In 1826 “to improve the breed of horses by encouraging the sports of the turf,” the Kentucky Association for the Improvement of the Breeds of Stock was established. Fifty members of the group met at Mrs. Keen’s Inn to begin the industry that would…

Limestone filtered waters and tall grass meadows sustained buffalo and deer and fowl. The happy hunting grounds nourished and fedthe Paleoindians who begat the Shawnee, the Chickasaw and Cherokee who were forced out by the settlers who built…

Both the Charles Young Park and its community center were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. In 1930 the city of Lexington purchased the lot that would become the second public park to honor African Americans. The park was…

Winkfield raced in the United States from 1899 to 1904. He won 161 races in 1901 alone. When Jim Crow injustice finally reached the racetracks, like many other African American jockeys, it eventually forced him off the tracks. Winkfield was the last…

Once the site of the home owned by famed thoroughbred trainer William Perkins, the site today features a new building with a mural depicting the history of the East End by artist Sundiata Rashid. On this corner were the homes of two prominent…

Shotgun houses were commonly built in developing African American neighborhoods after the Civil War. They generally have a gabled front porch and two or more rooms laid out in a straight line with rooms directly connected. It was said a bullet shot…

For Lexington, the African American population more than doubled between 1860 and 1870. This was due largely to recently freed enslaved people migrating from rural areas to more urban areas. In response to this influx, landowners and developers…

This original farmhouse was built circa 1814 for Robert Megowan. The home faced what was then Winchester Road, and is today East Third Street. It was a 2-story, 3-bay l-shaped common bond brick house with a limestone foundation in the Federal style…

When Chestnut Street opened in the mid-1880's, Ellen Davis, a former enslaved woman, bought one of the first houses on the street. Garrett Wilgus, a building contractor and brickyard owner, announced plans in 1884 to open Chestnut Street from Third…

In March 1882, several members of Main Street Baptist Church left the congregation to organize a new church. They worshipped in an old engine house on South Limestone. About a year later, they built a church on Corral Street and took the name…