McAdams and Morford Building

The McAdams and Morford Building in Lexington, Kentucky, also known as the Melodeon Hall, is a 3-story commercial building constructed in 1849. An Italianate cast iron facade was added after 1857. Druggists McAdams & Morford occupied a corner space in the building 1898–1994.[2]

McAdams and Morford Building
The McAdams & Morford Building in 2019
Location200--210 W. Main St., Lexington, Kentucky
Coordinates38°02′50″N 84°29′54″W
Arealess than one acre
Built1849 (1849)
Architectural styleItalian Renaissance
NRHP reference No.73000799[1]
Added to NRHPOctober 25, 1973

The building was home to Lexington's Melodeon Hall, a theater and meeting space with seating for 300 patrons. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge addressed a gathering at the Melodeon in 1861, and his remarks helped to preserve Kentucky as a Union state during the American Civil War, although Kentucky maintained separate Union and Confederate state governments during the war.[2]

The University of Kentucky (Transylvania University) Commercial College occupied the building for 35 years under the direction of Wilbur R. Smith. In 1908 the college was incorporated separately from the university as the Wilbur R. Smith Business College.[3][4]

In 2017 a vehicle damaged the building, and repair workers uncovered arches from the cast iron facade that had been hidden by previous remodeling.[5]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. Carol Mayfield (July 1, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: McAdams and Morford Building". National Park Service. Retrieved May 2, 2019. With accompanying pictures
  3. What is now Transylvania University operated at the time under the name University of Kentucky. The Commercial College was affiliated with Transylvania University, not with the present University of Kentucky.
  4. "IV". Ancestry, Life and Reminiscences of Gen. Wilbur R. Smith. Transylvania Printing Co. 1913. p. 57. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  5. Tom Eblen (March 7, 2017). "After truck crashed into one of downtown's oldest buildings, an architectural discovery". Lexington Herald Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2019.

Further reading


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