Lexington’s African American Heritage Walking Tour
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Explore topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) in this space for youth, grades 3-12.
Learn how the Lexington Public Library Foundation empowers change within our library system.
Learn or develop a personal or professional skill with LinkedIn Learning classes, available for free with your library card.
Did you know physical materials renew automatically if they don’t have a waiting list? Check your account online to see the status of your items.
In 1768, Lewis Craig and other members of the Spotsylvania Baptist Church were arrested for preaching without a license issued by the Church of England. Their case was later defended by Patrick Henry.
To free his congregation from what he felt was religious persecution, and to capitalize on the opportunities of available land in the area, Craig formed the Traveling Church and brought his entire congregation through the frontier to Kentucky and established Bryan's Station Baptist Church. As the church grew too large for one meeting space, it formed David's Fork Baptist Church in Fayette County in 1801. The church built a new space in 1857, where they still hold services.
The pamphlet is part of the library's collection in the Kentucky Room.
Information from At the Meetinghouse on David's Fork: a History of David's Fork, 1891-2001 by Randy Smith, 2001.
Destination Kindergarten is the library’s program aimed at preschoolers and their caregivers- trying to help them practice the skills they need to be ready for Kindergarten. During each Destination Kindergarten event, preschoolers and their caregivers can find a specalized area in the library with fun books, take-home activities, and information about development milestones and school readiness.
See below for more information on upcoming events and take-home packets and activities.
Lexington Public Library Donations Received January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2023
Library meeting rooms are available for individuals, non-profit, for profit, study groups, and community organizations seeking to hold meetings, trainings, and workshops. Meeting rooms are free of charge. Sterno and other tools/equipment that have an open flame are prohibited.
Lexington, Kentucky (August 18, 2022) – The Lexington Public Library broke ground on a new, significantly larger facility in the former Village Branch location on Versailles Road to better provide for the needs of the neighborhoods it serves. The new branch will reflect the community’s vision for a state-of-the-art community hub, one that offers robust resources and a myriad of program and service offerings. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Tuesday at a media event featuring Library and City officials.
Monday-Thursday: 9:30am-7:00pm
Friday: 9:30am-6:00pm
Saturday: 9:30am-5:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm-5:00pm
140 East Main Street
Lexington, KY 40507
Monday-Thursday: 9:30am-7:00pm
Friday: 9:30am-6:00pm
Saturday: 9:30am-5:00pm
Sunday: 1:00pm-5:00pm
3000 Blake James Drive
Lexington, KY 40509
Fayette County, Kentucky, has changed enormously since it was created in 1792. This collection contains government documents for the city of Lexington, for Fayette County, and for the merged Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, as well as funeral notices, club directories, scrapbooks, image collections and a history of Lexington Public Library.
Fayette County churches contain some of the earliest records and information preserved about central Kentucky history. The digital archive contents include church ledgers, minutes, directories, and informational brochures.
Wonderful podcasts and walking tours have been created by our staff. Please enjoy!
Shawntaye Hopkins is the Marketing and Communications Director at the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. Before landing at the University of Kentucky, Shawntaye worked as a newspaper reporter, a public relations specialist at another university, and as a communications associate for a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization serving state governments. Shawntaye has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University. Her hobbies include reading and writing about books, mostly fiction. Shawntaye is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but she has resided in Lexington, Kentucky, since 2006.
Jennifer Bird-Pollan is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the Judge William T. Lafferty Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law. She has a B.A. from Penn State University, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Jennifer moved to Lexington with her husband and their two children in 2010. At UK Rosenberg Law she teaches a variety of courses in tax law and policy, and she practiced law as a tax attorney at a large law firm in Boston before moving to Lexington. In addition to her service on the Lexington Public Library Board of Advisors, Jennifer serves as the Chair of the Board of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. When not talking about tax policy or law school administration, Jennifer loves to read fiction, ride her electric bicycle, and play with her dog and her houseplants.
Join us for a walking tour of Lexington's Historic Lexington Cemetery. The full tour is available as a single MP3, or you can download individual tracks. For the single MP3, music will play between the stops. You can pause the track while you walk between stops.
This tour covers a walking distance of approximately 1.5 miles.
Please note: You will be walking on paths also used by cars. Please take special care to watch and listen for approaching vehicles.
The music clips used in this tour are from “Walking Barefoot on Grass” by Kai Engel, and are used with a CCBY license. It is available here: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/