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 Kentucky Central 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