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Lexington’s Union Station, 1944
Lexington’s Union Station on Main Street, 1944. It had opened with great fanfare on Aug. 4, 1907, with the arrival of C&O passenger train No. 24. A crowd estimated at 3,000 people met the train....
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Phoenix Hotel demolition, 1982
A wrecking ball brought down the Phoenix Hotel in downtown Lexington in February 1982. The Phoenix was demolished in 1981 and 1982 by Wallace Wilkinson, who planned to build the World Coal Center...
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Downtown Lexington railroads, 1956
This view looks west down Lexington’s Union Station railroad yards in winter 1956. The photo was taken from atop the Harrison Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard) viaduct. Union Station opened in...
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Mary Todd Lincoln house, 1946
The childhood home of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, at 574 West Main Street in downtown Lexington, as seen in March 1946. Originally built between 1803 and 1806 as an inn, the...
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Veterans Day parade, 1956
The Douglass High School Band, one of four bands in Lexington’s 1956 Veterans Day parade, marched down Main Street on Nov. 12. Published in the Lexington Herald. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
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Gratz Park Inn site, 1982
The building that was to become Gratz Park Inn on North Upper Street sat empty in this Nov. 22, 1982 photo. Developers were proposing to build a luxury hotel in what was then known as the Fuller...
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Downtown Piggly Wiggly grocery store, 1941
The Piggly Wiggly grocery store in downtown Lexington at Broadway and Short Street, October 1941. Six months later, two buildings shown here would be torn down and replaced by a new one-story Kroger...
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Christmas shoppers at S.S. Kresge, 1948
Christmas shoppers filled the S.S. Kresge store in downtown Lexington on Dec. 9, 1948. S.S. Kresge, a Detroit-based company, brought its 5 and 10 cent stores to Lexington in 1912. The downtown store...
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Downtown pedway construction, 1993
Workers placed one of the last beams supporting a walkway leading from the second floors of Victorian Square to the Lexington Center on July 17, 1993. Parts of Main and Vine streets were closed during...
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University of Kentucky campus, 1945-46
An aerial picture of the University of Kentucky campus during the 1945-46 school year. Downtown Lexington visible in background. South Limestone is seen running diagonally up from the bottom of the...
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View from Fayette County Courthouse bell tower, 1974
A view from the old Fayette County Courthouse bell tower, looking down on Cheapside Park and Main Street in December 1974. Click here to see another view of the bell tower, looking toward Market and...
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McDonald’s on East Main Street in Lexington, 1997
The McDonald’s restaurant at 473 East Main Street in Lexington, Oct. 21, 1997. The restaurant was built more than 33 years ago under heavy protest because McDonald’s wanted a drive-through. Neighbors...
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Bicycle safety parade, 1949
About 60 children lined up at the start of a bicycle safety parade on June 16, 1949, in downtown Lexington. The parade started at Midland Avenue, shown here looking east down the road. Today,...
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Main Street markings, 1950
State Highway Department employees marked the center of downtown Lexington’s Main Street, April 1950. The double row of yellow plastic discs ran down the two-way road from the railroad tracks at...
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Downtown Lexington’s last department store, Wolf Wile, 1992
The aisles of Wolf Wile’s department store were filled on April 7, 1992, with shoppers looking for going-out-of-business bargains. Sixteen days later, on April 23, downtown Lexington’s last department...
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Main Street, downtown Lexington, 1949
Downtown Lexington on March 7, 1949, looking east down Main Street from the First National Bank and Trust Co., the city’s first skyscraper. Up the street at right is the Phoenix Hotel, which is now the...
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John F. Kennedy campaign parade through downtown Lexington, 1960
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kennedy rode down Lexington’s Main Street during a campaign parade on Oct. 8, 1960. Approximately 20,000 people lined downtown streets to get a glimpse of...
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Kentucky Central Insurance building, 1976
What was then the building that housed Kentucky Central Insurance Co. and is now the home of the Lexington Urban County Government at 200 East Main Street, in July 1976. The 12-story, 300-room building...
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Rupp Arena construction, 1975
The steel superstructure of Rupp Arena loomed over the west end of downtown Lexington on Jan. 9, 1975, in a westward view on Vine Street from Limestone. Click here to see other Rupp Arena construction...
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Downtown Lexington jewelry store burglary, 1956
Lexington patrolmen John Johnson Jr., left, and James Perkins looked at the damage after a burglary on June 21, 1956, at Kirk Jewelry Co., 301 West Main Street. Eight Bulova watches, valued at $400,...
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