Winchester is a home rule-class city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Clark County Clark County may refer to: *Clark County, Arkansas *Clark County, Idaho *Clark County, Illinois *Clark County, Indiana *Clark County, Kansas *Clark County, Kentucky *Clark County, Missouri *Clark County, Nevada, containing Las Vegas *Clark County, ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. The population was 19,134 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winchester is located roughly halfway between Lexington and Mt. Sterling.

History

It was named after

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

Geography

Winchester is located northwest of the center of Clark County, east of Lexington and west of Mt. Sterling. Kentucky Route 1958 (Bypass Road) is an outer loop around the town. Kentucky Route 627 (Boonesborough Road) leads towards

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, to the south and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to the north.

U.S. Route 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...

(Winchester-Lexington Road/Lexington Avenue) runs through downtown Winchester.

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 70, I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and U.S. Route 61, US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern ter ...

passes through the northern part of the city, with access from exits 94 and 96. The

Mountain Parkway The Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway, commonly known as the Mountain Parkway, is a freeway in eastern Kentucky. The route runs from Interstate 64 (I-64) just east of Winchester southeast for to a junction with U.S. Route 460 (US ...

turns off I-64 just northeast of Winchester and leads east to Salyersville. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Winchester has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.67%, is water.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Winchester has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 16,724 people, 6,907 households, and 4,620 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 7,400 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.94%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 8.83%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.22% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.01%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.81% from other races, and 0.94% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.60% of the population. There were 6,907 households, out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.0% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 16.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.93. In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.9% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 21.1% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $31,254, and the median income for a family was $36,797. Males had a median income of $31,295 versus $21,747 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $15,611. About 13.1% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 21.1% of those under age 18 and 14.4% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Small business

Ale-8-One Ale-8-One, colloquially Ale-8, is a ginger- and citrus-flavored soft drink bottled by the Ale-8-One Bottling Company in Winchester, Kentucky, United States. It is distributed primarily to brick and mortar retailers in Kentucky. History The formu ...

, a Kentucky-specific brand of soft drink, has been bottled in Winchester since 1926.

Arts and culture

Beer Cheese Festival

Winchester is home to the

Beer Cheese Festival The Kentucky Beer Cheese Festival is a celebration of beer cheese, an original and unique Kentucky delicacy. This festival's a one-day summertime event held in downtown Winchester, Kentucky, birthplace of beer cheese. Overview The first Beer ...

held annually in June. Beer Cheese was developed in Clark County near Winchester in the 1940s.

Historic sites

* Bluegrass Heritage Museum * Clark County Court House * Clark Mansion (Gov. Clark House) *

Indian old field Indian Old Field, or simply Old Field, was a common term used in Colonial American times and up until the early nineteenth century United States, by American explorers, surveyors, cartographers and settlers, in reference to land formerly cleared a ...

s * Kerr Building * Leeds Theater *

Oakwood Estate The Oakwood Estate is a house in Winchester, Kentucky. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 as Alpheus Lewis House. It is a one-story home on a raised basement, with Greek Revival details. With . The Oakwood hous ...

* Old Providence Church * Winchester Opera House

Education

Oliver High School was in Winchester. Berea graduate G. A. Benton was principal.

High school

Winchester students attend George Rogers Clark High School, located southwest of Winchester in

Higher education

Winchester has been home to several higher education establishments.

Kentucky Wesleyan College Kentucky Wesleyan College (KWC) is a private Methodist college in Owensboro, Kentucky. Fall 2018 enrollment was 830 students. History Kentucky Wesleyan College was founded in 1858 by the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It ...

was located in the city from 1890 to 1954. When Kentucky Wesleyan left, the local

Churches of Christ The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are that of the necessity of baptism for salvation ...

organized

Southeastern Christian College Southeastern Christian College provided a two-year liberal arts degree and a three-year degree in biblical studies in Winchester, Kentucky from 1957 to 1979. Following its closure, the college formed a non-profit in 1983, the Southeastern Christ ...

on the former Kentucky Wesleyan campus. After Southeastern Christian College folded in 1979, the campus was preserved as a public park. Today, Clark County is home to the Winchester Campus of

Bluegrass Community and Technical College Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) is a public community college in Lexington, Kentucky. It is one of sixteen two-year, open admission colleges of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). It was formed from t ...

Public library

Winchester has a lending library, the Clark County Public Library.

Transportation

runs east–west through the northern part of Winchester.

runs east–west through Winchester. Kentucky Route 627 runs north–south through Winchester.

Blue Grass Airport Blue Grass Airport is a public airport in Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County, Kentucky, United States, 6 miles west of downtown Lexington, Kentucky, Lexington. Located among horse farms and situated directly across from Keeneland Race Cou ...

, 29 miles to the west, in the western part of Lexington, is one of the busiest commercial airports in the state. The

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of ...

had run trains east–west and north–south through Winchester. The last L&N passenger train was an unnamed

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

remnant of the former Cincinnati -

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

;'' it was discontinued on March 7, 1968.

Notable people

* Armstead M. Alexander (1834–1892),

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

from

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

* Chilton Allan (1786–1858), congressman from Kentucky * Yeremiah Bell, safety for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

NFL team * Rex Burkhead, running back for the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

NFL Team *

George French Ecton George French Ecton (c. 1846 – September 19, 1929) was a civil rights activist and the second African American state legislator in Illinois. He was born a slave in Winchester, Kentucky, in about 1846 to Antonio Ecton and Martha George. In Jun ...

, second African-American state legislator in Illinois *

John E. Fryer John Ercel Fryer, M.D. (November 7, 1937 – February 21, 2003)Birth certificate in the John E. Fryer archive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Box 38 was a prominent American psychiatrist and advocate for gay rights. He is most notably ...

, psychiatrist whose speech in 1972 as "Dr. Henry Anonymous" helped to get homosexuality removed as a mental disease from the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 39,200 members who are in ...

's ''

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual The ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (''DSM''; latest edition: ''DSM-5-TR'', published in March 2022) is a publication by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for the classification of mental disorders using a com ...

'' *

Matt Ginter Matthew Shane Ginter (born December 24, 1977) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Ginter was originally drafted out of high school by the New York Yankees in the 17th round (509th overall) of the 1996 Major League Baseball dra ...

, Professional Baseball 1999–2010 (11 years) *

William Harrow William Harrow (November 14, 1822 – September 27, 1872) was an American lawyer and soldier who served as a Union general in the American Civil War. Early life and career Harrow was born in Winchester, Kentucky, United States of America, and ...

(1822–1871), Union general in the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

Joel Tanner Hart Joel Tanner Hart (February 10, 1810 – March 2, 1877) was an American sculptor. Life and work Joel Tanner Hart Joseph Jackson (screenwriter) Joseph Ashurst Jackson (June 8, 1894 – May 26, 1932) was an American screenwriter, playwright and publicist who was nominated for the now dead category of Best Story at the 4th Academy Awards. He was nominated alongside Lucien Hubbard. They w ...

, screenwriter and publicist. *

Preston Knowles Preston Demond Knowles (born March 29, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for Aurora Jesi of the Italian Serie A2 Basket. He formerly played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals. High school and college career Knowle ...

, basketball player for the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

* Homer Ledford (1927–2006), instrument maker and bluegrass musician * Matt Long, TV's "Jack & Bobby", "Mad Men", "Helix". * Nettie George Speedy (1878–1957), journalist of

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

, founder of Chicago Women's Golf Club, the first woman to sit on the trustee board of

Lane College Lane College is a private historically black college associated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and located in Jackson, Tennessee. It offers associate and baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences. History Lane College ...

, and the Pioneer of African American golf. * Claude Sullivan, sports broadcaster *

Allen Tate John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 – February 9, 1979), known professionally as Allen Tate, was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and poet laureate from 1943 to 1944. Among his best known works are the poems " Ode to th ...

(1899–1979), poet associated with the Agrarians, a group of Southern poets, and most noted for "

Ode to the Confederate Dead "Ode to the Confederate Dead" is a long poem by the American poet-critic Allen Tate. It was first published in ''The American Caravan: A Yearbook of American Literature'' in 1927, and then collected in Tate's first book of poems, ''Mr. Pope and Oth ...

" *

Helen Thomas Helen Amelia Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) was an American reporter and author, and a long-serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from th ...

, White House press correspondent * Frank L. Winn, U.S. Army major general * John S. Winn, U.S. Army brigadier general

In popular culture

A 2018 episode of '' The Dead Files'' was filmed in Winchester.

Sister cities

Winchester has two

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is International relations, a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there ar ...

, as designated by

Sister Cities International Sister Cities International (SCI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with the goal of facilitating partnerships between communities within the United States and other countries by establishing sister cities. Sister cities are agreements of ...

: * Ibarra, Imbabura, Ecuador *

Etawah Etawah (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Iṭāvā''), also known as Ishtikapuri, is a city situated on the banks of Yamuna River in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Etawa ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

, India

References

External links

* * * {{authority control Cities in Clark County, Kentucky Cities in Kentucky County seats in Kentucky Lexington–Fayette metropolitan area