How Transylvania University helped cement Lexington as the ‘Athens of the West’

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.

Transylvania didn’t start as a university. In fact, it didn’t even start in Lexington.

But it did help solidify the city’s reputation as the Athens of the West.

Transylvania University was founded not long after the United States. In 1780, the Virginia Assembly chartered the Transylvania Seminary in a log cabin in Boyle County, near present-day Danville.

Named after the “Transylvania Colony,” the school was the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains.

According to the university, classes began in Danville in 1785. The cabin where classes were held was home to the school’s first chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Rev. David Rice, the founder of First Presbyterian Church.

In 1793, Transylvania trustees accepted a gift of land, then called the College Lot and now known as Gratz Park.

In exchange, they promised to relocate and maintain the campus in Lexington. Six years later, the school, by then Transylvania University, was established.

The school opened a law school and a medical school — the first in the West.

In 1820, the first medical fraternity — Kappa Lambda of Hippocrates — was established by Professor Samuel Brown. Branches of the fraternity ultimately led to the founding of the American Medical Association.

It would take almost two decades for the school to add a new building for student classes. When that building burned down in 1829, the whole university was moved to its current location north of Third Street. Old Morrison was built the next year, under the supervision of Henry Clay, who also taught law and served on the school’s board.

From those beginnings, Transylvania became a destination for the children of the South’s political leaders, military families and the business elite.

Because of its prominence as an institution of learning, and its location in Lexington, the school helped the city gain its reputation as the “Athens of the West.”

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

This story was originally published July 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "How Transylvania University helped cement Lexington as the ‘Athens of the West’."