History · Lexington, Kentucky
The story of Lexington’s East End is a story of Black freedom, enterprise, faith, education, music, resistance, displacement, preservation, and living community—with the Lyric standing as a beacon within it.
Move through timeBackground artwork: Artist’s interpretation
The neighborhood around the beacon
The Lyric stands at Third and Deweese within a story that began generations before its doors opened. This archive follows the people and institutions that made the East End—and the changes they endured and shaped.
Visual timeline
1865–1930
After the Civil War, Black Lexingtonians established neighborhoods east of the city core. Goodloetown, Kinkeadtown, the Kentucky Association racetrack, and the labor of Black horsemen helped shape a growing center of family and community life.
Background artwork: Artist’s interpretation
1930–1965
Charles Young Park and Center, Deweese Street businesses, churches, Palmer Pharmacy, Bluegrass–Aspendale, and the Lyric became touchstones of daily life—built within a city still structured by segregation.
Background artwork: Artist’s interpretation
1959–2006
Residents defeated a sweeping urban-renewal proposal in 1964. Decades later, Bluegrass–Aspendale was demolished and replaced by mixed-income communities. The record holds official aspirations beside residents’ memories, disruption, and loss.
Background artwork: Artist’s interpretation
2008–Today
William Wells Brown Elementary opened, the Lyric returned, the Isaac Murphy garden interpreted Black racing history, and Palmer Pharmacy became a community resource again. Residents continue deciding how the East End’s next chapter will be remembered.
Background artwork: Artist’s interpretation
Places that hold memory
01
Opened in 1948 at Third and Deweese as a movie house, performance venue, and gathering place; restored and reopened in 2010.
02
The commercial, professional, social, and entertainment center of Black Lexington, remembered through businesses, clubs, medical offices, and community life.
03
Lexington’s first indoor public recreation facility for African Americans and a lasting civic gathering place.
04
Opened in 2008 on East Fifth Street and named for the Lexington-born abolitionist and author.
05
A congregation rooted in 1896 that later made the monumental former Felix Memorial building its home.
06
A historic Chestnut Street congregation whose building reaches back to a nineteenth-century neighborhood mission.
07
Zirl Palmer’s pharmacy, lunch counter, and professional center served as a landmark Black-owned community hub.
08
Lexington’s first public-housing development opened segregated in 1937, was later integrated, and was demolished during redevelopment in the 2000s.
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