February 26, 2025
Downtown Lexington, 1938
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. Lafayette Studios Collection/UK Special Collections
Flag-raising at Linlee School, 1945
Students and teachers lined up for a photo during their schools-at-war flag-raising at Linlee School on April 18, 1945. The flag was presented by the Linlee PTA because 90 percent of the student body had made monthly purchases of war stamps. The school was the first in the county to reach the 90 percent mark. The school began as Greendale High School in 1911 and was Fayette County’s first consolidated school. The name Linlee is a derivation of the names of President Abraham Lincoln and Gen. Robert E. Lee. Linlee Elementary, which closed at the end of the 2007-2008 school year, is now The Learning Center at Linlee. The school, which is of Georgetown Road in Northern Fayette County, serves students in grades 8-12 who thrive in a nontraditional school setting. The school is designed for kids whose learning style is characterized by a different pace, who need a smaller classroom setting or who want a more hands-on approach to instruction. Published in the Lexington Herald on April 19, 1945. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
UK football’s Tim Masthay, Rich Brooks during spring game, 2006
University of Kentucky punter Tim Masthay got off a clear punt as head coach Rich Brooks watched during the spring Blue-White football game on April 22, 2006 at Commonwealth Stadium. Later that year, Brooks guided UK to its first bowl game in seaven seasons. The Cats beat Clenson in the Music City Bowl, finishing the season with a 8-5 record and 4-4 in the SEC. Brooks coached the Cats from 2003 to 2009, compiling a 39-47 record. Masthay, a soph more-to-be at the time of this photo, was a four-year starting punter for the Wildcats. He was a first-team All-SEC selection his senior year in 2008 and is currently the punter for the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
Coach Joe B. Hall and NCAA champs return to Lexington, 1978
University of Kentucky basketball coach Joe B. Hall greeted fans on March 28, 1978, as the NCAA national champion Wildcats arrived at Blue Grass Field. Kentucky defeated Duke 94-88 in the championship game the night before in St. Louis. About 7,000 fans waited inside the airport terminal for the team to arrive. This year’s Makers Mark bottle features Hall and the 1978 Wildcats. Several former players are to sign the bottle at Keeneland starting at 7:30 a.m. Friday. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Mercury 7 space capsule visits Lexington, 1962
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
J. Peterman Co. store, 1993
The J. Peterman Co.’s first retail store, at 3090 Richmond Road in Lexington, on Sept. 15, 1993. Lexington-based J. Peterman started as a mail-order catalog company in 1987, and it eventually expanded into a line of 10 retail stores, including Lexington; Manchester, Vt.; New York; and Chattanooga. When this store opened on Dec. 12, 1992, it sold, among other items, jars of strawberry preserves for $6; a Chinese-made BMW-style motorcycle with sidecar, circa 1950, never used, $7,500; and a 38-pound silver bar from a 17th-century sunken Spanish ship, $16,900. The company enjoyed pop culture success from 1995 to 1998 thanks to the TV show Seinfeld. The show parodied the owner and the company with character Elaine Benes, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, working at the company under eccentric businessman and world traveler J. Peterman, played by John O’Hurley. The company’s fortunes soon reversed, though, and Paul Harris Stores Inc. bought J. Peterman at a bankruptcy auction in March 1999. That’s when Peterman departed the company. Peterman returned in 2001 with his signature Owner’s Manual catalog. This building in the The Village Shoppes now houses a Pizza Hut. In April, 2016, J. Peterman started using Kickstarter to introduce a whole new generation to items they might have thought existed solely in Seinfeld reruns, including an urban sombrero. Photo by Robin Tinay Sallie | Staff
Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial service, 1945
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
Morehead State University campus, 1991
The campus of Morehead State University, Feb. 27, 1991. University Boulevard runs up the left side of the photo. The tall building at upper right is Mignon Tower, a 15-story coed residence hall for 300 students. The curvy buildings surrounding it also are dorms. Enrollment was 8,600 about the time of this photo. Today there are more than 11,000 students enrolled at the Eastern Kentucky school, in the foothills of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Rowan County. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Jackie Robinson during preseason game in Louisville, 1956
Brooklyn’s Jackie Robinson shivered in the dugout as the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Milwaukee Braves in an April 9, 1956, preseason game in Louisville. The temperature was 44 degrees at game time at Parkway Field. The California native joked, “Now I know why they call it bluegrass. It’s frozen!” It was the start of the 37-year-old Robinson’s last season in professional baseball. Published in the Lexington Herald on April 10, 1956. A documentary about Robinson by Ken Burns is airing Monday and Tuesday on PBS. Read a review of it here. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Blue Grass Stakes, 1959
The start of the 35th running of the Blue Grass Stakes, April 23, 1959, at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington. Tomy Lee won the $32,550 race by a half-length. In the picture, the bay colt, who went off as the favorite, is the fourth horse from the rail. Nine days later, Bill Shoemaker and his English-bred mount won the Kentucky Derby, becoming only the second non-American-bred horse to ever win the Run for the Roses. He did not run in the remaining two Triple Crown races because his trainer said he didn’t like to run races too close together, so Tomy Lee went to California to rest. He died in 1971 and is buried at Pillar Stud in Lexington. Read the Sports front page on his Blue Grass victory here and his win in the Kentucky Derby on the front page here. Lexington Herald Archive Photo
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