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Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Built by the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies, John Hunt-Morgan, the house showcases early Kentucky furniture, 19th-century paintings, and antique porcelain. The Alexander T. Hunt museum featuring Civil War memorabilia is located on the second floor. The house was built in 1814 when Lexington was known as the "Athens of the West."
The Hunt–Morgan House, historically known as Hopemont, is a Federal style residence in Lexington, Kentucky built in 1814 by John Wesley Hunt, the first millionaire west of the Alleghenies. The house is included in the Gratz Park Historic District. The Alexander T. Hunt Civil War Museum is located on the second floor of the Hunt–Morgan House.
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especially at night
Enjoy slipping off your shoes or sandals in the summertime and wandering in the step-like fountains that ring the backbone of this park. Get plenty of pictures of the illuminated fountains against the Lexington Convention Center. Events throughout the year include summer movies on alternate Friday nights, a winter ice skating rink, and occasional concerts. Cross the street and talk to the concierge at the Hilton Hotel to book a horse-drawn carriage tour of downtown.
The Central Library is worth a quick look for its art installations. Rose-colored granite covers the facade, and the airy atrium houses a 5-story-tall Foucault pendulum, which tells time using the rotation of the Earth. In front, Phoenix Park offers some nice greenery and fountains, and a small statue of a Bedouin on a camel marks the "zero milestone", the point from which all distances to Lexington are measured. However, the view is hampered somewhat by a building across the street.
The Kentucky men's basketball team, one of the most storied programs in all of college sports, boasts eight NCAA championships (including in 2012), an undefeated regular season in 2014-15, and leads the NCAA with more than 2,000 all time wins. The team coach (John Calipari since 2009) inevitably enjoys celebrity status around town.
The two-story girlhood home of Abraham Lincoln's wife, and the nation's first shrine to a First Lady. The 14-room house contains period furniture, furnishings from the Todds and Lincolns, and family portraits.
A historic two-screen cinema with restored architecture and beautiful interior murals located downtown on Main Street. Its schedule tends to emphasize foreign, independent, and art films, plus occasional concerts and panel discussions at the premiers of controversial films. During the Summer Classics Series every Wednesday night a classic film is shown. The theatre has an offbeat side as well, and raucous midnight showings of movies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show draw crowds of nearby university students, adults, and teens every weekend.