Lexington, KY - In the end, it's certainly not the most important 118 acres in the world, but the land that eventually became the Fairway Neighborhood has played host to a cast of characters on the local, state, national, and even international stage since the state of Virginia first allotted the property to Col. John Todd, Jr. in 1779.
Recognizing the historical and cultural importance of their neighborhood, a small group of Fairway history buffs set out to fulfill the daunting task of chronicling the area's storied past -
its prominent, and oftentimes scandalous, beginnings, its staggered development, and, above all, its colorful characters. "Fairway: A Living History," the outcome of these efforts, was released in late December.
The book actually is an offshoot of an oral history project which began in the winter of 2008, when the book's authors, Fairway Neighborhood Association History Committee chair Robert Figg, current neighborhood association president Valerie Askren, Sandra Ireland and Kay Dignan, and other Fairway neighbors began conducting interviews with current and former residents who had time-honored ties to the neighborhood. The interviews have been archived at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky.
"We've been so richly blessed in that we have people living in the neighborhood who have been here 85 years," Robert Figg said. "Their knowledge is phenomenal of events and developments over that time. From the actual early beginning of the development right up to present day."
The impetus for the book began to take root as the interviewers wanted to paint a solid backdrop in which all of these collected anecdotes, from 17 individuals, could come to life. "We wanted to take it a little further and put more of a context around when these stories occurred," said Valerie Asken. "That encouraged us to do a little more research, do a little more digging, to find this underlying, factual fabric which would support these stories being told."
And digging they did. The authors recounted the hundreds of voluntary hours they spent rummaging through original state land records, library collections, old newspaper articles and even personal photo albums. The result is a comprehensive tome that encompasses the Fairway Neighborhood's history, development, architecture and nature supplemented with provoking maps and pictures - some of which were literally taken off of neighbors' walls.
Admittedly, the authors were aware that most people aren't very fascinated by history, so they made sure many of the sensational tales associated with the neighborhood were thoroughly fleshed out. Like the story of Alfred Russell, for example, a story so steeped in the devices of modern day soap operas, it must be retold (with apologies to the book's authors).
Alfred Russell was the grandson of Mary "Polly" Owen Todd Russell, the only heir to Col. Todd's land. He was the result of a tryst between Polly's son, John, and Milly, an octoroon (an antiquated term for a person of one-eighth black ancestry) house servant. On his deathbed, John confessed to his mother that he was Alfred's father, and despite racial mores of the early 1800s, Polly moved Milly and her grandson into her home after negotiating their "purchase." Unfortunately, due to early Kentucky marital laws, after Polly married the nefarious Robert Wickliffe, who had his eyes on Polly's attractive landholdings and was the largest slaveholder in Kentucky, Milly and Alfred became the property of her husband. Wickliffe refused to grant the mother and son their freedom, and it wasn't until Polly signed over all of her property that Wickliffe acquiesced. Polly sent Alfred and Milly to Liberia, a West African country founded by freed American slaves. Alfred, as the book tells, went on to become an Episcopalian minister, and president of Liberia.
"That's Hollywood stuff. Really," Figg said.
Other characters, like "The Squire" William Preston, who built the first home in what is now Fairway in 1926, along with his 17-hand steed, and Julia R. Ewan, for whom the old Kenwick School on Henry Clay Boulevard was renamed in 1963, make appearances throughout the work. And the usual suspects -
Mary Todd Lincoln, Henry Clay, the McDowell Speedway (now Richmond Road), Lexington's ongoing water crisis -
make compelling cameos.
Sections of the book gain an added dimension when living neighbors' memories, the ones included in the oral history project, are inserted to give personal, first-hand accounts. David Lagrew, whose father was an officer in the Lexington National Guard Horse Calvary, Troop B, which was headquartered in the old Remount Station - located adjacent to the Kenwick School extending north on both sides of Henry Clay Boulevard to the railroad tracks -
recounts his father's experiences as a trusted commander under General Patton during the European campaigns in World War II. Incidentally, all that remains of the Remount Station, which at one time served 23 states as the purchasing and breeding center for Army horses and was an economic juggernaut for the region in the first half of the last century, are "memories and occasional relics of the past such as a rusted horse shoe or stirrup recovered by neighbors digging in their gardens on the old station site," the book laments.
The authors make no pretensions about the book's audience; they are cognizant that the work is only going to appeal to current and former Fairway neighbors and other Kentuckiana enthusiasts. But, as former editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader and Los Angeles Times - and current Fairway neighbor -
John Carroll writes in the preface: "People are interested in all kinds of news -
foreign, national, state and city news -
but what they crave most are stories about their own neighborhoods and their own blocks."
This book will definitely satiate this craving, but as Figg jokes, "There probably won't be a movie about it for sometime."
For more information on "Fairway: A Living History" or to order a copy, visit www.fairwayneighborhood.org.