February 26, 2025
Brookside bridge collapse, 1978
A span of the Brookside bridge over Clover Fork in Harlan County collapsed on March 13, 1978, when an Eastover Mining Co. truck pulling a trailer with a bulldozer attempted to cross the bridge. The 60-year-old trestle bridge was on Ky. 38, a narrow twisting blacktop road that was a major highway for the mining and logging areas east of Harlan. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Lexington TV sportscasters, 1981, 82
Sportscaster Alan Cutler in the WLEX-18 newsroom, Dec. 5, 1981, his first year at the station. Cutler, a native of Long Beach, N.Y., graduated from State University of New York at Cortland. He was at the station from 1981 to 1984, then, after three years in Pittsburgh, including a stint as a color commentator for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he returned to WLEX in 1987 and is currently sports director/anchor. Photo by Frank Anderson | Staff
WTVQ-36 sportscaster Kenny Rice in the editing room, July 12, 1982. Rice, a native of Floyd County in Eastern Kentucky, became sports director at WTVQ after graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1980. He was there until 1999, when he went to NBC, where he has covered horse racing, including the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup. For a number of years, he was the co-host of AXS TV’s mixed martial arts program called Inside MMA. Currently he is a special correspondent for the show. Photo by David Perry | Staff
WKYT-27 sportscaster Rob Bromley behind the sports desk in July 1982. He was the top-rated sportscaster in Lexington at the time. The dean of Lexington sportscasters came to WKYT in 1977 from a station in Lima, Ohio. Bromley, a native of Rome, N.Y., will mark his 40th year at WKYT in 2017. Photo by Christy Porter | Staff
Easter egg hunt, 2005
Whitney Marion, 3, of Richmond was pleased with herself after hugging the Easter Bunny, played by Charlotte Antonchak, an Eastern Kentucky University student, during an Easter egg hunt in Richmond’s Irvine McDowell Park on March 26, 2005, the day before Easter. Photo by Janet Worne | Staff
South Hill neighborhood, 1976
An aerial photo of Lexington’s South Hill neighborhood in late January 1976. At the time, the Urban County Council had reaffirmed its decision to level most of the houses south of High Street to make way for a 16-acre surface parking lot for Rupp Arena, upper middle, and Lexington Center, which opened the following October. Construction of the Hyatt Regency Hotel had just begun. The decision would make way for more than 2,000 parking spaces in the low-income residential area of South Hill. Despite a public movement to save the neighborhood, the majority of the houses were torn down by early 1978. Photo by Ron Garrison | Staff
Meijer site on Reynolds Road, 1998
An aerial view of development between Reynolds Road (running left to right across the middle) and New Circle Road (lower left corner) in Lexington on Nov. 19, 1998. The road being built would become Ruccio Way, and a Meijer supermarket would open on the site in 2000. Meijer paid $10.7 million for land on the former RJ Reynolds Tobacco property, which would become its second Lexington store. Reynolds Road was widened soon after the store opened. In the upper left corner is Fayette Mall. At upper right is construction of Lexington Christian Academy. The high school opened two months later in January 1999. Photo by David Stephenson | Staff
L&N Railroad strike, 1955
Several hundred empty Louisville and Nashville Railroad cars that would normally be hauling coal from Eastern Kentucky sat idle in the yards on March 24, 1955, at Ravenna in Estill County because of a strike against the railroad by non-operating employees (telegraphers, track men and clerks). The 57-day strike, one of the longest walkouts in rail history, paralyzed 14 Southern states, stalling transportation and freight, and shutting down coal mines. The strike stemmed from the L&N balking at accepting a health plan negotiated by the nonoperating worker unions with other railroads, calling for joint employer contributions. The L&N protested the cost, a $3.40 monthly payment by each employee and matched by the company. The walkout was marked by shootings of strikers and nonstrikers, and by train and bridge explosions. One striker was killed, and each side blamed the other for the violence. Published in the Lexington Herald on March 25, 1955. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Mercer County plowing, 1987
Forrest McGinnis, 72, took advantage of warmer weather on March 4, 1987, to start plowing for his tobacco crop on his 70-acre farm in Mercer County. He said he planned to grow approximately 2,000 pounds of tobacco that year on his farm, which was on U.S. 68 between Harrodsburg and Perryville. Photo by Charles Bertram | Staff
Kentucky basketball’s Allen Edwards, 1998
Kentucky’s Allen Edwards went up for a layup against Utah’s Micheal Doleac during the Cats’ 78-69 win in the NCAA Championship game on March 30, 1998, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Edwards, a senior and one of three team captains, scored four points in the win that gave the Cats their seventh national title. Edwards was promoted to head coach at Wyoming on March 21, 2016. Photo by Janet Worne | Staff
Japanese balloon bomb scare, 1945
Lexington patrol officers Robert Duncan, left, and Stanley Hadley showed a large rubber balloon that landed on North Mill Street near Second Street on the evening of Aug. 29, 1945. Residents in the area were frightened by the possibility that it might have been a Japanese balloon bomb. A small crowd of people kept a safe distance while officers examined the balloon. The police took the balloon to their headquarters, where they deflated it and discovered that it contained natural gas. No identifying marks were visible on the balloon, and officers were puzzled as to its possible origin. The photo was published on the front page of the Aug. 30, 1945, Lexington Herald. Click here to see that front page. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
Luther Lakes and his pet hawk, 1959
Luther Lakes showed off his pet broad-winged hawk, which he used to keep down the pest population on his farm in Estill County in September 1959. Lakes got the bird to keep down the starling and sparrow population as well as the rats and mice. The bird had most recently cleared out a nest of rats under a stack of lumber. The hawk was free to come and go at will but when not hunting, it preferred to perch on the ridgepole of the barn. Published in the Lexington Leader on Sept. 3, 1959. Herald-Leader Archive Photo
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