Lexington, KY - Two hundred years ago, Lexington was at its height of commercial development and the largest city in the American West. From that year, until the Second World War, Lexington's commercial viability would slowly sink as the river cities of St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh soon eclipsed land-locked Lexington.
Of course, in 1810, the hopes and dreams of the town's population foresaw nothing but a continuation of the amazing commercial growth experienced since its settlement in 1779. (The city seal may denote 1775, but that is the date the proposed town was named; settlement was delayed due to the American Revolution.)
By 1800, the town had grown from a rag-tag group of settlers led by Col. Robert Patterson, to a bustling city of fine homes, taverns, and shops, even a lending library of some 3,000 volumes and the first college west of the Alleghenies -- Transylvania University, soon to be favorably compared to Harvard and Princeton.
Just 10 years later, the town of more than 4,300, including slaves, sported an active cultural scene in which the first production of a Shakespeare play (Macbeth) in the West was performed, as well as the Kentucky Gazette, the state's first newspaper. No longer a western settlement, the town featured several brick buildings that survive to this day. Colonial Georgian and Federal were the architectural styles of the day, and the city's leaders aspired to fine structures both for civic and private use.
Today's Metropol restaurant on Short near Mill was the town's post office. The county's third courthouse (where the Lexington History Center is located) was a handsome brick three-story structure with a clock tower and steeple topping its hipped roof. Henry Clay had just completed the central part of his villa at Ashland (the current structure sits on its foundation). Thomas January, noted architect of the Federal style, built his fine home at the corner of Lime and Constitution.
No home of the day, however, was finer than that of William "Lord" Morton. An extraordinary businessman, Morton had the foresight in 1795 to purchase three outlots on a high point north of the town on what was then Mulberry Street (now North Limestone), bounded by today's Fifth and Sixth streets and Martin Luther King Blvd. In 1802 Morton became president of Lexington's first bank. He also created a commercial district on the east side of Upper Street between Main and Vine, known as Morton's Row.
In 1810, Morton built his magnificent home in a modified Federal Style that stands in the center of Duncan Park. Upon his death, Morton left about a third of his estate to establish Morton Junior High School, from which the current school is directly descended.
The house was later home to abolitionist Cassius M. Clay, and to Henry T. Duncan, founder of the city's first daily newspaper, the Lexington Daily Press.
Today, the house serves as the Center for Women, Children, and Families, but in actuality it stands as a monument to the city's early commercial success.
Two hundred years of commercial enterprise in Lexington will be celebrated on Thursday, May 27, with a special ceremony beginning at 10 a.m., at the Morton House in Duncan Park, 530 N. Limestone.
Jamie Millard is President & CEO of the Lexington History Museum.