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history Founded in 1775, Lexington has an illustrious history that many other cities might well envy. Once known as the “Athens of the West,” for its cultured citizenry, Lexington was home to the first university west of the Allegheny Mountains (Transylvania University); the first performance of a Beethoven symphony in the United States (Symphony No. 7), and a bevy of distinguished citizens – statesman Henry Clay; Confederate General John Hunt Morgan; abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay; portrait painter Matthew Jouett, and Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th president. Many of their homes can still be visited today. Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate is perhaps the most imposing of the city’s historic homes. Clay built the 18-room Italianate mansion in 1806 and lived there with his family until 1852, often entertaining dignitaries such as Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, the Marquis de Lafayette and Jefferson Davis, his classmate at Transylvania University. Clay persuaded his friend Benjamin Latrobe, architect of the U.S. Capitol, to design the two wings on either side of the original house. Today, the circular rotunda of the octagonal library and the formal parterre garden are two of Ashland’s finest features. The same year that Clay started building his house, a modest two-story brick building on West Main Street was completed which would be home to the Todd family, whose daughter Mary would go on to marry Abraham Lincoln. Today, the Mary Todd Lincoln House has the distinction of being the first house museum in America to honor a First Lady.
John Wesley Hunt, Kentucky’s first millionaire and a business associate of John Jacob Astor, chose Gratz Park, Lexington’s first historic neighborhood for his mansion Hopemont. It was his grandson, John Hunt Morgan, who brought the house its greatest fame. While living in the house, he waged guerilla raids throughout Kentucky and Tennessee. You can learn about Morgan’s exploits in the Civil War Museum which occupies the ground floor of the house. Waveland State Historic Site, a 10room mansion located just south of town, is now the Kentucky Life Museum. Built in 1847 by Joseph Bryan, a great-nephew of Daniel Boone, it is an example of the Greek-Revival style of architecture. Waveland serves to showcase what plantation life was like in Kentucky in the years leading up to the Civil War. Other historic sites: McConnell Springs, the birthplace of Lexington, is now a 26-acre nature preserve on the outskirts of downtown, where local flora and fauna can be seen along two miles of trails leading to the Blue Hole and The Boils, part of the system of natural springs common in Central Kentucky. Gratz Park Historic District, tucked between downtown and Transylvania University, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and, is the Bluegrass equivalent of Charleston’s Catfish Row. The Fountain of Youth on the park’s north end honors Lexingtonian James Lane Allen, a 19th century novelist often called “Kentucky’s first important writer.” The former law office of Henry Clay is located in a small brick building a block south of the park. Within an easy driving distance of Lexington are some historic sites that should not be missed. Camp Nelson
38 Equestrian Spectator’s Guide to Lexington 2013
Heritage Park, 400 acres of sprawling countryside above the palisades of the Kentucky River, was the location of an important Union quartermaster depot during the Civil War, as well as the site for Kentucky’s largest recruitment and training camp for African-American troops. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, a half-hour from Lexington in the town of Harrodsburg, is the largest restored Shaker community in the United States and the first site in the country to be designated in its entirety as a National Historic Landmark. Harrodsburg is also home to Old Fort Harrod State Park, the first permanent settlement in Kentucky. It was founded by pioneer James Harrod in 1774, a year before Daniel Boone founded his namesake settlement Fort Boonesborough.
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