Fayette – Page 22 – The Kaintuckeean

walkLEX: A Transylvanian Tomb and the Legends of Constantine Rafinesque

Rafinesque Tomb at Transylvania University - Lexington, Ky.

The Tomb of Constantine Rafinesque – Lexington, Ky.

No, it is not Dracula. Although Bram Stoker may be impressed with the story of the man entombed under Transylvania University’s Old Morrison.

Born in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey) in 1783, Constantine Rafinesque immigrated to the United States in 1802. Here, he met a number of young botanists and began to collect his specimens. In 1804, while travelling in the Virginia-Maryland area he met President Jefferson. It was suggested, but never realized, that Rafinesque should join Lewis and Clark on their famed expedition. Whether he was rejected or declined an offer, Rafinesque returned to Europe with his specimens and settled in Palermo, Sicily.

In 1815, he returned to the United States and continued to work diligently in the fields of biology and zoology. He came to the Athens of the West (Lexington) and its famed institution (Transylvania) as a professor of botany in 1819. Throughout his career, Rafinesque published the binomial names of over 6,700 species of flora and fauna, but he was never recognized during his life for his work. Perhaps it was because he was a little too eccentric for anyone’s taste.

On one occasion, Rafinesque stayed at the home of French-American ornithologist (bird guy) J. J. Audubon famed for his detailed color illustrations of birds in North America. In his room was Audubon’s prized violin and a live bat which Rafinesque did not recognize, so Raf swung and destroyed the violin in an attempt to seize the bat for his specimen collection. To thank him for destroying the violin, Audubon later gave his guest a beautiful color illustration of a gigantic fish which swims in the Ohio River. Rafinesque wrote and published a paper on this eight-foot-plus beast only to thereafter discover Aubudon’s joke. Needless to say, the two were not close.

As a professor, Rafinesque was more likely to skip class than were his pupils. He used the time to take nature walks. It is believed, but not confirmed, that Rafinesque also was quite friendly (perhaps a little too friendly) with the wife of college president Horace Holley. Further, Rafinesque (a Unitarian in faith) did not endear himself to the more conservative faiths and faithful of Kentucky.

So, whatever the reason in particular, Rafinesque was forced out of Transylvania in 1826. Upon his departure, however, he left a curse on both president Holley and Transylvania itself: “Damn thee and thy school as I place curses on you.” (or something to that effect).

As with curses, they always come true. The following year, Holley was himself forced out from the college whereupon he and his wife set out to teach in Louisiana. But he caught yellow fever and died. Transylvania’s main building (then within what is today Gratz Park) burned within two years of the curse. And Old Morrison itself suffered from extensive fire damage in 1969.

Rafinesque returned to Philadelphia after being relieved of his professorship and continued his work until his death from cancer in 1840. Without a church home, Rafinesque was buried in Ronaldson’s Cemetery at 9th and Bainbridge in Philadelphia. Ronaldson created his cemetery for travelers and others in Philadelphia who could not, without membership, be buried in a local church cemetery, but who would not be relegated to the public pauper’s field. Even so, up to six bodies would share the same space at Robertson’s and over time, the area became part of Philly’s slums (today it is quite regentrified).

But when Robertson’s Cemetery was to be destroyed in the 1920s, a group of Transylvanians came to recover the body of the old professor with the hope that the curse would end. And so his body was removed from its grave, brought to the campus of Transylvania University, and re-interred in a small crypt under the steps of Old Morrison.

At least, we think it was Rafinesque.

additional photos on flickr

walkLEX: The Kissing Tree @Transy

The Kissing Tree (Transylvania University) – Lexington, Ky.

Near the Haupt Humanities Building on the campus of Transylvania University stands a white ash tree believed to be about 265 years old making it forty years older than the college and almost fifty years older than our Commonwealth. Its moniker – “The Kissing Tree” – also dates to years ago when social mores and taboos were quite different.

Earlier generations frowned at public displays of affection and college administrators forbade it. But an unofficial policy permitted students to steal a sweetheart’s kiss when under the boughs of the Kissing Tree. And in keeping with these traditional rules of affection, the students’ kept their intimacy limited. The unofficial rule among students was that your turn was over when another couple came along. (Again, this was the Kissing Tree and not the ménage à trois tree.)

In 2003, the Chronicle for Higher Education named the spot one of the most romantic on college campuses. Today, the tree is ringed by a wooden bench popular more for meeting friends than for stealing kisses (not a necessity in the era of coed dorms). The tree also receives regular treatment to ward off the ~~sexually transmitted disease~~ insect (emerald ash borer) known for taking out all too many ash trees.

Sources: Transy Kissing Tree; Transy Romance

kernel: The Painting of Lexington’s Town Drunk, King Solomon

A town drunk so famed that they made a painting of him? Why, yes!

Painting of King Solomon – Bodley Bullock House – Lexington, Ky.

Hanging in the Bodley-Bullock House in Lexington is this painting of William “King” Solomon, the town drunk who buried the dead of the city following the cholera epidemic of 1833 previously profiled by NRK on The Elkhorn Vale. The painter was Samuel M. Wilson.

walkLEX: Remembering Smiley Pete

Smiley Pete Plaque – Lexington, Ky.

The dog’s grin resembled a human smile and so he was given the name “Smiley.” During the mid-twentieth century, downtown Lexington had a roving landmark. Smiley Pete.

Of course, his other nicknames gave a more perceptive look at what Smiley was really up to. Magnificent Mooch. Canine Con Man. Panhandling Pooch.

Yes, Smiley Pete new how to work it.

And he did. With a daily routine of hamburger and waffles for breakfast from Brandy’s Kitchen (Main & Limestone) followed by a bowl of draft beer from Turf Bar (122 North Limestone). A little bit later, chocolate was needed from the Short & Lime Liquor (figure it out). The Panhandling Pooch finally would eat a dog treat and water from Carter’s Supply (339 West Short) before retiring for popcorn at the movie theater operating at the Lexington Opera House. According to a 1950 Lexington Leader report, Smiley would also make the trek to U.K. where he would enter a classroom only to yawn at a professor’s lecture.

Local police turned a blind eye to Smiley Pete, even as other strays were regularly rounded up. Only in 1949, during a rabies scare, was Smiley “incarcerated” by his friends in quarantine at a veterinary clinic on Southland Drive.

At the age of 14 (that’s 98 in dog years), Smiley Pete died in June 1957 and he was buried by his human friends at 904 North Broadway under a marker which reads “Pete – Our Dog – A Friend to All and A Friend of All.” Another plaque was placed closer to the dog’s old stomping grounds at Main & Lime in front of Welch’s Cigar Shop. The plaque was removed in 1990 but replaced close to its original location at the courthouse plaza.

Smiley Pete is also remembered annually by an award given by the LFUCG to those who make “people feel good about being downtown.” Live on, Smiley!

Sources: BizLex; local.lexpublib.org; LuAnn Farrar (H-L)

walkLEX: Thomas Hunt Morgan House

Thomas Hunt Morgan House (and Appendages) - Lexington, Ky.

Thomas Hunt Morgan House – Lexington, Ky.

Today, we all know that sex is determined by XX or XY chromosomes. But did you know that the man who discovered this scientific truth was born and raised in Lexington? Thomas Hunt Morgan, the “Father of Modern Genetics,” was born in 1866 at Hopemont but was raised in his parent’s home on the other side of the block. Through his father’s lineage, Thomas was related to the best families in central Kentucky. A great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Francis Scott Key, penned the words to the Star Spangled Banner.

While living in this two-story Victorian, a young Thomas began to show his interest in biology and naturalism as he gathered birds, birds’ eggs and fossils. By the age of 16, he was enrolled at the State College, later the U. of Kentucky, from which he would graduate as the valedictorian in 1886. The Lexington Transcript reported on April 8, 1886 that “Thomas Hunt Morgan, son of Capt. Charleton H. Morgan, was awarded valedictory of class at State College.” It would not be long before Thomas Hunt Morgan would escape the long shadow of his father – a Confederate veteran – and bring another chapter to the Hunt-Morgan family.

Armed with a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins College in Baltimore, Dr. Morgan entered academia and, after 13 years in Pennsylvania, began teaching at New York’s Columbia University. There he created his infamous “fly room” (popularizing the use of the inexpensive and fast breeding species) where he studied heredity at a chromosomal level.

In 1933, Dr. Morgan became the first Kentuckian to receive the Nobel Prize when he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “his discoveries concerning the role played by chromosomes in heredity.”

After twenty-four years at Columbia, Morgan headed west for Caltech in Pasadena.

In 1925, Dr. Morgan’s mother passed away at the family home on North Broadway. In time, it would become the home to the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky – an influential organization begun in 1894 and credited with many of Lexington’s social reforms around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1964, the Woman’s Club purchased the old Seventh Day Adventist church building and opened its auditorium in the old sanctuary in 1972.

Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan passed away in 1945 in Pasadena. His alma mater, the University of Kentucky, named the biological sciences building after him in 1966.

photos on flickr

Sources: local.lexpublib.org; Nature.com; Nobel Prize bio; Women’s Club of Central Ky.

kernel: Jesus to Heal Jefferson Street Building Damaged by Fire

More after the jump…

I was on a lunch walkLEX within a block of this building about four hours before the fire started. I trekked past the damaged market earlier this morning. According to reports (and here), the market operated for the latter half of the twentieth century in this predominately African American neighborhood. Across the street is St. Peter Claver Catholic Church and the pictured statue of Jesus; I couldn’t resist the juxtaposition.

More photos of the fire damage are on flickr.

EV: Resting Place of Henry Clay (Lexington Cemetery, Part VII)

Tomb of Henry Clay – Lexington, Ky.

When most people think of the Lexington Cemetery, they probably immediately think of the Henry Clay monument. And for good reason. It dominates the skyline of this area of Lexington. Though, as a curious aside, it’s really tough to see the monument from the cemetery below. It takes up an entire section (Section M) of the cemetery and is surrounded by a dense group of cherry trees.

When Henry Clay died in June of 1852, the ensuing ten days of memorials and mourning were national news. The day after he was buried, a group met at the courthouse in Lexington to begin planning “a national monument of historic proportions.” They certainly achieved their goal.

The monument was completed in 1861, but because of the Civil War, Clay’s body was not laid to rest there until 1864, when both he and his wife’s bodies were placed there. The monument stands on a small hill, and Clay faces east, towards his home – Ashland.

Curiously, the monument has had a rather rough time over the years. In 1909, a storm knocked the head off the statute, necessitating a new statue to be built at the cost of $10,000. Then in 1910, the replacement statue was struck by lighting and lost its right hand and leg. The statue was once again repaired for another $10,000.

By the time the 1970s rolled around, the statue was a mess, as technically, there was no group responsible for its upkeep. The Cemetery had long ago deeded the land to the Henry Clay Monument Association, a group that no longer existed. To remedy this issue, the orphan monument was vested to the city by the Fayette Circuit Court. The monument saw a complete restoration at the hands of the city in 1976. The city transferred ownership to the Lexington Cemetery in 1999.

walkLEX: Northside Neighborhood Association Celebrates Its Golden Anniversary

263 North Broadway – Lexington, Ky.

Last week on one of my walking lunches, I couldn’t help but notice a few brightly colored flags in front of several houses in the area around Third Street just west of Broadway. It was not until Friday that I discovered that the flags marked sites on the Northside Neighborhood Association walking tour in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the association. Of course, the neighborhood and its homes have existed for a much longer period.

When Lexington was originally platted, the area was divided into five acre lots. But by the 1810s, Lexington was beginning to grow northward toward what is now Transylvania University. In 1830, Transylvania University relocated its campus across Third Street to its present location and Lexington continued to grow in her direction. The Northside Neighborhood is expansive – reaching from Newtown Pike to Limestone and from Church Street to north of Seventh. Because of its geographic diversity, Northside also includes a broad variety of socioeconomic classes, architectural styles and historical communities within its bounds.

Prior to the Civil War, African American enclaves grew along College, Henry, and Miller Streets, but blacks (both freed and slave) generally lived dispersed among their white neighbors. After the War, African American urban clusters such as Brucetown, Goodloetown and Taylortown arose as Lexington became more segregated. A black Catholic parish, St. Peter Claver, opened in 1887 to serve these communities and remains a vibrant parish today at Fourth and Jefferson.

In the 1880s and 1890s, many of the old large five acre tracts were opened up to speculation, construction, and a growing population. In turn-of-the-century Fayette and Elsmere Parks, lumber companies built quality homes with architectural detail but without the without a commissioned architect. These were truly some of Lexington’s first “suburbs.”

It has been noted that both the black urban clusters and the predominately white suburbs were both developed off of the major roadways, yet the former occupied the valleys between the more-elevated suburb.

Interspersed among the homes were various commercial enterprises, be it groceries, restaurants, tailors or saloons and many of the old storefronts remain. And infill continued so that the Neighborhood contains examples not only of Federal and Victorian architecture, but also contains homes in the bungalow and arts and crafts style. Today, Miller Street is being redeveloped with townhouses and some quasi-modern architecture. I never have really considered the size and scope of Northside because it contains so much; I have hardly scratched the surface. I guess I know where I’ll be walking…

Sources: National Register (Listing and Expansion); Hat/Tip: Herald-Leader.

walkLEX: Clyde Carpenter’s Carriage House

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour to a local historic site that has been well-preserved and restored – the group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Details are always available on the Kaintuckeean Calendar and on Facebook! In September 2011, the deTour group visited three carriage houses; this is the second installment with the first having been the Hunt-Morgan House Carriage House and the second the Maria Dudley Carriage House. More pictures from this deTour are available on flickr.

Clyde Carpenter Carriage House – Lexington, Ky.

Every time I pass down Lexington’s New Street, a one block path between North Mill and North Broadway, I am taken away to the narrow, history-filled streets of Boston, Mass. The narrow street, nestled between a busy road and beautiful Gratz Park, has a variety of architectural styles — all relatively traditional — that are perfectly scaled to the street’s width. Adaptive reuse and infill are the common themes on this one-block stretch.

But the greatest example of adaptive reuse here, and arguably one of the best examples of adaptive reuse in the city, is the carriage house-turned-residence at 340 New Street. When architect Clyde Carpenter first envisioned turning the carriage house into a home in 1966, he entered through the main door to find an actively used garage. In his living room, a vehicle sat. In the loft, there remained hay and grain.

But a great mind can envision great things. And Clyde Carpenter did. Of course, other hurdles remained beyond his control. Financing was a tricky thing to obtain, particularly given that the area around nearby North Broadway was not considered ‘prime’ for a single family dwelling. ‘Adaptive reuse’ was also not in its ‘prime,’ but despite these odds Mr. Carpenter succeeded in securing financing to turn a dilapidated carriage house into a beautiful residence.

Inside, part of the second floor was removed to expose the first floor to the building’s height and to showcase the preserved beams from the original structure. The second floor could be opened up in this way because it is suspended from those same ceiling beams.

Rather than constructing a privacy fence around the garden, Carpenter constructed a narrow (10ft wide) addition on the southwest corner of the home in which he has placed the master bedroom and bath and a sitting area. Due to the dimensions of this addition, the bed and bath are obviously quite a tight fit and, despite the scale of the overall house, recall the now-popular small house movement.

Between kitchen and dining room, an original horse stall gate connects the house to its origins. For his remarkable work, Carpenter and his carriage house have been recognized by many organizations and the Blue Grass Trust’s annual adaptive reuse award is named in Carpenter’s honor.

And if you didn’t click the link above, check out all of the pictures of the Clyde Carpenter Carriage House on flickr.

walkLEX: Maria Dudley Carriage House

The Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation hosts a monthly deTour to a local historic site that has been well-preserved and restored – the group meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. Details are always available on the Kaintuckeean Calendar and on Facebook! In September 2011, the deTour group visited three carriage houses; this is the second installment with the first having been the Hunt-Morgan House Carriage House. More pictures from this deTour are available on flickr.

Maria Dudley Carriage House – Lexington, Ky.

Built contemporaneously with the Maria Dudley House in 1879, the carriage house at 215 North Mill Street has been and continues to be beautifully converted into a usable garage and cottage. A stable stall door in the rear of the garage hearkens back to the structure’s prior use, though the carriage house now ably stores vehicles and its upper floor is being remodeled into a very usable living space or possibly an apartment.

The first floor has ample parking room, a wonderful gardener’s prep area, a storage area and a powder room, while the upstairs remains a wholly unfinished 1,044 square feet. Architecturally, however, the carriage house could not be more different than the Victorian Eclectic main house with its octagonal tower that uniquely stands among the beautiful houses in Gratz Park.