April 20, 2024
Polar bear plunge, 2004
Steam rose off Lexington police officer Mike Sweeney after he came out of the water at the “Polar Bear Plunge,” held Jan. 31, 2004, in front of the Texas Roadhouse on Richmond Road in Lexington. The event, a fundraiser for Special Olympics, allowed participants to raise money and jump into a swimming pool of near-freezing water. The water temperature was 35 degrees and the air temperature was 6. More than 200 people signed up to take the plunge. Sweeney was cheering for fellow officers as they jumped. Click on the photo for a larger image. Meteorologist Chris Bailey said Lexington is enduring the coldest winter stretch since the winter of 2013-14. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Fayette Mall food court, 1990
The Pavilion Food Court in Fayette Mall was packed with hungry shoppers on Nov. 18, 1990. A soothing mix of marble, sunlight and neon, the mall’s new food court opened 11 days earlier, just in time for the Christmas shopping season. There were 12 places to eat, with offerings as varied as enchiladas and ziti. There were fast-food favorites like Arby’s, Burger King and Subway. And there are some unexpected names in the lineup, too: Tumbleweed Mexican Cafe, Cajun Joe’s Premium Chicken, and Frank ‘n Stein, which offered a variety of hot dogs, Italian sausage, kielbasa and bratwurst for less than $3. It is visible in this image, third store from the right. Click on the image for a closer look. Tumbleweed is at far left. Three food stops that opened with the food court are there today: Gold-Star Chili, Sbarro and Subway. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
The 20,000-square-foot food court, shown here on Nov. 18, 1990, was built on the mall’s west side, where a courtyard near the movie theaters had been. It featured seating for 500 people and offered 12 restaurants; Arby’s; Burger King; Cajun Joe’s; Chao Praya, which served Oriental food; Freshens Yogurt; Gold Star Chili; Great Steak and Fry; Sbarro’s, which served pizza and Italian food; Subway; Tumbleweed Mexican Cafe; Coffee Beanery; and Frank ‘n Stein, featuring hot dogs and beer. Click here to see some other Fayette Mall photos from our archives, including an aerial image from 1967 of the 60 acres of land where the shopping center was later built. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Aerosmith concert at Rupp Arena, 1998
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler got in Lexington’s face on Feb. 2, 1998, during a concert before a near-sellout crowd of 17,000 at Rupp Arena. The Boston band delighted the crowd for two hours with thundering hits that spanned generations. Songs played included the 1973 anthem “Dream On” and the band’s current radio hit, “Pink.” The best-selling American hard-rock band of all time dived into its 1970s roots with “Draw the Line” and “Toys in the Attic” but also played recent hits including “Love in an Elevator.” It was the last time the band played Rupp, where Aerosmith had played five previous times. Recently, The Lexington Center Corp. tentatively agreed to a new partnership that officials hope will help attract more concerts and bigger artists to Rupp Arena, the area’s largest indoor concert venue. Photo by Mark Cornelison | Staff
Homecrafters make toys for mountain children, 1944
Lexington Homecrafters posed with some of the toys they made for underprivileged mountain children for Christmas in December 1944. The organization is composed of Lexington business and professional men who operate home workshops as a hobby. These men made nearly 500 toys for distribution and included dogs, wagons, trains, rocking chairs, cars, stick horses and other toys. They were to be distributed through radio listening centers operated by the University of Kentucky in Mozelle in Leslie County, south of Hyden. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Swahili Elks Club Santa, 1987
Santa Claus gave a present to Eugene Perrin Jr., 2, while his father, Eugene, stood close by at the Swahili Elks Club on Dec. 20, 1987. The club presented toys to 100 to 150 low-income children. Photo by Alan Lessig
First ever UK-UCLA basketball game, 1951
The University of Kentucky’s Lou Tsioropoulos grabbed a rebound off a missed shot by UCLA’s Mike Hibler (35) during the Wildcats’ 84-53 win over the Bruins on Dec. 26, 1951, at Memorial Coliseum. Not only was this the first game between the two college basketball bluebloods, but it was UK’s first game ever against a school from the West Coast. The third-largest crowd in Memorial Coliseum history, 13,000, saw the No. 1-ranked Cats blow out a tight game after halftime against No. 16 UCLA. They were led by a game-high 34 points from Owensboro junior Cliff Hagan, No. 6 at far right. The win marked UK’s 102nd straight on its home floor. The home-court winning streak, which began Jan. 4, 1943, against Ft. Knox, ended Jan. 8, 1955, at 129 games — an NCAA record that stands today. John Wooden, who later won 10 NCAA titles with the Bruins, was in his third year coaching UCLA. The 41-year-old Indiana native flew his team to Cincinnati and then took a bus on game day to Lexington. Two days later, they lost at No. 2 Illinois. They concluded their road trip with a win at Bradley in Peoria, Ill. The other UK players pictured are Shelby Linville (11) and Bobby Watson (66). Published in the Dec. 27, 1951, Lexington Herald. Click here to see the sports page from that day and read the story recapping the game.
Fulton “Airphibian” plane to car conversion, 1948
Robert Edison Fulton of Danbury, Conn., with his “Fulton Airphibian,” an airplane that he can convert to a car in three minutes and put it back into flying condition in about five minutes. The conversion from plane to auto is effected by removing the entire tail assembly and wings, as demonstrated by Fulton when he stopped at the Cool Meadow airport Dec. 6, 1948. Fulton explained that all controls synchronize automatically when the car and plane are coupled. He said the air cruising speed is about 110 mph, the road cruising speed from 45 to 50 mph. He said he has 400 flying hours in the plane-car and the vehicle, and he was looking to put it into commercial production soon. Cool Meadow Field preceded Blue Grass Field, now Blue Grass Airport, and it was off Newtown Pike where Fasig-Tipton Co. is now. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Gift wrapping at Lazarus in Fayette Mall, 1987
Burneda Gillet wrapped a gift for Vince Bruno of Lexington on Dec. 22, 1987, in Lazarus department store’s gift-wrapping area in in Fayette Mall. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Hazard shopping center, 1990
The Hazard Village Shopping Center on Ky. 80 (today called the Hal Rogers Parkway), Feb. 26, 1990. The area north of Hazard near Ky. 15 brought new services and restaurants to the area when it opened, thanks to the development of wider roads in the years before. Stores occupying the shopping center then included Roses, Winn Dixie, Radio Shack and Wendy’s. Today, Big Lots, Family Dollar and Rite Aid are some of the tenants. Hazard’s population at the time of this photo was 5,000. Today it is about 5,300. Click on the image for a closer look. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
Introduction of elk to Kentucky, 1997
A group of five elk — three cows and two bull calves — adjusted to their surroundings after being released on Dec. 18, 1997, in the Cyprus-Amax Wildlife Management Area, next to Robinson Forest in Perry County. A total of seven elk were released, marking the the beginning of Kentucky’s elk-restoration program. It was the first time in 150 years that free-ranging elk were present in the state. The elk population today is about 11,000. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Daniel Yoder, Becky Moyer, 10, middle, and Melody Musser, 9, watched the release of seven elk on Dec. 18, 1997, at the Cyprus-Amax Wildlife Management Area in Perry County. They were with the Valley View Mennonite School in Lebrun, in Knott County. In Colonial times, this largest member of the deer family was plentiful east of the Mississippi River, from Louisiana to New York. But like those of white-tailed deer, wild turkey and other species, elk numbers dwindled to near extinction because of habitat destruction, unregulated hunting and human disturbances. Elk disappeared from Kentucky in the 1840s. The elk restoration program stocked a 14-county area in Eastern Kentucky. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
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