The Lexington History Museum reopened at a new location Aug. 26 after being forced to close down over a decade ago.
“Lexington deserves a museum where all our history—the known and unknown, the celebratory and the cautionary—can be told,” the museum’s new executive director, Amanda Higgins, said in a press release. “I’m proud to be a part of bringing this valuable asset back to the community.”
The new leasing space is just one part of a five-year strategic plan to bring the Lexington History Museum back into visibility, which went into action through an agreement with the city of Lexington in November 2022. According to a report from the Lexington Herald-Leader, the city will provide the museum with $270,000 annually as long as that plan’s momentum stays consistent. The plan also included finding a new director, which led to Higgins’ hiring.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on opening day at the Thomas Hunt Morgan House at 210 North Broadway, the museum’s new location.
“Ten months ago, I started in this position, and we’ve worked hours and hours and weeks and months to make sure that we are representing Lexington history in a place where people can find and see themselves and understand how the city developed, where we are today and where we can go in the future,” Higgins said at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The Thomas Hunt Morgan House is a historic location for Lexington: it was the home of John Wesley Hunt, the first millionaire to live west of the Allegheny Mountains. It gets its name from Hunt’s great-grandson, Thomas Hunt Morgan, who became the first Kentuckian to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1866.
The Old Fayette County Courthouse, the Lexington History Museum’s previous location, was forced to close its doors in 2012 due to the presence of asbestos. For the next 11 years, the museum’s physical presence would be limited to pop-up exhibitions at LexArts Gallery Hop, an art event held every other month in varying locations downtown. Exhibit spaces from these events were photographed and used to create an online virtual museum at www.lexhistory.org, which became the museum’s primary way to survive.
“We can build a 10,000 square-foot museum on 1,000 square feet of real estate,” museum board member Foster Ockerman Jr. told the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2017. “We believe we are the first in Kentucky to deploy this type of technology.”
The museum includes exhibits on Thomas Hunt Morgan, technology corporation IBM’s relocation to Lexington, and many more pieces of Lexington history.
The Lexington History Museum will be open from noon to 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission is $10, and is free for children under 5. Special rates will be available for groups, seniors, and members of the military, and tours for groups and schools will be available by appointment.
“We are very excited to be open to the public, but you know, this is only the beginning,” Museum Board Chairman Jim Dickinson said at the ribbon cutting. Dickinson hinted that Lexington will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2025, and the museum is expected to play a big part in the festivities.