Lexington, KY - Just about any fourth grader can tell you the story. How, 217 years ago last month, Lexington was selected from four candidates to become the capital city of Kentucky. After all, it was the Commonwealth's largest city, and served briefly as the capital in 1792. The other candidates - Petersburg, Leestown and Frankfort - were barely wide spots in the trail.
For sure, Petersburg, in Woodford County, had been laid out by Gen. Charles Scott with the intention of becoming the capital. Scott terminated his proposed city when the site was rejected.
Leestown was established on the Kentucky River, just upriver from Frank's Ford, named to honor the memory of the Jewish pioneer Stephen Frank, killed in a 1780 American Indian raid at the river crossing. Although Leestown would soon pass into lost history, it survives today as the major thoroughfare between the Kentucky capital and the river: Leestown Road.
What? This isn't the way you learned the history of Kentucky? Leestown Road connects the Kentucky capital on the river to Lexington? Frank's Ford (later corrupted to Frankfort) is the capital of the Commonwealth?
Of course it is. So, how did Lexington lose out to a river settlement established just six years prior? How did the largest city west of the Alleghenies, the "Athens of the West," the "Queen of the Blue Grass" fail to become the state capital?
"Ten boxes of glass, 10 x 12, 1,500 pounds of nails, 50 pounds of locks and hinges, [and] an equivalent of stone and scantling for building," along with rents from a tobacco warehouse for seven years, several town lots, and $3,000 in hard currency proved the difference, for that was what Frankfort put up to secure the capitol's location.
In short, the state capitol's location was a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. Literally.
The first Kentucky Constitution of 1792 established a commission to determine the location for a new state capital, and legislators instructed the commissioners to "accept the best proposals that were made in a moneyed point of view, as a bonus for this coveted honorÖ." For lack of nails, and assorted other materials, the capital was lost to Lexington.
Oddly, although Frankfort is the state's capital, it is not the permanent site. In fact, the capital location can be changed anytime 66 percent of the legislature votes to do so. And at least five attempts have been made to relocate the capital to either Lexington or Louisville.
The first came after Henry Clay was elected to Congress in 1811. Although that attempt failed to gain traction, as Louisville surpassed Lexington as the state's largest city, leaders there tried to stoke the relocation fires, only for naught. Following the War Between the States, Lexington again began to lay the political groundwork for relocation. For decades these efforts simmered in the background until boiling over during the constitutional convention of 1890 -
1891. The three contenders were, naturally, Frankfort, Lexington and Louisville.
Frankfort's backers wanted to leave the capital where it was for the practicality that not only were the capitol building and attached offices located there, but a rather large workforce was already in place. Moving the capital might literally eliminate the city. (Frankfort is the only original Kentucky River city to survive; Boonesborough, Leestown and Petersburg are all footnotes to history.)
Lexington's strongest argument was its central location at the crossroads of major north-south and east-west rail lines. Powerful agricultural and equine business interests worked tirelessly on its behalf. In addition, location of the state's public university (then Kentucky University) generated widespread support across the Commonwealth.
Louisville was advanced as the state's largest city, located on a major river, and at another rail crossroad. Outside of Jefferson County, however, little support existed for the River City. Oddly, the presence of the University of Louisville School of Law was considered a problem, since its graduates might dominate the legislative staff.
From mid-September in 1890 until early April in 1891, the hopes of each city rose and fell with the convention debate. As the decision time approached, one Lexington paper opined, "Lexington's chances for the state capital [are] excellent." The Lexington Chamber of Commerce arranged for a visit by legislators to be, among other things, "driven to the various sites on which the capital [sic] may be located."
In the end, however, the convention voted on April 8, 1891, to keep the capital in Frankfort "unless removed by a two-thirds vote of each house of the General Assembly." With that door left open, Lexington made two more attempts at the relocation.
The first came in June 1893 when delegates favoring Lexington, and thinking they had Louisville's support, filed House Bill 554 to relocate the capital to Lexington. Amendments soon placed four cities in contention: Lexington, Louisville, Danville and Bowling Green. Clearly, the deal between the Bluegrass Queen and River City was off. On the first ballot, Bowling Green was eliminated, and Danville was dropped on the second. On the third ballot, Louisville won by two votes. Finally, the showdown came between Louisville and Frankfort, with the latter prevailing 46-37.
The final relocation attempt died stillborn in 1904 when the Chamber of Commerce made a brief attempt to generate support for a notion for which the community had clearly grown tired.
What if the capitol were in Lexington? Where would it have been placed? In 1792, it may have logically been located in today's Gratz Park, on the mount overlooking the city. In 1891, the more logical candidate may be the location of the Federal Court Building on Barr Street.