Phoenix Hotel (Lexington, Kentucky)

The Phoenix Hotel was used for many other purposes, including use as a headquarters by General William "Bull" Nelson, General Braxton Bragg, and General Kirby Smith during the American Civil War. Additionally, the Morgan's Men Association was formed at the Phoenix Hotel after the reinternment of General John Hunt Morgan on 17 April 1868. The surviving members of Morgan's command served as the funeral escort, and then met at the hotel. It was at this meeting that the Morgan's Men Association was created, which still exists in modern times. Around 1891, the Alpha Theta chapter of the Kappa Alpha Order at Transylvania University was founded, with the charter members being initiated at the Phoenix Hotel.[3][4][5]

A postcard from this era on display at the Lexington History Museum reads:

We Make a specialty of serving private parties High-class Service, 40c Lunch, PHOENIX HOTEL, Fireproof, Lexington, Ky.

Lucretia Hart Clay, the wife of statesman Henry Clay, had business ventures selling eggs, butter and milk to the Phoenix Hotel during the 19th century.[6]

In November 1915 the Phoenix Hotel was the meeting site for the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. After an automobile parade down Lexington's Main Street on the afternoon of November 8th, the suffragists gathered for an afternoon reception at Ashland (Henry Clay estate). That evening at the Old Opera House on North Broadway, the Lexington Mayor J.E. Cassidy welcomed the group and they listened to a lecture by Ethel Snowden, of London, England. On November 9th, the meeting opened in the Ball Room of the Phoenix Hotel with Madeline McDowell Breckinridge as president. The convention offered several other items of interest to the whole community, including a presentation by Madame Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary on the international peace movement.[7]

In 1919, the Kiwanis Club of Lexington was inaugurated at the Phoenix Hotel. A meeting was held by 50 businessmen to organize the club. At the time, election of officers was postponed until the second meeting, which was also scheduled to take place at the hotel. Among those present were Senator Thomas A. Combs, who presided over the meeting, and Mayor-elect T.C. Bradley.[8] National conventions of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity were hosted by chapters at Centre College, Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky at the hotel from August 30-September 1, 1923 and August 22–24, 1929.

In 1929, a meeting of Lexington's Board of Commerce at the Phoenix Hotel resulted in staff executive Ed Wilder writing a letter to convince the U.S. Public Health Service to locate a prison in the area following the enabling of the Porter Act. Dr. Walter Treadway later visited Lexington to acknowledge the city's interest in housing this facility as a result of the brainstorming done at the hotel.[9]

In 1932, the exterior lights from either side of the front entrance of the Phoenix Hotel were relocated to the main building of the University of Kentucky after a street front renovation. Shortly after 1947, the radio station WVLK-AM 590 relocated to the Phoenix Hotel from Versailles, Kentucky. The radio station remained headquartered at the site until approximately 1980, and moved thereafter to the Kincaid Towers. During this time, Paul Dunbar was the chief engineer.[10][11]

The Southern Regional Group held an annual meeting at the Phoenix Hotel in 1965, from October 7 to October 9. This meeting was principally hosted by the University of Kentucky, and had 110 in attendance. It became the last meeting of the group where Kentucky was an active, full member. Also in the 1960s, the Phoenix Hotel was the site of several demonstrations during the social movement in Lexington. These demonstrations were depicted in black and white photographs taken by photographer Calvert McAnn, and were displayed at the University of Kentucky Singletary Center in 2005.[12][13]