Postlethwait Tavern was where everybody knew your name

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

Postlethwait Tavern had a significant place in Lexington’s history

Starting in the earliest days of Lexington, Postlethwait’s Tavern was a place for residents to come, relax and socialize within the community.

In 1797, the tavern was established by Capt. John Postlethwait, one of his many business endeavors. The Revolutionary War officer built a “low rambling log house” between what was then Water and Main Streets along the banks of Town Branch Creek.

The tavern and its adjacent inn would go on to serve as the center of daily life in Lexington for nearly 200 years.

Alcohol consumption was part of early American life where contaminated water could kill in the wrong conditions. Alcohol, in the form of beer and bourbon, served to quench the thirst water couldn’t.

The tavern became a place where settlers could gather and soon became part of the budding community.

To add to its popularity, Postlethwait’s Tavern was also a center for horse racing and gambling. Postlethwait was a leading member of the community’s early racing industry, and was one of the men who established the “Kentucky Association for the Improvement of Breeds of Stock.”

The tavern was where folks gathered and placed their bets on horses, as well as talk up the breeds and who was likely to win the next race.

On March 3, 1820, Postlethwait’s Tavern burned to the ground and was rebuilt, this time as the Phoenix Hotel. That hotel would, in turn, become a key part of Lexington’s history both good and bad.

In I833, the hotel’s history took a dark turn. It’s thought that the hotel was where officials think the cholera epidemic started that year. The deadly outbreak took more than 500 lives and infected an estimated one-fifth of the town’s population.

Tragically, Postlethwait died during the epidemic.

Postlethwait’s Tavern, and later, the Phoenix Hotel, were key parts of Lexington’s history, and a place where folks residents came to spread the news, plan for a better Lexington and have a drink or two.

The Phoenix Hotel was ultimately destroyed in the early 1980s to make way for a high-rise that was never built. Today, the Phoenix Park stands where the tavern once stood.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.

Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.

March 4, 1963 - Changes in Lexington’s population and the popularity of telephones meant a change in the way we called one another.

On March 4, 1963, newspapers reminded Lexingtonians to remember using seven digits phone numbers when calling people on the phone, warning that calling the five-digit numbers they used the day before could tie-up phone lines and cause unnecessary delays.

The change was a sign of the times for the growing city. Just a year before, one could find advertisements for Hutchinson Drugs listing its phone number as 2-5055. But on March 4, 1963, the phone system changed, requiring all phone numbers to move to the seven-digit system we know now.

Up until the 1950s, phone numbers in the United States consisted of a telephone exchange name followed by a four- or five-digit number. That system gave us telephone numbers like Pennsylvania 6-5000, and Maida Vale 3499 (Dial M for Murder). In the late 50s, officials recognized that the telephone system would outgrow the available amount of numbers by about 1975. In 1962, officials estimated the number of telephones in the country would equal its population of 280 million by 1985 and increase to 600 million phones for 340 million people in the year 2000. Plans began to switch to a new phone system, using seven numbers, as well as area codes for long-distance calling.

Lexington’s population was growing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1960 Lexington’s population was 62,810. Just 10 years later, it had boomed to 108,137.

In 1963, Lexington switched to the seven number system. For local calls, all you had to do was dial the seven-digit number. To call long-distance, you had to dial a 1, then the area code, and then the number. Also, just for any kids under the age of say… 25… if you made a long-distance call to another area code, you were charged by the minute. Imagine calling your friend in Cincinnati for 30 minutes and ending up with a $10 bill for the call.

Lexington, central Kentucky and Northern Kentucky are served by the 859 area code, while the rest of the state is divided into four other area codes – 270 and 364 for western Kentucky and the western half of South Central Kentucky, 502 serving the Louisville and Frankfort areas, and 606 which covers eastern Kentucky.

The 10-digit phone number system has more than 10 billion possible numbers for the country. And, of course, now, long-distance calling is just part of the telephone system. We’ve come a long way since Echo Valley 2-6809 turned into 867-5309.

Have a question or story idea related to Lexington’s 250-year history? Let us know at 250LexKy@gmail.com.