Lexington’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 2 old photos of Lexington. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Lexington was laid out on 4 January 1836 by Asahel Gridley (1810–1881) and James Brown (c. 1802- ?). Gridley was a lawyer and banker from Bloomington who would eventually become the richest man in McLean County; Brown was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and Lexington, Illinois, seems to have been his only attempt at founding a town. Its founding was part of a great real estate boom that swept across the nation. Within a few months of the founding of the town seven other new towns were laid out in McLean County: Concord (now Danvers), Hudson, Le Roy, Livingston, Lytleville, Mt. Hope and Wilksborough. In common with other towns founded during the 1836 boom, and unlike many later towns, Lexington was designed around a central public square with streets running true north–south and east–west. In the case of Lexington, the original town consisted of 36 blocks, each containing six lots. Like mos…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Lexington’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lexington’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCITY HALL AND MEN'S ROOM IN, 1973: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Lexington, decade by decade
1990s
2 historic places in Lexington
2 places in Lexington are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as CITY HALL AND MEN'S ROOM IN (1973) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.