Post by Da Boss on Jun 30, 2020 22:13:24 GMT -5
Situated in the heart of the Bluegrass Commonwealth sits the city of Lexington. This economic and cultural powerhouse cannot be beat when it comes to life in Kentucky. As goes the city, so too will go the rest of the state. With two well known colleges in its downtown, the world's largest non-profit racetrack, and a booming local economy; Lexington has convinced itself that it is ready to take on the world.
In reality, Lexington is really the city that nobody can keep down. Founded by frontiersmen when word of the start of the Revolutionary War reached across the Appalachian Mountains, the city rose from a sleepy hamlet into the economic powerhouse of the "Western Frontier" in the early 1800s, when it was dubbed the Athens of the West. Then the cholera epidemic came and wiped out roughly half of the city's population. Follow up outbreaks in the 1840s and 1850s held the population in check and allowed the rival city of Louisville to claim its place as the largest and most powerful in the state.
During the Civil War, the city was a hotly contested battleground for militias on both sides of the conflict, although no formal regiments were ever moved into the city. Both the Union and the Confederacy were terrified of the ramifications of actually moving troops into the city that was the childhood home of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, the place where Jefferson Davis had attended University, and the place where Mary Todd Lincoln's family still lived. The end result was repeated raids and looting with no real battles to show for it.
By the start of the 20th century, tensions were at an all time high and race riots in the early 1910s continued to prevent the city from regaining its place of glory. Things got so bad that more than 2,000 federal troops were forced to invade the city and place it under martial law to quiet the racial tensions in the 1920s. By the time the Great Depression hit, the city was begging for something that it could hang its hat on and pull itself from dissolving into obscurity. And it would find its answer within academia.
Deciding to use the city as a base of operations for various studies, the United States Public Health Service started building hospitals and research facilities in the city. This in turn lead to an increased boom in attendance at both of the major colleges. More college students meant more businesses that are needed to support the universities, and the economy has taken off and never looked back.
Today it is listed by Forbes as one of the 10 best places in the world to found a business. The two small universities from last century are now household names, especially when discussing medical research or their athletics teams. The urbran sprawl has become exactly that as city ordinances prevent the construction of buildings taller than twenty stories without a special license so everything builds out into the surrounding rolling hills instead of up to touch the sky. At this point the city has become so spread out that it is now within 30 square miles of being larger than New York City, despite only have three percent of the population.
This is a place where the land is cheap, the economy is stable, and you're surrounded by nothing that can't be bought up and turned into a subdivision. Just ask the world famous Calumet Farm that now has a bypass running through the middle of their fields. Everything is for sale, if you can pay the price.
In reality, Lexington is really the city that nobody can keep down. Founded by frontiersmen when word of the start of the Revolutionary War reached across the Appalachian Mountains, the city rose from a sleepy hamlet into the economic powerhouse of the "Western Frontier" in the early 1800s, when it was dubbed the Athens of the West. Then the cholera epidemic came and wiped out roughly half of the city's population. Follow up outbreaks in the 1840s and 1850s held the population in check and allowed the rival city of Louisville to claim its place as the largest and most powerful in the state.
During the Civil War, the city was a hotly contested battleground for militias on both sides of the conflict, although no formal regiments were ever moved into the city. Both the Union and the Confederacy were terrified of the ramifications of actually moving troops into the city that was the childhood home of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, the place where Jefferson Davis had attended University, and the place where Mary Todd Lincoln's family still lived. The end result was repeated raids and looting with no real battles to show for it.
By the start of the 20th century, tensions were at an all time high and race riots in the early 1910s continued to prevent the city from regaining its place of glory. Things got so bad that more than 2,000 federal troops were forced to invade the city and place it under martial law to quiet the racial tensions in the 1920s. By the time the Great Depression hit, the city was begging for something that it could hang its hat on and pull itself from dissolving into obscurity. And it would find its answer within academia.
Deciding to use the city as a base of operations for various studies, the United States Public Health Service started building hospitals and research facilities in the city. This in turn lead to an increased boom in attendance at both of the major colleges. More college students meant more businesses that are needed to support the universities, and the economy has taken off and never looked back.
Today it is listed by Forbes as one of the 10 best places in the world to found a business. The two small universities from last century are now household names, especially when discussing medical research or their athletics teams. The urbran sprawl has become exactly that as city ordinances prevent the construction of buildings taller than twenty stories without a special license so everything builds out into the surrounding rolling hills instead of up to touch the sky. At this point the city has become so spread out that it is now within 30 square miles of being larger than New York City, despite only have three percent of the population.
This is a place where the land is cheap, the economy is stable, and you're surrounded by nothing that can't be bought up and turned into a subdivision. Just ask the world famous Calumet Farm that now has a bypass running through the middle of their fields. Everything is for sale, if you can pay the price.