The population of Lexington-Fayette County in was , The old Fayette County Courthouse in Lexington was completed about It was the fifth courthouse, the fourth on the site. It reopened after a major renovation in It now houses the Lexington Visitors Center, event space, and offices.
Lexington's new courthouses were completed in and Lexington was the largest town in Kentucky into the s, when it was surpassed by Louisville. Lexington was founded in June, , in what was then Fincastle County, Virginia , 17 years before Kentucky became a state. Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, , they named their campsite Lexington after the Massachusetts town.
The risk of Indian attacks delayed permanent settlement, though, for four years. In , Col. Robert Patterson and 25 companions came from Fort Harrod and erected a blockhouse.
Cabins and a stockade followed, establishing a settlement known as Bryan Station. In , Lexington was made the seat of Virginia's Fayette County. Colonists defended it against a British and American Indian attack in , during the last part of the American Revolution.
Henry Clay 's old law office in Downtown Lexington. The town was chartered on May 6, , by an act of the Virginia General Assembly. Joseph Craig. By , Lexington was one of the largest and wealthiest towns west of the Allegheny Mountains. So cultured was its lifestyle that the city gained the nickname "Athens of the West". One early prominent citizen, John Wesley Hunt , became the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies.
The growing town was devastated by a cholera epidemic in of 7, residents died within two months, including nearly one-third of the congregation of Christ Church Episcopal. Cholera was spread by people using contaminated water supplies, but its transmission was not understood in those years.
Often the wealthier people would flee town for outlying areas to try to avoid the spread of disease. Planters held slaves for use as field hands, laborers, artisans, and domestic servants. In the city, slaves worked primarily as domestic servants and artisans, although they also worked with merchants, shippers, and in a wide variety of trades. In , one-fifth of the state's population were slaves, and Lexington had the highest concentration of slaves in the state. It also had a population of free blacks.
By , First African Baptist Church, led by London Ferrill , a free black, had a congregation of , the largest of any, black or white, in the state. Many of 19th-century America's most important people spent part of their lives in the city, including U. Senator and Vice President John C. Breckinridge ; and Speaker of the House , U. Senator, and Secretary of State Henry Clay , who had a plantation nearby.
Lincoln's wife Mary Todd Lincoln was born and raised in Lexington, and the couple visited the city several times after their marriage in In , Lexington founded one of the first drug rehabilitation clinics, known as the "Addiction Research Center". The hospital was later converted into a federal prison , the Federal Medical Center, Lexington. Lexington, which includes all Fayette County , consists of The area is noted for its fertile soil, excellent pastureland, and horse and stock farms. Poa pratensis bluegrass thrives on the limestone beneath the soil's surface, playing a major role in the area's scenic beauty and in the development of champion horses.
Numerous small creeks rise and flow into the Kentucky River. This is the second largest metro area in the Ohio Valley and in Kentucky. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of Lexington is in the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate zone, [9] with hot, humid summers, and cool winters with occasional mild periods.
The city and the surrounding Bluegrass region have four distinct seasons that include cool plateau breezes, moderate nights in the summer, and no prolonged periods of heat, cold, rain, wind, or snow. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from Annual precipitation is Lexington is recognized as a high allergy area by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Forbes has named Lexington as one of the world's seventeen cleanest cities. Lexington's strict urban growth boundary protects area horse farms from development. Lexington faces a rare challenge among American cities in that it must manage a rapidly growing population while maintaining the character of the surrounding horse farms that give the region its identity.
To do so Lexington enacted the nation's first Urban Growth Boundary in , where new development could only occur in the Urban Service Area. It set a strict minimum area requirement, currently 40 acres , m 2 , to maintain open space in the Rural Service Area. Several years later, in , the first Lexington Comprehensive Plan was completed. The Expansion Area Master Plan included impact fees, assessment districts, neighborhood design concepts, design overlays, mandatory greenways, major roadway improvements, stormwater management and open space mitigation for the first time; it also included a draft of the Rural Land Management Plan, which included large-lot zoning and traffic impact controls.
A pre-zoning of the entire expansion area was refuted in the Plan. A acre , m 2 minimum proposal was also defeated, although discussion of the proposal led to a deluge of acre 40, m 2 subdivisions in the Rural Service Areas. Three years after the expansion was initiated, the Rural Service Area Land Management Plan was adopted, which increased the minimum lot size in the agricultural rural zones to acre , m 2 minimums. Federally, Lexington is part of Kentucky's 6th congressional district , represented by Republican Andy Barr, elected in Previously, Democrat Ben Chandler represented Lexington, elected in Lexington has an elected mayor and city council-style of government.
On November 2, , former vice-mayor Jim Gray was elected mayor, becoming the city's first openly gay mayor. The Urban County Council is a member legislative group. Twelve of the members represent specific districts and serve two-year terms; three are elected city-wide as at-large council members and serve four-year terms. The at-large member receiving the highest number of votes in the general election automatically becomes the Vice Mayor who, in the absence of the Mayor, is the presiding officer of the Council.
The current council members as of are: [17]. The Fayette County Sheriff's Office is responsible for court service, including court security, prisoner transport, process and warrant service, and property tax collection. The MSA population in was estimated at , As of the census [21] of , there were , people, , households, and 62, families residing in the city.
The population density was There were , housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the city was Josiah Espy upon his visit to Lexington in described the city in the following way attesting to its splendor as a frontier settlement: "Lexington is the largest and most wealthy town in Kentucky, or indeed west of the Allegheny Mountains; the main street of Lexington has all the appearance of Market Street in Philadelphia on a busy day I would suppose it contains about five hundred dwelling houses [it was closer to three hundred], many of them elegant and three stories high.
About thirty brick buildings were then raising, and I have little doubt but that in a few years it will rival, not only in wealth, but in population, the most populous inland town of the United States. The country around Lexington for many miles in every direction, is equal in beauty and fertility to anything the imagination can paint and is already in a high state of cultivation.
Epsy in his observations was correct in predicting the future of Lexington. The city would grow to a town of considerable size. Old Morrison, built in , located on the campus of Transylvania College Photograph by Eric Thomason, courtesy of the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation Lexington experienced many notable occurrences in the period to during which time it became an intellectual and religious center. Recreation Parks, events, programs, tourism and activities.
Search Search. Breadcrumb Home Jobs and contracts Employee handbook Organizational structure, system and positions. Organizational structure, system and positions. Elected officials Civil service system. Quick links Handbook homepage.
Contact Human Resources. Feedback URL.
0コメント