The John C. Breckinridge Memorial, originally on the courthouse lawn of

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

, was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on July 17, 1997, as part of the

Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS This is a list of American Civil War monuments in Kentucky — Union, Confederate or both. The earliest Confederate memorials were, in general, simple memorials. The earliest such monument was the Confederate Monument in Cynthiana erected in 1869 ...

. It commemorates

John C. Breckinridge John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States. Serving ...

, who was born and died in Lexington. He was Vice President for

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...

and ran against

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

in the 1860 United States presidential election, winning nine Southern states. He served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, and was the last

Confederate States Secretary of War The Confederate States Secretary of War was a member of President Jefferson Davis's Cabinet during the American Civil War. The Secretary of War was head of the Confederate States Department of War. The position ended in May 1865 when the Confede ...

, fleeing the country after the South lost. The memorial was prepared by

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

's Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company. The pedestal is made of granite, with the statue cast in bronze. Breckinridge is seen standing

contraposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

. The state government of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

funded the construction of the monument. Breckinridge's memorial was built in 1887, 24 years before the

John Hunt Morgan Memorial The John Hunt Morgan Memorial in Lexington, Kentucky, is a monument created during the Jim Crow era, as a tribute to Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, who was from Lexington and is buried in Lexington Cemetery. The monument was originally ...

, also on the courthouse lawn and part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS. The statues had stood on Main Street on the same plot of ground where slave auctions were held before the Civil War. In 2010, the monument was moved about 50 feet to a new location facing Main Street. This was done as part of the Cheapside pavilion construction project. The Old Fayette County Courthouse was renovated and reopened in 2018 to serve as a tourism, entertainment, and office hub.

Removal from original site

In November 2015, a committee, the Urban County Arts Review Board, voted to recommend removal of both the Breckinridge statue and the Morgan statue. In February 2016 Lexington mayor Jim Gray announced the statues would stay, but later advocated to remove them after receiving pressure from local grassroots organizing. The monuments were removed October 17, 2017. In November 2017, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council approved an agreement to relocate the Breckinridge and Morgan statues to the

Lexington Cemetery Lexington Cemetery is a private, non-profit rural cemetery and arboretum located at 833 W. Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky. The Lexington Cemetery was established in 1848 as a place of beauty and a public cemetery, in part to deal ...

. The relocation was completed in July 2018. An endowment, funded by private donations, covered the cost of removal, and will pay for future maintenance and security. The Breckinridge statue was placed in his family's burial area in Section G. Morgan's statue was placed in the Confederate section of the cemetery.

References

Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS Lexington in the American Civil War National Register of Historic Places in Lexington, Kentucky Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Kentucky Outdoor sculptures in Kentucky 1887 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Kentucky Statues in Kentucky 1887 establishments in Kentucky Sculptures of men in Kentucky Relocated buildings and structures in Kentucky {{AmericanCivilWar-stub