Lexington, Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky Downtown Lexington overlooking the old Courthouse and Victorian Square Downtown Lexington overlooking the old Courthouse and Victorian Square Lexington, Kentucky is positioned in the US Lexington, Kentucky - Lexington, Kentucky State Kentucky Lexington, merged with Fayette County, is the second-largest town/city in Kentucky and the 61st biggest in the United States.
With a mayor-alderman form of government, it is one of two metros/cities in Kentucky designated by the state as first-class; the other is the state's biggest city of Louisville. In the 2016 U.S.
Enumeration Estimate, the city's populace was 318,449, anchoring a urbane region of 506,751 citizens and a combined statistical region of 723,849 citizens . Lexington rates tenth among US metros/cities in college education rate, with 39.5% of inhabitants having at least a bachelor's degree. It is the locale of the Kentucky Horse Park, The Red Mile and Keeneland race courses, Rupp Arena, the world's biggest basketball-specific arena, Transylvania University, the University of Kentucky, and Bluegrass Community & Technical College.
See also: Timeline of Lexington, Kentucky; Lexington, Kentucky, in the American Civil War; History of Kentucky; and National Register of Historic Places listings in Fayette County, Kentucky Lexington was established by European Americans in June 1775, in what was then considered Fincastle County, Virginia, 17 years before Kentucky became a state.
Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, they titled their campsite Lexington.
In 1780, Lexington was made the seat of Virginia's newly organized Fayette County.
Henry Clay's old law office in Downtown Lexington Durrett helped guide "The Travelling Church", a group migration of a several hundred pioneers led by the preacher Lewis Craig and Captain William Ellis from Orange County, Virginia to Kentucky in 1781. It is the earliest black Baptist congregation in Kentucky and the third earliest in the United States. In 1806, Lexington was a rising town/city of the vast territory to the west of the Appalachian Mountains; poet Josiah Espy described it in the following letter: Lexington is the biggest and most wealthy town in Kentucky, or indeed west of the Allegheny Mountains; the chief street of Lexington has all the appearance of Market Street in Philadelphia on a busy day ...
The nation around Lexington for many miles in every direction, is equal in beauty and fertility to anything the imagination can paint and is already in a high state of cultivation. Residents have fondly continued to refer to Lexington as "The Athens of the West" since Espy's poem dedicated to the city.
The burgeoning town was devastated by a cholera epidemic in 1833, which had spread throughout the waterways of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys: 500 of 7,000 Lexington inhabitants died inside two months, including nearly one-third of the congregation of Christ Church Episcopal. London Ferrill, second preacher of First African Baptist, was one of three clergy who stayed in the town/city to serve the suffering victims. Additional cholera outbreaks occurred in 1848 49 and the early 1850s.
Victorian Square in Downtown Lexington In 1850, one-fifth of the state's populace were slaves, and Lexington had the highest concentration of slaves in the entire state.
Lincoln's wife Mary Todd Lincoln was born and raised in Lexington, and the couple visited the town/city several times after their marriage in 1842.
While Kentucky stayed in the Union amid the American Civil War, the inhabitants of different regions of the state had divided loyalties.
Expanded as the first alcohol and drug rehabilitation hospital in the United States, it was known as "Narco" of Lexington.
The hospital was later converted to operate as part of the federal prison system; it is known as the Federal Medical Center, Lexington and serves a range of community needs for prisoners.
Lexington has continued as the center of thoroughbred horse breeding and racing in Kentucky, with primary racing and revenue facilities, as well as a exhibition of horses and the sport.
Lexington, which includes all Fayette County, consists of 285.5 square miles (739.4 km2), mostly gently rolling plateau, in the center of the inner Bluegrass Region.
According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 285.5 square miles (739 km2).
Main article: Cityscape of Lexington, Kentucky Lexington features a diverse cityscape.
Forbes has ranked Lexington as one of the world's seventeen cleanest cities. Panoramic view of downtown Lexington area.
Lexington's strict urban expansion boundary protects region horse farms from development.
Lexington must manage a quickly growing populace while working to maintain the character of the encircling horse farms that give the region its identity.
In 1958 Lexington enacted the nation's first Urban Growth Boundary, restricting new evolution to an Urban Service Area.
It set a strict minimum region requirement, presently 40 acres (160,000 m2), to maintain open space for landholdings in the Rural Service Area. In 1967, the Urban Service Area was decreased in area; various zoning regulations were also amended from the initial 1958 issue.
Several years later, in 1973, the first Lexington Comprehensive Plan was completed.
In 1980, the Comprehensive Plan was updated: the Urban Service Area was modified to include Urban Activity Centers and Rural Activity Centers. The Urban Activity Centers were commercial and light-industrial districts in urbanized areas, while Rural Activity Centers were retail trade and light-industrial centers clustered around the Interstate 64/Interstate 75 interchanges.
In 1996, the Urban Service Area was period when 5,300 acres (21 km2) of the Rural Service Area was acquired through the Expansion Area Master Plan. This was controversial: this first primary update to the Comprehensive Plan in over a decade was accompanied by arguments among inhabitants about the future of Lexington and the thoroughbred farms. Three years after the expansion was initiated, the Rural Service Area Land Management Plan was adopted, which increased the minimum lot size in the agricultural non-urban zones to 40-acre (160,000 m2) minimums. In 2000, a Purchase of Development Rights plan was adopted, granting the town/city the power to purchase the evolution rights of existing farms; in 2001, $40 million was allocated to the plan from a $25 million local, $15 million state grant. An Infill and Redevelopment study was also initiated amid that time, along with design guidelines for the areas encircling the new Fayette County courthouses.
Lexington is in the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate zone, with hot, humid summers, and cool winters with occasional mild periods; it falls in USDA hardiness zone 6b. The town/city and the encircling Bluegrass region have four distinct seasons that include cool plateau breezes, moderate evenings in the summer, and no prolonged periods of heat, cold, rain, wind, or snow.
The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 32.9 F (0.5 C) in January to 76.2 F (24.6 C) in July, while the annual mean temperature is 55.5 F (13.1 C). On average, there are 23 days of 90 F (32 C)+ highs annually and 19 days per winter where the high fails to rise above freezing. Annual rain is 45.1 inches (1,150 mm), with the late spring and summer months being slightly wetter; snow flurry averages 13.0 inches (33 cm) per season. Extreme temperatures range from 21 F ( 29 C) on January 24, 1963, up to 108 F (42 C) on July 10 and 15, 1936. Lexington is recognized as a high allergy region by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. The results for the spring of 2008 project Lexington as first among high-allergy cities.
Climate data for Lexington, Kentucky (Blue Grass Airport), 1981 2010 normals, extremes 1872 present The Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Travel Destination (MSA) includes Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, and Woodford counties.
The MSA populace in 2015 was estimated at 500,535. The Lexington-Fayette-Frankfort-Richmond, KY Combined Travel Destination had an estimated populace of 723,849 in 2015. This includes the metro region and an additional seven counties. Map of ethnic distribution in Lexington, 2010 U.S.
Lexington town/city limits became coterminous with Fayette County in 1974.
Main article: Economy of Lexington, Kentucky See also: List of employers in Lexington, Kentucky Lexington has one of the nation's most stable economies.
Lexington describes itself as having "a fortified economy, strong in manufacturing, technology and entrepreneurial support, benefiting from a diverse , balanced company base". The Lexington Metro Area had an unemployment rate of 3.7% in August 2015, lower than many metros/cities of similar size. In 2011 Lexington was ranked as the 4th-best town/city for "Businesses and Careers" by Forbes magazine, the 5th-best town/city for Young Professionals in 2008, and 6th-Best "Value Cities" in 2011 by Kiplinger. have large operations in the city, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky is inside the Lexington CSA, positioned in adjoining Georgetown.
Notable corporate command posts include: Lexmark International, a manufacturer of printers and enterprise software; Link-Belt Construction Equipment, a designer and manufacturer of telescopic and lattice boom cranes; Big Ass Solutions, a manufacturer of large ceiling fans and lighting fixtures for industrial, commercial, agricultural, and residentiary use; A&W Restaurants, a restaurant chain known for root beer and root beer floats; Fazoli's, a fast food Italian-style chain that has period to more than twenty states; Tempur Sealy International, a manufacturer of mattresses; Florida Tile, a manufacturer of porcelain and ceramic tile; and the Forcht Group of Kentucky, a holding business that employs more than 2,100 citizens athwart Kentucky.
Forcht Group operates a several businesses in Lexington, including First Corbin Bancorp, Kentucky National Insurance Company, My Favorite Things, BSC, a bank data services company; and First Lab, among others.
The city's biggest employer, the University of Kentucky, as of 2012, employs about 14,000.
That number is expected to shrink due to reduced funding from the state. The college ranks as the 9th-largest economic business in the state of Kentucky, with an annual budget of $1.4 billion, and the College of Medicine inside the college is the 21st-largest business in the state.
The Fayette County Public Schools employ 5,374, and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government employs 2,699.
Lexington is home to many grow arts organizations including a experienced orchestra, two ballet companies, experienced theatre, a several exhibitions, a several choral organizations, and a highly respected opera program at the University of Kentucky.
The Lexington History Center in downtown Lexington, formerly the Fayette County courthouse.
The Festival of the Bluegrass, Kentucky's earliest bluegrass music festival, is in early June; it includes three stages for music and a "bluegrass music camp" for school children.
Later in June, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization hosts the Lexington Pride Festival, which jubilates pride in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and welcomes allies.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, propel in 2010 and openly gay, proclaimed June 29, 2013 as Pride Day. Lexington has one of the highest concentrations of gay and lesbian couples in the United States for a town/city its size. The Lexington Singers and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra perform at this event.
The Fourth of July may be the biggest holiday in Lexington.
The Woodland Arts Fair, almost four decades old, is held in mid-August by The Lexington Art League.
Since the turn of the 21st century, Festival Latino de Lexington, the biggest fiesta in September, has been the city's chief event to jubilate Hispanic Heritage Month.
During the festival, thousands of citizens , Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike, gather in downtown Lexington to appreciate the cultural displays, dancing presentations, live music, and a range of food from different regions of Latin America.
"Southern Lights: Spectacular Sights on Holiday Nights", taking place from November 18 to December 31, is held at the Kentucky Horse Park.
It includes a three-mile (5 km) drive through the park, highlighting various displays, many in character with the horse trade and history of Lexington.
In 2002, Lexington became the first town/city to launch a "Thriller video" reenactment as a Halloween festivity.
The Lexington Christmas Parade is held usually the day after Thanksgiving.
Located in Cheapside Park adjoining to the Lexington Farmer's Market.
The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra presents a several annual concerts. Beaux Arts Ball: A masquerade ball hosted by students of the University of Kentucky's College of Design (formerly College of Architecture).
The best squads in the country meet after qualifying amid the regular season on the first weekend in May annually, hosted by the University of Kentucky Debate Team.
Lexington is home to various exhibitions and historical structures.
Since the late 20th century, Lexington has completed hundreds of historic structures to make way for hotels, banks and parking structures.
The Lexington Public Library was constructed where the historic Phoenix Hotel once stood.
Lexington Cemetery The University of Kentucky Art Museum is the premier art exhibition for Lexington and the only accredited exhibition in the region.
The world's biggest ceiling clock and a five-story Foucault pendulum are positioned inside the Lexington Public Library on East Main St.
Lexington Public Library offers a range of programs and services to the people of Fayette County and circulates 3,000,000 items per year.
The Kentucky Wildcats, the athletic program of the University of Kentucky, is Lexington's most prominent sports entity.
A Lexington Legends game Lexington is home to the Lexington Legends, a Class A minor league partner of the Kansas City Royals as 2012. Since its inception in 2001, Lexington has produced various primary leaguers including: 2009 National League All-Star Hunter Pence (Outfielder), John Buck (Catcher), Mike Gallo (Pitcher), and Josh Anderson, (Right fielder).
The Kentucky Horse Park, positioned along scenic Iron Works Pike in northern Fayette County, is a comparative latecomer to Lexington, opening in 1978.
Although generally known as a tourist attraction and exhibition, it is also a exhibition and working horse farm with a farrier and famous retired horses such as 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide.
Since its opening in April 1978, the Kentucky Horse Park has hosted the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, which is one of the top 3 annual equestrian eventing competitions in the world and held immediately before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
In September and October 2010, Lexington hosted the World Equestrian Games, the first time the games were held outside of Europe.
Since October/November 2011, the Kentucky Horse Park has hosted the National Horse Show.
Lexington Cemetery's tulip garden.
Lexington has over 100 parks ranging in size from the 8,719-square-foot (810.0 m2) Smith Street Park to the 659-acre (2.7 km2) Masterson Station Park. Among those parks are:
The town/city is home to Raven Run Nature Sanctuary, a 734-acre (3.0 km2) nature preserve along the Kentucky River Palisades. There are 11 miles (18 km) of back-country hiking trails that range from wheelchair-accessible paved trails to difficult single-track trails.
The town/city has recently purchased territory adjoining to the park which will make Raven Run the biggest park in the city.
The Arboretum is a 100-acre (0.40 km2) preserve adjoining to the University of Kentucky. It features the Arboretum Woods, a small, 16-acre (65,000 m2) Bluegrass Woodland patch that is home to eighteen native Kentucky tree species, and more than 50 native Kentucky grasses and herbs.
The town/city also plays host to the historic Mc - Connell Springs, a 26-acre (110,000 m2) park inside the industrialized confines off of Old Frankfort Pike. There are two miles (3 km) of trails that surround the namesake springs, historic dry-laid contemporary fences, and historical structures.
Federally, Lexington is part of Kentucky's 6th congressional district, represented by Republican Andy Barr.
In 1974, the governments of the town/city of Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky, combined to problematic the current Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, often abbreviated LFUCG.
Lexington has an propel mayor and town/city council-style of government.
On November 2, 2010, former vice-mayor Jim Gray was propel mayor, becoming the city's first openly gay mayor. He was sworn into office on January 2, 2011, by Kentucky Supreme Court justice Mary Noble. Gray was preceded by Mayor Jim Newberry, and the two collaborated on developing improved industrialized and agricultural opportunity for the City of Lexington and the State of Kentucky.
Primary law enforcement duties inside Lexington-Fayette County is the responsibility of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Division of Police.
The Division of Police resulted from the consolidation of the Lexington Police Department with the Fayette County Patrol in 1974.
The Fayette County Sheriff's Office is responsible for court service, including court security, prisoner transport, process and warrant service, and property tax collection.
In 1992 (effective 1993), the Kentucky General Assembly enabled a correctional services division to be established by ordinance, making employees civil service employees clean water political appointees. The University of Kentucky Police Department, the Transylvania University Department of Public Safety, Blue Grass Airport Public Safety, Lexington-Fayette Division of Community Corrections, Fayette County Schools Department of Law Enforcement, the Veterans Affairs Police Department and the Kentucky Horse Park Police also have jurisdiction inside their geographic areas in Lexington-Fayette County.
In addition, the Lexington-Fayette Animal Care & Control exercises law enforcement over animal control issues and the Kentucky State Police, KSP Division of Commercial Vehicle Enforcement and Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources can be seen performing their respective law enforcement duties inside the county.
Several federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI and Secret Service, maintain satellite offices inside Lexington.
Prisons in Fayette County include the Federal Medical Center, Lexington, directed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the Blackburn Correctional Complex, directed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
See also: List of schools in Lexington, Kentucky According to the United States Census, of Lexington's populace over the age of twenty-five, 22.4% hold a bachelor's degree, 11.4% hold a master's degree, and 3.1% hold a experienced degree.
Lexington was ranked 10th in a list of America's most educated metros/cities with a populace of more than 250,000, ranked by percentage of bachelor's degrees among inhabitants 25 and older, as stated to the United States Enumeration Bureau. In a report released by Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, Lexington rates 13th in the United States in terms of literacy rate. The index was compiled through six indicators of literacy, including Internet sources, journal circulation, the number of bookstores, library resources, education and periodical resources.
The town/city is served by the Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS).
FCPS opened two new elementary schools in August 2016, and is nearing culmination of a sixth high school that is scheduled to open in August 2017. There are also two traditional colleges: the University of Kentucky, which is the state's flagship enhance university, and Transylvania University, which is the state's earliest four-year college and the first college west of the Alleghenies. Other establishments of higher learning include Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Sullivan University, Spencerian College, Medtech College, Strayer University, Commonwealth Baptist College, and a distance-learning extension of Indiana Wesleyan University.
Seven other postsecondary establishments are inside the Lexington Combined Statistical Area: Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary, separate though related establishments in Wilmore; Georgetown College in Georgetown; Midway University, with its chief campus in Midway and an extension ground in Lexington; Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond; Berea College in Berea, and Kentucky State University in Frankfort.
Main article: Media in Lexington, Kentucky Lexington's biggest daily circulating journal is the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Business Lexington is a monthly company newspaper.
The state's enhance tv network, Kentucky Educational Television (KET), is headquartered in Lexington and is one of the nation's biggest enhance networks.
Main article: Roads of Lexington, Kentucky The northeast border of Lexington has direct access to Interstate 64 and Interstate 75, but freeways do not run through downtown or other sections of the city.
Instead, Lexington has two beltways: inner New Circle Road (KY 4) and outer Man o' War Boulevard (southern semi-circle), then various arterial highways/U.S.
Lexingtonendures considerable traffic congestion for a town/city of its size due to the lack of freeways, the adjacency of the University of Kentucky to downtown, and the substantial number of commuters from outlying towns.
Blue Grass Airport is Lexington's major commercial airport.
Lexington is served by Lextran, a enhance transit bus agency directed by LFUCG and has been in existence since 1972.
Lextran (officially the Transit Authority of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government) is a enhance transit bus fitness serving Lexington, Kentucky.
It runs bus routes throughout the town/city which mostly all converge in downtown at the Lexington Transit Center positioned at 220 East Vine.
Even though Lexington and Fayette County are a merged government, Lextran does not furnish service outside the Lexington town/city proper due to limited funding sources.
The Lexington Area Metropolitan Planning Organization is responsible for transit planning for Fayette and Jessamine Counties.
Main article: List of citizens from Lexington, Kentucky Lexington has four sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International: One of the entities involved in the consolidation was Shizunai, which established a sister town/city relationship with Lexington in 1988.
All four are, like Lexington, primary centers of the Thoroughbred breeding trade in their respective countries.
Under Kentucky's current classification scheme, which went into effect on January 1, 2015, metros/cities with a mayor alderman form of government are first-class, with the "home rule class" covering all other forms.
Commonwealth of Kentucky.
"Lexington, Kentucky".
Degrees & Training Most-Educated Cities in the United States.
"First African Baptist Church", Lexington: The Athens of the West, National Park Service.
Nutter, "A Brief History of the First Baptist Church (Black) Lexington, Kentucky", in Souvenir, Sesqui-Centennial Celebration, 1790-1940, Lexington, KY: 1940, accessed August 22, 2010 "Athens of the West;" Lexington, Kentucky: The Athens of the West A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary; National Park Service; 2009 "Christ Church Episcopal", Lexington, National Park Service.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County, Kentucky.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County, Kentucky.
"Station Name: KY LEXINGTON BLUEGRASS AP".
"Annual Estimates of the Population of Combined Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 (CBSA-EST2006-02)".
1970 Enumeration of the Population, Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population, Part 19, Kentucky.
1980 Enumeration of the Population, Volume 1: Characteristics of the Population, Part 19, Kentucky.
Kentucky State Data Center.
"Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky Population finder".
"Lexington, KY small-town and state news by the Lexington Herald-Leader - Kentucky.com".
Lexington Herald-Leader.
"The Lexington Philharmonic Online".
Lexington, Kentucky, USA: lexphil.org.
"University of Kentucky Art Museum".
"Downtown Lexington's Next Loss: Woolworth's".
"Red Mile and Keeneland Joint Venture - Red Mile - Lexington, Kentucky".
City of Lexington, Kentucky, Division of Parks and Recreation.
"Parks Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government".
"Parks Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government".
"Lexington Ranks As 17th Most Literate City".
"Fayette County redistricting plans posted for elementary and middle schools".
A Walking Tour of Lexington, Kentucky (2011) excerpt and text search Civil War Lexington, KY: Bluegrass Breeding Ground of Power (2011) excerpt and text search Lexington: Queen of the Bluegrass.
Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky.
Lexington Kentucky (KY) (Black America) (2002) "Date of the First Settlement of Lexington, Kentucky".
Lexington: Heart of the Bluegrass (1994); 244pp; a history Lexington, Kentucky Official website of Lexington, Kentucky Official website of Downtown Lexington Corporation Official website of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau Lexington Kentucky: The Athens of the West, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary Downloadable PDF and Plain text versions of George Washington Ranck's 1872 book, History of Lexington, Kentucky Digitized images from the Ethel Williams compilation on Lexington, Kentucky, 1902-1909, homed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections research Center Digitized images from A Review of Lexington, Kentucky, as she is: her richness and industry, her wonderful expansion and admirable enterprise, her great company concerns, her manufacturing advances, and commercial resources, homed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
Categories:
Cities in Kentucky - Consolidated city-counties in the United States - County seats in Kentucky - Lexington, Kentucky - Populated places established in 1775 - Cities in Fayette County, Kentucky
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