February 24, 2025
Georgetown city limits, 1976
Sign on a road heading into Georgetown on April 21, 1976. According to the 2013 U. S. Census, Georgetown’s population had increased to 30,872, making it the ninth-largest city in Kentucky. Photo by David Perry | Herald-Leader staff
Women’s wrestling at Woodland Auditorium, 1946
Women’s professional wrestling was featured at Woodland Auditorium on Nov. 5, 1946. The auditorium, showcasing everything from professional wrestling to piano performers on the classical music circuit, was built about the turn of the century. It was condemned for public use in 1952 and was torn down sometime in the 1970s. It stood near the corner of East High Street and Kentucky Avenue. In this photo, Violet Viann applied a variation of a toehold on Nell Stewart, as referee Frank Bunch observed.
Richmond Road, 1984
Richmond Road, photographed across from McDonald’s, looking outbound toward Patchen Village, March 15, 1984. Photo by Steven R. Nickerson | Herald-Leader staff
Lexmark plant, 1993
The Lexmark plant at New Circle Road and Newtown Pike, Aug. 26, 1993. Newtown is on the right and New Circle is at the bottom. Photo by Ron Garrison | Herald-Leader Staff
One of IBM’s first typewriters, 1956
One of the first typewriters produced at the IBM plant on Newtown Pike in Lexington underwent a final inspection in December 1956. For more than 30 years, IBM was Lexmark’s industrial forerunner until 1990, when the New York investment firm Clayton & Dubilier bought at least 80 percent of IBM’s information products division. The resulting company was christened Lexmark, and there’s a common misconception that the name is in honor of Lexington. Not so: “Lex” was inspired by “lexicon,” with “mark” meaning marks on paper.
Lexington IBM plant’s beginnings, 1956
Grading had begun in August 1956 for International Business Machine Corp.’s new factory at New Circle Road (horizontally across the picture) and Newtown Pike. The 386,000-square-foot typewriter plant employed 1,800 people when it opened. By 1985, IBM had 6,000 workers, second only to the University of Kentucky’s 7,500 employees.
Adolph Rupp mixes mortar for Memorial Coliseum, 1949
University of Kentucky basketball coach Adolph Rupp mixed mortar during a cornerstone-laying ceremony on Feb. 21, 1949, at the construction site of Memorial Coliseum. Completed in 1950, Memorial Coliseum was the longtime home court for the Wildcats and a memorial to the more than 10,000 Kentuckians killed in World War II and the Korean War. The names of Kentuckians killed in the Vietnam War were added later. The UK men’s basketball team played in Memorial from 1950 to 1976, compiling a record of 306-38 (.890). Click on the photo for a closer look and click here to see more images from our archives of Memorial Coliseum, including state basketball tournaments, a Jimmy Buffet concert and more.
Excavation site in downtown Lexington, 1946
Excavation of the west portion of the former post office lot began at Main and Walnut streets in March 1946 for the construction of a new Martin’s Blue Grass Fashions store. Walnut Street is now called Martin Luther King Boulevard. In the background is a Sears Roebuck store and Central Christian Church.
Bruce Springsteen plays Rupp, 1984
Bruce Springsteen watched Clarence Clemons play the saxophone on Dec. 11, 1984, during a concert before 23,000 fans in Rupp Arena in Lexington. Clemons, a prominent member of Springsteen’s E Street Band, died in 2011 of a stroke. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Registering for classes at UK, 1946
University of Kentucky upperclassmen waited around tables in the men’s gymnasium to register for classes in September 1946.
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Kentucky.com news feed
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