounted a plaque on the Second Street side of the Hart-Bradford Home, which read:

This House Was the Home of
John Bradford
1749-1830
A Pioneer Settler of Lexington
First Printer of Kentucky
Co-Founder of The Kentucky Gazette
A Prominent, Public-Spirited and Useful Citizen.

The plaque is visible at the center of the photo above.

The Bruce family which followed the Bradford’s at 193 North Mill; here Rebecca Gratz Bruce was born three months after Bradford’s death. In 1848, Rebecca would go on to be married in this house to John Hunt Morgan and the couple lived here briefly for a time before the Civil War. Remarkably, their marriage and occupancy is only a footnote in the history of the property.

Laura Clay
Library of Congress

Laura Clay, daughter of noted abolitionist Cassius Clay, removed here from White Hall in Madison County where she had been born. She founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and sought suffrage and equality for women.

It is interesting to note, however, she opposed the passage of the 19th Amendment on the grounds of states’ rights.

In 1920, Clay was a delegate from Kentucky at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. The photo below is from the convention at which Clay become the first woman in either major political party to have her name placed in nomination for President of the United States.

1920 Democratic National Convention.
Ms. Clay, far left, and the other Kentucky delegates.
Photo from John Rhorer, whose grandfather wears the hat (r)

Ms. Clay died in her home at the corner of Second and Mill Streets in 1941. She was 92.

In 1955, the Hart-Bradford-Clay home was razed in favor of a parking lot. The demolition did, however, prompt a group of preservation minded individuals to go about ensuring that the same fate did not befall the Hunt-Morgan House. The group, “The Foundation for the Preservation of Historic Lexington and Fayette County” expanded its mission and simplified name to today be known as the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation. In 1958, Gratz Park was made Lexington’s first historic district; today there are fifteen.

193 North Mill Street remains only a parking lot; nothing has risen from her ashes. It can be said, however, that her demolition galvanized members of the community to the great task of preserving Lexington’s historic and cultural resources.

Sources:
Blue Grass Trust. Gratz Park Spreads. Brochure, available here.
Coleman, Jr., J. Winston. John Bradford and the Kentucky Gazette. Filson Quarterly, v. 34 1960, available here.
Dunn, Frank C. Old Houses of Lexington. Typescript, n.d. transcribed and available here.
Eblen, Tom. Essay: John Bradford, Kentucky’s Pioneer Journalist. 11 June 2013, available here.
Hudspeth, Susan. John Bradford: Pioneer Printer of Kentucky. 
Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era. Laura Clay: Kentucky Suffragette, available here.
Pierces.org. Colonel Thomas Hart III, available here.

Liberty or Death: Federal Regulations and the Valley View Ferry

“I know not what course others may take; but as for me Give me Liberty, or give me Death!”

Patrick Henry’s famous oratory has been a call to freedom since he uttered those words before the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775. Henry would go on to serve as the governor of Virginia from 1784 to 1786.

During this time, he signed a “perpetual and irrevocable” charter for the operation of a ferry boat in favor of John Craig. The ferry would cross the Kentucky River between Fayette and Madison Counties near the mouth of Tate’s Creek.

In 1798, Jessamine County was created from Fayette County with a portion of the boundary being along Tates Creek road to the Kentucky River. The General Assembly clarified the boundary in 1868, so that it would “run with the center of the said turnpike road leading from Lexington to the Kentucky River.”

It can thus be said that one headed southbound on the ferry departs from Jessamine, but those arriving on a northbound trip would arrive in Fayette.

From either direction, passengers on the ferry might pick up on the historical cues flying overhead. The vessel, aptly named the John Craig after the first ferry operator, carries four flags. The American, the POW-MIA and the Kentucky flags wave alongside the flag of Virginia under whose charter Valley View remains operational.

Few passengers in the 350 vehicles ferried daily probably consider the history of the ferry. For commuters, it is simply a vital shortcut between Richmond and Lexington or Nicholasville. For the tourists who often travel the ferry, the focus is on the nostalgic crossing itself.

Federal regulations imposed in 2006, however, are making it harder for the oldest continually operated enterprise in Kentucky to continue, since the operator must be a captain licensed with the United States Coast Guard.

Licensure can take four to six months and cost about $2,000. This makes it difficult to find a replacement captain when one resigns.

The John Craig has no steering capability and is tethered to overhead guide cables which are used to maneuver the vessel across the 500-foot stretch of river. Valley View isn’t the Staten Island Ferry or one of those crossing Washington state’s Puget Sound.

Yet it is snared into the bureaucratic red tape designed for these large ferries which sail on open waters. The regulations are a one-size-fits-all misfit threatening the Valley View Ferry’s own existence.

And while it seems that the Valley View Ferry Authority has secured a new captain which will, in due time, allow a return to normal hours of operation, the remaining existence of these federal regulations remain as a long-term threat.

That’s why U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Lexington) introduced H.R. 2570, the Valley View Ferry Preservation Act of 2013, exempting the John Craig from Coast Guard licensure requirements.

The bill requires Kentucky to establish licensing requirements sufficient to protect ferry passengers.

In other words, the Preservation Act simply returns regulatory authority over the Valley View Ferry to the state.

Certainly, Patrick Henry would have been pleased with the Preservation Act. He was an ardent supporter of state’s rights who even declined to attend the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Henry feared that the federal government would become its own monarchy leaving little room for the individual States.

Allowing Kentucky to license the John Craig, while still leaving the vessel open to Coast Guard inspection, is a common sense solution critical to keeping America’s third oldest ferry operation afloat long into the future.

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.

Demolition of this Home Started to Change Attitudes #TBT

This home was intimately linked with two important individuals. During the occupancy of the latter, a plaque was mounted on the side of the house (nearly centered on the above photo) honoring the former.

After the dust had settled from the wrecking ball’s demolition of the landmark, private and public efforts began to protect Lexington’s historical resources. You are looking at the birthplace of Lexington’s historic preservation efforts.

But what are you looking at? And who were the two individuals alluded to above?

UPDATE: Read the history of this house and the answers to the questions asked by clicking here.

Sayre School: An Institution of the “Widest Range and Highest Order”

Sayre School – Lexington, Ky.
(R: David A. Sayre, headmaster’s office, Spartans colored stairs)

David A. Sayre was a wealth silversmith from New Jersey who arrived in Lexington in 1811. By the end of the following decade, he had completely abandoned the trade in favor of commercial banking which had become a staple of the economy. With success, he quickly became one of Lexington’s most affluent denizens.

With his success, he contributed greatly to a number of philanthropic efforts. On November 1, 1854, Sayre founded the Transylvania Female Academy. Within a year, the school was renamed for its founder and benefactor as the Sayre Female Institute. The school began to admit boys in 1876 and finally dropping the gender-specific name in 1942.

During almost this entire history, Sayre School has operated at the same location: 194 North Limestone, now affectionately referred to as “Old Sayre.” (That brief interim as the Transylvania Female Academy found the school seated at the northwest corner of Church and Mill Streets.)

Old Sayre was constructed in 1846 as a two story, three-bay Greek Revival designed by local architect Thomas Lewinski as the home of Edward P. Johnson. Johnson lived here until 1855 when he sold the property to Sayre. By the end of the decade, two additional floors had been added to Old Sayre with the alterations being designed by architect John McMurtry.

View of downtown Lexington from atop the
cupola of Old Sayre.

With the alterations, Old Sayre has assumed features of the Italianate style. On all four floors, the windows in the three bays are triple-section with the garret’s central window featuring a palladium window. Leading up to Old Sayre’s central architectural feature are a narrow set of stairs painted yellow and blue – the school colors. That signature feature is the square cupola topping Old Sayre, also having three windows on each side.

Given Sayre’s location just north of the downtown commercial district, the cupola offers sweeping views of downtown.

The property is seated on what was once Outlot No. 11 in the earliest of Lexington’s plans laid out in 1791. On this five acre tract and in the footprint of Old Sayre, Colonel George Nicholas constructed his home. Nicholas was, among other accolades and accomplishments, a prominent lawyer, Revolutionary War veteran, father of Kentucky’s Constitution, and the first attorney general of Kentucky. (Read more about Col. Nicholas here.)

Nicholas died in 1799 and is buried in the Old Episcopal Burying Grounds, the property was sold in 1806 to Thomas Hart, Jr. “who had a rope walk on the rear of the property.” (It is questionable whether the rope walk would today be considered an amusement ride and not permitted under present zoning law.) Hart’s family sold the land to Johnson who demolished the Nicholas home in favor of the two-story, supra.

David Sayre sought the formation of the school to provide an education of the “widest range and highest order.” Having survived through both the Civil War and the Great Depression, Sayre continues to provide such an education to her pupils.

Additional photos of the Sayre School deTour are available on flickr.

Sources: Lexington: Heart of the Bluegrass; NRHP; Sayre School


The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour for young professionals (and the young-at-heart). The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Learn more details about this exciting group on Facebook! You can also see Kaintuckeean write-ups on previous deTours by clicking here.

Fifty Steps to the Entrance of First Baptist Church

The First Baptist Church – Lexington, Ky.

Across Main Street from Rupp Arena, fifty stone steps climb over five landings to reach the sanctuary entrance of the circa 1913 First Baptist Church. The impressive structure is a Lexington landmark in part because of its prominent Main Street location and in part because of its architectural grandeur. The massive clock tower and red tile roof mark this iconic location.

Three former Baptist churches occupied the site, as did Lexington’s earliest burying ground. In fact, it was here that King Solomon buried the dead from the 1833 cholera epidemic. A decade and a half later, most of the bodies were relocated to the newly organized Lexington Cemetery.

Two of the old Baptist churches burned on the site, while the third was simply outgrown.  When the extant structure was erected at a cost of approximately $125,000, it was built of Bedford limestone (Indiana) in the Collegiate Gothic style. Though the style is not often displayed in Lexington, it is commonly seen at the Ivy Leagues schools and at universities across the country.

First Baptist Church;
ca. 1975 (Source: NRHP)

It is an impressive architectural style, made ecclesiastical at First Baptist through the repeated use of the quatrefoil, cross and other religious symbols in the exterior’s decorative stonework.

Entrance to the sanctuary is through a deeply recessed bay which had been closed in recent years because of structural concerns. Work on maintaining First Baptist has been a struggle as what was once one of the South’s largest Baptist congregations has drastically dwindled in number. With limited attendance comes limited tithe and offering, and the church building suffers.

All is not lost, however, as a handful of congregations now pool resources to call the First Baptist Church home. Each attempts to do its part in maintaining this magnificent piece of history.

Originally meeting in the homes of members as the Town Fork (or Town Branch) Baptist Church, it associated with the Elkhorn Association on August 15, 1786. Lewis Craig (brother to Elijah Craig) was involved in the establishment of Town Branch giving to First Baptist a hand on the legacy of the Traveling Church.

Rev. John Gano was called in 1789 to the newly erected meetinghouse on the site. He had been a chaplain in the Continental Army having served throughout the long winter at Valley Forge.

A division arose in the church in 1826 when the influence of Alexander Campbell and the Restoration Movement brought Dr. James Fishback to introduce a resolution to change the church from Baptist to “Church of Christ.” The resolution was lost, so Fishback and his supporters departed First Baptist to organize the “Church of Christ on Mill Street” of which Central Christian Church is the eventual, albeit indirect descendent.

Inside, the first time visitor is overcome by the enormity of the cruciform shaped sanctuary. Anchored at front by pulpit and a choir balcony that also features an impressive pipe organ, the 1500-seat sanctuary features three additional balconies so that there is one on each wall. The pews and brass cluster chandeliers, all original.

It is, however, the “wide-grained chestnut timberwork over-arching the auditorium” that takes one’s breath away. Corbels at the base of each three-foot thick rib feature “intricately carved angels” while “horizontal bands of acanthus, leaves and acorns” adorn panelling above the pulpit.

And in case one is not sufficiently taken aback, five large stain-glass windows adorn. The space is one most Holy, Holy, Holy.

I visited First Baptist during a concert by the Lexington Area Music Alliance, LAMA. The concert was profiled yesterday and is available by clicking here.


Additional photographs of First Baptist Church and the LAMA concert are available on flickr.

Sources: Baptist History Homepage; Mickey Anders; NRHP (Historic Western Suburb); Historic Western Suburb NA; Tom Eblen

Beautiful Sounds in a Spectacular Venue: “Music in the Church” at Lexington’s First Baptist Church

Patrick McNeese Band (upper right);
Chris Weiss (lower left)

Last year, Lexington experienced her hottest Independence Day on record. This year’s holiday was hardly 99 degrees – instead the constant rain kept it a wee bit chilly.

Crowds were down and many vendors failed to appear. It may have been the quietest Fourth of July in Lexington’s recent memory.
But it was not silent inside the historic First Baptist Church.
Inside, a concert organized by the Lexington Area Music Alliance (LAMA) featured the sounds of the Patrick McNeese Band as well as those of Chris Weiss. Apparently, LAMA was using the event to test out the acoustics of the ca. 1913 sanctuary as part of a new series, “Music in the Church.”

LAMA is an origination committed to the support and economic vibrancy of local musicians. The artists performing were as spectacular as the venue.

The Patrick McNeese Band had a great sound. Easy listening with a jazzy edge and a bite of Bluegrass.  McNeese writes the band’s music while playing the guitar and providing vocal. Other band members include Maggie Lander (vocal/violin), Tom Martin (ivories), Scott Stoess (bass), and Tripp Bratton (percussion).

Cave Run Lake – Rowan Co., Ky.

Solo guitarist Chris Weiss’ music has many of those same coffee shop, easy listening sounds affected by the regional influences of Appalachia. Basically, my kind of music. One song in particular I really enjoyed. Chris said he wrote it while on a boat on Cave Run Lake. While he played, I pulled up this post on Cave Run Lake and imagined myself their again as I looked at the beautiful Rowan County scenery. It took me back.

The whole concert was awesome. In fact, I came to take advantage of the opportunity to visit First Baptist Church. Yet, I remained for the two hour concert.

Great music and I hope the ‘Music in the Church’ series is a big hit.

The venue for the concert, First Baptist Church in Lexington, is profiled here.

Celebrate Liberty & Equality on the “Glorious Birthday of Our Freedom”

Fourth of July Parade in Lexington, Ky. (2010)

On the Fourth of July, we commemorate the Declaration of Independence, having been adopted “in Congress on July 4, 1776.” Americans celebrated immediately and the holiday’s import was recognized from 1777 onward.

In 1794, the first known celebration of Independence Day occurred in Kentucky. In fact, it was near Clear Creek Road in what is now Jessamine County. A historic marker marks the location where forty veterans of the Revolution gathered to celebrate at the farm of Colonel William Price.

They undoubtedly spent that eighteenth Independence Day recalling their experiences at Yorktown, Valley Forge, Blue Licks, and Brandywine. These men, veterans and Kentucky pioneers alike, swapped tales as they ate and drank with one another.

In summing up the event in a letter to Gov. Isaac Shelby, Price described the occasion as being “a glorious time and a big dinner … a sight to behold.” Of the occasion, Price wrote of it being the “glorious birthday of our freedom.”

Many in Jessamine County will gather for the parade in Wilmore before viewing the fireworks o’er Nicholasville. Others, myself included, will venture to Lexington to share in their festivities.

On July 3, my preference is to attend the patriotic concert held at Gratz Park in downtown Lexington. There, the Lexington Philharmonic and the Lexington Singers perform to the patriotic tunes of Sousa and others. The sounds fill the air in a great revelry of celebration and one’s chest can palpitate with the beat of patriotism through music.

The next day, the Fourth of July, I return to Lexington in time to hear ordinary citizens line up. Together, they read the entirety of the Declaration of Independence with each person reading only a phrase or sentence. The queue is a cross-section of society with individuals of different sexes, races, orientations, economic conditions, and religious and political beliefs standing side by side.

Each enthusiastically speaks from that document which proclaimed “that all men are created equal.”

It is a powerful moment as the words read by so many different individuals come together to form that great text upon which our great Nation is founded.

E pluribus unum.

Out of many, One.

Throughout America’s history, we have interpreted the concept of equality differently. Blacks were once slaves and Native Americans were forcibly relocated from their tribal lands. Women were considered personal property.

And yet, even now, the law does not provide all Americans with equal protection. And so, we must continue to commit ourselves toward that self-evident truth.

As we celebrate together that “glorious birthday of our freedom,” let us lay down that which divides us and celebrate this great experiment of Democracy.

Happy Birthday, America!

This column originally appeared in the Jessamine Journal. 
It should not be republished without permission.

Heavy Rains Flood Lexington … Again #TBT

Last night, flash flooding throughout Lexington created havoc for motorists and, undoubtedly, we’ll hear more details throughout the day.

But eighty-five years ago this week, another deluge hit Lexington as captured by the photo above. According to the Lexington Herald (6-30-1928, p. 1, col. 5.), it was “the most disastrous flood in the history of … Lexington … leaving in its wake a loss estimated at more than $1,000,000.” In 2010 dollars, the total economic cost of that damage would have been $149,000,000. Wowsers!

Anyone recognize the building above that was inundated by the flood?

JOB OPENING: Ferry Captain

“Oh Captain, my Captain” wrote Walt Whitman in a poem having nothing to do with seafaring. Today, however, we look for a captain for an inland vessel: the John Craig.

Craig, the original ferry operator at Valley View, received his charter to operate from Virginia Governor Patrick Henry. Today, the ferry crossing the Kentucky River bears his name as it carries 350 vehicles daily between Fayette/Jessamine and Madison Counties.

Two captains have steered the vessel across the docile Kentucky, but one of the captains is retiring. Since January, the Valley View Ferry Authority has looked for a local, qualified replacement to no avail.

As a result, the ferry will be forced to stop weekend service and reduce weekday hours. This is a blow to this historic Kentucky institution – the oldest continually operating enterprise in the Commonwealth.

If you know of a qualified cap’n, let them know about this job opening!

(h/t: H-L)

UPDATE: Valley View Ferry Authority has hired a new captain to replace the retiring one. Once training is complete, normal operating hours for the Valley View Ferry will resume. [Jessamine Journal]

Ballard’s Market on Jefferson Street #TBT

Ballard’s Market – 170 Jefferson St., Lexington, Ky.
(Photo: NRHP)

Growing up downtown, I attended the Harrison Elementary School for two years (second and third grades). In those days, the playground was not nearly as posh and the fence between it and Jefferson Street was not so, er, durable.

Occasionally, the older elementary kids might sneak next door to what was then Ballard’s Market. The market was even more popular as parents walked children past its doors after afternoon dismissal.

My memories of this mid-19th century neighborhood grocery were during some of its last years and the photo at right is from 1978.

Did you ever pick up a few items at the Ballard’s Market? Remember Joe? Get nostalgic in the comments. After all, it’s #ThrowbackThursday!

And, in keeping with the #TBT theme, what now occupies the site?