Traffic on Main Street in downtown Lexington, June 11, 1976. The photo was taken from Cheapside looking east. The Phoenix Hotel was demolished in 1981 and 1982 by Wallace Wilkinson, who had planned to build the World Coal Center skyscraper on the site. It was never built, and the site eventually became the Park Plaza Apartments and Phoenix Park. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
The Turf Bar at 122 North Limestone Street in February 1951. A witness in a divorce case in Fayette District Court revealed that one of the parties, William W. Stephens, had been employed since November 1949 in a handbook over the Turf Bar. Published in the Lexington Leader February 8, 1951. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Charles Bohmer of Bohmer Flying Service drove his Ercoupe back to Blue Grass Field on Feb. 25, 1947, after a month’s display in Kinkead-Wilson Motor Co. showrooms, 177 North Mill Street in downtown Lexington. Shorn of its wings and throttled back to 45 mph, the single-engine plane navigated city streets and Versailles Pike. The plane was escorted by city and county patrolmen to the airport. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
A controversial proposal to turn the Union Station Park into a parking lot was front-page news in April 1950. Union Station sat at East Main Street just west of the Walnut Street (now Martin Luther King Blvd) viaduct. It opened in 1907, and the last train left the station in 1957. The building was torn down in 1960. The current building at the site houses the Lexington Police Department and the Fayette County clerk’s office. At top left is the original Wolf Wile department store, which moved to a more modern building on Main Street in 1950, next to Quality Street, where Gray Construction Co. now has its offices. Across Main Street is the Strand Theatre, which opened in 1915 and closed in 1974. Published in the Lexington Herald on April 8, 1950. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Aerial photo of downtown Lexington, January 1975. Near the bottom is the Lexington Center and Rupp Arena construction. What would later become Triangle Park is just to the left and above the construction. Vine Street is visible up the middle of the photo. Just to the right of that is High Street, running from the bottom to the top of the picture. Here is another view of Rupp Arena construction from a couple of months earlier in November, 1974. Photo by E. Martin Jessee | Staff
Aerial view of downtown Lexington in 1956. The photo’s purpose was to show the C&O Railroad tracks in downtown which the city was trying to have removed. The tracks run horizontally just below the middle of the photo. Vine St. is now located where the tracks are in the photo. The old Union Station, with the semi-circular drive, is near the center of the photo. Published in the Lexington Leader August 1, 1956. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
The 100 block of East Main Street in downtown Lexington at Limestone on March 8, 1950. That corner, once dominated by the Phoenix Hotel, is now the site of Phoenix Park, the Central Library and Park Plaza apartments. Here is a picture of the same view taken five years earlier in 1945. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Construction of the skyway crossing South Broadway in downtown Lexington, connecting the Hyatt Regency, left, and Kincaid Towers in July 1979. The concrete span, the first in a series of skyways over downtown, is 100 feet long and nine feet wide. It’s about 30 feet above South Broadway at its midpoint. The $100,000 project would wrap up with a large covering of aluminum and Plexiglas. It opened when Kincaid Towers construction was completed later in fall 1979. The photo was taken looking northeast down South Broadway. In the background, just beyond the top of the bus, is what is now The Square. To the left of the bus is a parking lot that would later become Triangle Park. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
An estimated 3,000 people attended a community memorial service April 14, 1945, outside the Fayette County Courthouse in honor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR, as he was more commonly known, had died in office two days earlier from a stroke. Harry Truman became the 31st U.S. president. Religious leaders and politicians spoke during the service before a crowd that stood motionless and mute, even during a downpour that forced the ceremony to move inside the courthouse from Cheapside Park. The ceremony ended with mourners singing God Bless America. See the front page reporting the death of Roosevelt here. And read the story on the memorial service in Lexington here. Published in the Sunday Herald-Leader on April 15, 1945. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Mourners listened to Rev. Father George O’Bryan during a memorial service for President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 14, 1945, at Cheapside. Published in the Lexington Herald-Leader ib April 15, 1945. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
The flag at the Fayette County courthouse on April 12, 1945, flew at half-staff in honor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Herald-Leader archive photo
As part of the Freedom Bond Drive, a duplicate of Col. John Glenn’s Mercury 7 space capsule was displayed in Cheapside Park on April 27, 1962. Posing in front of the capsule were Bill Staton of the Lexington Jaycees, county savings bond sales chairman Robert Stilz, County Judge Bart Peak and Lexington Mayor Richard Colbert, holding his son Richard. The primary purpose of the space capsule’s visit to Lexington was to remind residents of the Freedom Bond Drive and to urge them to invest in the bonds, and to give them some idea how some of their taxes for defense are invested. Published in the Lexington Leader on April 28, 1962. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Main Street, downtown Lexington, circa summer 1938. Rails run down the street, but about that time, streetcar service was discontinued in Lexington. As in most American cities, as roads were improved and more people bought automobiles, trolley tracks were pulled up or paved over. Motor buses took over the steadily declining demand for public transportation. In the lower left corner, you can see two women and a child waiting for the bus that’s coming toward them. Along the left side is what is now Cheapside Park. Farther down is Lexington’s first skyscraper, the First National Building. Built in 1913, it is now a 21c Museum Hotel. The buildings on the right include a Woolworth five-and-dime store, and clothing store B.B. Smith & Co., whose sign said it was “correct apparel for women & misses.” It’s now the site of the Lexington Financial Center, more commonly known as the “Big Blue Building.” Click on the picture for a closer look. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
“Muppet” stars Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog enjoyed a carriage ride down Main Street in downtown Lexington on March 14, 1985. Their ride ended at Rupp Arena, where The Muppet Show was on stage five times over three straight days. Note: In the background, above Kermit’s head, construction was just getting under way for the Lexington Financial Center, aka the “Big Blue Building.” Photo by Steven R. Nickerson | Staff
“Muppet” stars Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy checked in to the Radisson Hotel on March 14, 1985, before they took a carriage ride through downtown Lexington. The stars arrived at the hotel in a limousine. Built by The Webb Cos. in 1982, The Radisson Plaza Hotel became a Hilton hotel in 2009. Photo by Steven R. Nickerson | Staff
For a couple of hours on June 14, 1949, Fisher’s Bar, 105 North Limestone, was jammed with patrons. The reason? Nickel beer and whiskey and five-cent sandwiches. According to the Deptment of Labor, a nickel then had the same buying power as 50 cents today. Nearly 600 male customers were served from 2 to 4 p.m., and the photo shows only about half the crowd. Popular-brand blended and bonded whiskeys, beer, and a variety of sandwiches sold for five cents. Bar owner George West said, “The drinks and eats are on the house — almost.” The bar was where Sam’s Hot Dog Stand is now. Published in the Lexington Herald on June 15, 1949. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Hundreds of out-of-town automobiles added to a typical downtown Lexington traffic jam on March 17, 1951. Thousands of loyal fans of teams in the 34th annual state high school basketball tournament flocked to the city for the semi-finals and finals, being held at Memorial Coliseum. Clark County won the tournament, defeating Cuba 69-44. The photo was taken from the First National Bank building, with a view toward the east, including the busy Main Street and Limestone intersection. The buildings at this intersection are what is now the CentrePointe construction site. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Workmen began tearing the portico off Lexington’s Municipal Building on Walnut Street in early June 1962 in preparation for construction of a three-story addition to the building. The cost was expected to be $567,000 and would bring the city building within three feet of the Walnut Street sidewalk. This structure was built in 1928 as Lexington’s City Hall and was envisioned to be the first piece of a municipal complex that would have been established along Barr Street. The building continued to be Lexington’s municipal building until fall 1983, when city government moved into the Ashland Oil Inc. building on Main Street. That building had previously housed the Lafayette Hotel and later the Central Kentucky Insurance Co., and it continues to be the home of Lexington’s Urban County Government. Currently, the construction of a new government headquarters is being studied. Published in the Lexington Leader on June 8, 1962. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Lexington Center board chairman Jake Graves, at podium, addressed the media, along with Lexington Mayor Foster Pettit, second from right, and Tom Minter, right, Lexington Center Corp. executive director and general manager, during a hard-hat tour of the unfinished civic center on July 20, 1976. Lexington Center, including Rupp Arena, held its grand opening October 7 to 10, 1976. The Hyatt House Hotel, later to become the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in the background, was under construction and would not open until 1977. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Mary Beth Navmann and Kevin Compton, left, and Brent Roach and Elizabeth Browning watched a crew from Diversified Demolition tear down the former Rite Aid building at Limestone and Main Street in Lexington on July 23, 2008. The building and others on that block were demolished to make way for the proposed CentrePointe development. The long-delayed development has been through a lengthy delay and numerous changes. Developer Dudley Webb recently released the final renderings for the downtown project and said the complex would be complete by spring 2018. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
A large crowd was on hand as hundreds of balloons were released to signal the grand opening the Festival Market on July 25, 1986. The grand opening for $16 million development at West Main Street and North Broadway kicked off 10 days of festivities that allowed the public to become acquainted with the shops and restaurants located inside the 3-story marketplace. About 42 of the market’s 72 shops and restaurants were open. The development failed to generate sustained profit and the complex was sold for $600,000 in 1994 in an auction. Festival Market was rebranded in 1999 as Triangle Center, consisting primarily of offices with a few retail and restaurant entries, including Sawyer’s Downtown Restaurant and Grill. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
A west-facing view of Main Street in downtown Lexington in August 1948, a month before the F.W.Woolworth store was to open. The businesses making up this block included Jane Lee, left, Woolworth, and Graves Cox. The buildings on this block were razed in 2008 to make way for the CentrePointe development. Published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Aug. 29, 1948. Click here to see Woolworth on opening day, and click here to see the other side of this block, before its buildings were torn down to make way for Woolworth. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Toddler Kathy Lewis was fitted by S.B. Foley with a pair of shoes at Baynham Shoe Co. on Feb. 4, 1949. The popular shoe store, founded by three brothers at 135 East Main Street, operated for more then 50 years before closing in the 1970s. The store’s motto was “shoes of distinction.” About the time of this photo, men’s white buck shoes were advertised for $4.95 a pair. Phoenix Park is where the store used to be.
