The Midway Historic District of

Midway, Kentucky Midway is a Home rule, home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, Woodford County, Kentucky, in the United States. Its population was 1,741 at the time of the year 2020 U.S. census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan St ...

, was designated by the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as a historic district on November 17, 1978. With . In 2003, faced with a declining downtown, a major streetscape renovation project began as part of the Kentucky Main Street Program. Midway was the first town built by a railroad company in Kentucky, established by the

Lexington and Ohio Railroad The Lexington and Ohio Railroad was the first railroad in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. Developed in the 1830s, it was the second oldest railroad line west of the Allegheny Mountains. Its charter proposed the establishment of a link between ...

, whose goal was to connect

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

, bypassing

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

. The L&O were building a line between

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city and the county seat, seat of Franklin County, Kentucky, Franklin County in the Upland Sou ...

and Lexington, starting in 1831, with the first train arriving at the "midway" point in 1833, on a farm owned by John Francisco. On January 31, 1835, the L&O bought the farm from Francisco for $6,491.25, and had their civil engineer, R. C. Hewitt, plat out the town. It was named Midway due to being equally distant from Frankfort and Lexington. Many of the town's streets were named for individuals that worked for the L&O. The state of Kentucky incorporated the town in 1846.Midway, Kentucky
/ref> Although upgraded with newer technology, the path of the original railroad line through the town is still in use by the railroad, bisecting the business district. On July 15, 1862,

John Hunt Morgan John Hunt Morgan (June 1, 1825September 4, 1864) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. In April 1862, he raised the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry Regiment, fought at Shiloh, and then launched a costly raid in Kentucky, which encouraged Br ...

stopped here to misdirect Union forces back to Frankfort, instead of pursuing him. A museum is temporarily in a former saloon that now hosts a store for local merchandise, especially historical book regarding Kentucky. The Second Christian Church is believed to be the oldest black congregation in Kentucky.Savage, Beth. ''African American Historic Places'' p.253

References

External links

Woodford County, KY Historical Society
{{KentuckyHistoricalRR National Register of Historic Places in Woodford County, Kentucky Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Geography of Woodford County, Kentucky African-American history of Kentucky 1833 establishments in Kentucky

See also

References

External links