Lexington, KY - In early October, the Downtown Lexington Corporation announced receipt of a $750,000 grant from 5/3 Bank for construction of a market house pavilion on Cheapside Park as part of the Cheapside Entertainment District renovation program that began in the spring of this year.
The design, reminiscent of "winter garden" structures in such great cities as New York and Philadelphia, harkens to a day when Lexington aspired to be a world-class city. Cheapside Park, designated the city's marketplace by the Virginia Assembly when Kentucky was still part of that colony, is named for a great marketplace in London, England. The former Fayette County Courthouse (now the Lexington History Center) was designed to show an exuberance of electric light in 1900 - the same year the International Exhibition in Paris, France, gave that city the sobriquet "City of Lights."
Little wonder, then, that the city's two great statues are located on the Court Square: Vice President John Cabell Breckinridge and General John Hunt Morgan. The connection between the statues and the new market house pavilion is that the Breckinridge statue will be moved from its current location in the middle of Cheapside to a new location facing Main Street. (A little known footnote: under Kentucky law, neither statue can "be destroyed, removed or significantly altered other than for repair or renovation, without the written consent of the [Military Heritage] Commission. Failure to do so is a Class A misdemeanor for the first offense and a Class D felony for each subsequent offense.")
The history of each statue runs deep in the community's collective heritage.
The older of the two, the Breckinridge monument was unveiled on Dec. 16, 1887 -
12 years after his death. Breckinridge, scion of one of Lexington's most storied families, was born Jan. 16, 1821, at the family's Thorn Hill estate at North Limestone and Fifth Street. The Breckinridges were one of the First Families of Kentucky, having settled here in 1789 and eventually owning some 30,000 acres. His grandfather was Thomas Jefferson's Attorney General, as well as a U.S. Senator from Kentucky. His father was Kentucky's Secretary of State at the time of his birth; his mother a daughter of a president of Princeton University.
John C. Breckinridge was a graduate of Centre College and earned his law degree from Transylvania University. His good looks and raven black hair, as well as oratory skills, served him well. A speech honoring Kentuckians killed at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War brought tears to the eyes of Henry Clay, whose namesake was killed there, and earned Breckinridge a military commission as commander of the Third Kentucky Volunteers.
Breckinridge was elected a U.S. Representative as a pro-slavery Democrat, capturing Henry Clay's former seat in 1851, but losing it two elections later to the anti-slavery Whig Party. In 1856, he was elected vice president of America under James Buchanan. He lost in his bid for the presidency to Abraham Lincoln in 1860, but won a seat as U.S. Senator in 1861, only to be expelled in 1861 for his support of the Confederacy. He served as a major general in the Confederate Army and was the last Secretary of War for the Lost Cause. Fleeing to Europe after Appomattox, he returned to Lexington in 1869 under pardon by President Andrew Johnson. Breckinridge served as president of both the Kentucky Association, predecessor of Keeneland Association, and the Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad, now part of CSX.
The statue, designed by Edward Virginius Valentine of Richmond, Va., depicting Breckinridge as a statesman, was unveiled before a crowd of nearly 20,000 people - the largest in Lexington since Henry Clay's funeral. Having raised $10,000, but needing only $9,000 for the statue, the balance was placed in the Breckinridge Monument Trust, which now totals some $100,000.
John Hunt Morgan, whose heroic equestrian military statue stands on the southeast lawn, is best known for his exploits as "The Thunderbolt of the Confederacy," raiding across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, where he was killed in 1864. According to equestrian statue lore, the pose of the horse signifies the circumstances of the rider's death. A rearing horse depicts a death in battle. The hooves on Morgan's horse are all flat on the ground, suggesting a peaceful death. Nothing could be further from the truth: he was shot in the back by a Union trooper.
Scion of another iconic Lexington family, Morgan's grandfather John Wesley Hunt was the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies, earning his wealth from the hemp industry, both growing and fashioning rope for sale to the east. Expelled from Transylvania University for dueling with another student, Morgan pursued the family business, owning a hemp factory and woolen mill near the Georgetown Pike. A veteran of the Mexican War, he served as city councilman and founded the Lexington Rifles, which he led for the Southern cause.
Designed and cast by Pompeo Coppini of San Antonio, Texas, for $15,000 (split equally between the state and the United Daughters of the Confederacy), Morgan's statue was unveiled on Oct. 19, 1911, before a crowd of some 15,000. A purported controversy has simmered for years because the horse is a stallion, while Morgan's favorite was a Kentucky Saddlebred mare. Equestrian statues always depict a stallion. In addition, the rider is larger than life compared to the mount.
Both statues honor Lexingtonians who lived large.