Lexington's business community has been quiet about its birth 204 years ago - perhaps too busy contending with the current economy to pay much attention to its origins. Those origins, however, should not be ignored as we watch dramatic changes take place in the block bounded by Main, Upper, Vine, and Lime. For it was on this block that stood the oldest commercial structure in Lexington: the Joe Rosenberg Diamonds and Jewelry store at 201 S. Upper, built in 1826 as one of the earliest, if not the first, examples of the Greek Revival style of architecture. Mind you, this was a full four years before Gideon Shryock and Henry Clay teamed up to design and construct Transylvania University's Old Morrison, considered perhaps the purest execution of Greek Revival in the world.
By the time what would become Rosenberg's was built, Lexington's business community had been thriving for more than 60 years. Tracking down Lexington's first commercial enterprise is a bit tricky, but the research conducted by Charles R. Staples and published in The History of Pioneer Lexington: 1781-1806 establishes agents of the notorious James Wilkinson as the young city's first merchants, arriving in early 1884. James Clemons and Alexander McClane were dispatched by Wilkinson in late 1883 and early 1884, respectively, to bring supplies from Philadelphia to Lexington just three years after the town plat had been adopted, and little more than a year after the British and Indian siege of Bryan's Station.
Wilkinson, a Revolutionary War hero who later gained notoriety for attempting to split the Kentucky territory from Virginia and the Confederation (this being before the U.S. Constitution was adopted) and align it with Spain, was just the first of a veritable flood of merchants who came west to establish a multitude of stores in Lexington. These first merchants enabled the pioneer settlers to trade their furs and produce for items they could not otherwise obtain, including "powder, lead, wines, buttons, (and) coffee." Many of the early "stores" were nothing more than a wagon or pack horse load sold out of a storefront on Main, Mulberry (now Limestone), or Upper, the commercial center of the growing town.
These merchants were entrepreneurs in every sense of the word. Because it cost about $65 per ton to transport goods to the frontier, and with only ginseng as a viable commodity to ship back east, this was a dicey enterprise, but one that would eventually thrive and give rise to Lexington's and Kentucky's signature products: hemp, tobacco, and whiskey. Hemp would be turned into rope and sent east to the shipbuilders in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. (It's not by accident that the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies, John Wesley Hunt, owned the town's ropewalk.) Tobacco would satisfy pipe smokers, but why whiskey? It's not attributed to the stereotypical Kentucky backwoods distiller, but to the very economical fact that a horse could carry only four bushels of rye, but the equivalent of 24 bushels after that rye was converted to whiskey.
In addition to exchanging merchandise for produce, the early traders also had to be prepared to accept a wide range of international currency. As late as 1844, the estate of Judge Fielding L. Turner included "Eagles $2,785; Sovereigns $207; Franks [sic] $18; Old American gold $112; Doubloons $328; six pieces of old gold $27; and Carolina Gold $307." Thomas Ashe, in his Travels in America, recounts seeing in Lexington currency from France, Holland, Austria, Prussia, Portugal, Italy, Spain and India. As for produce exchange, ads in the Kentucky Gazette of the period offer whiskey, sugar, pork, tobacco, hemp, ginseng, butter, lard, eggs, woolen blankets, linens and leather. Humans and horses are also offered in exchange.
In 1787, one William "Lord" Morton made his way to the burgeoning community and opened his store on the "southwest" corner of Main and Upper. Now, herein lies a lesser known fact about the compass setting for Lexington. Most know that East Main actually faces northeast, and North Broadway runs northwest, but an 1871 map of the city refers to "East" (North) and "West" (South) Broadway. So exactly which corner of Main and Upper was home to Morton's store might be open to debate. Nonetheless, Morton quickly established himself as a community leader, joining the militia the following year, and, by 1790, partnering with James McConnell in a tanyard. Just a year later, Morton was deeded out-lot 35, upon which he would build a very fine home in 1810 that still stands today at the entrance to Duncan Park.
Morton was elected a trustee of the town in 1792, and also served on the Fayette County board of magistrates, alongside the likes of Robert Todd (Mary's father), William McConnell (who named Lexington), Robert Patterson (who founded Lexington), and James Trotter (gunpowder supplier to Gen. Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans).
At the time, of course, none of these men knew they would take such prominent places in history, which illustrates the point that history happens every day. What happens today could be just as significant in 2212.
Jamie Millard is president and CEO of the Lexington History Museum, Inc., one of four museums located in the Lexington History Center, 215 West Main Street. He may be reached at Jamie@lexingtonhistorymuseum.org.