The city of Lexington and a nonprofit are saving this historic Black pharmacy
A building that once held one of Lexington’s first Black-owned pharmacies will soon be getting a new life after years of uncertainty.
Under an agreement with the city, the United Way of the Bluegrass will soon take over the property at 400 E. Fifth St. and will turn it into a neighborhood resource center.
The building was at one point slated for demolition.
“There has been a lot of support for this project,” said Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman James Brown, who represented the First District where the Palmer building is located. “It would have been easy to demolish that building and move on.”
Instead, the city worked for years to find a way to save the building that meant a lot to the city’s Black community, Brown said during a Tuesday council work session.
The city acquired the building in 2015 as part of a settlement agreement with the Catholic Action Center, which used the former Palmer building as part of its day shelter for the homeless.
The city helped Catholic Action Center move to a building on Industry Road and in exchange it got the building on Fifth and Chestnut streets.
However, the city soon found the building had multiple problems, including asbestos and a shoddy roof. When the city floated it may have to demolish the building, many supporters in the historic preservation community and on the city’s East Side protested, saying the building was historic and important to the Black community.
In 1961, Zirl Palmer, a Black pharmacist, opened his pharmacy on Fifth and Chestnut. It was the first Black-owned Rexall pharmacy franchise in the country, according to the Blue Grass Trust, a local preservation group.
Later Palmer opened a second pharmacy in the West End Plaza near Georgetown Street. On Sept. 4, 1968, a bomb planted by a former Ku Klux Klan member detonated. Palmer, his wife and daughter were trapped in the rubble for hours before rescuers were able to pull them out.
In 1970, Phillip Campbell, a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon, was convicted in the bombing. Palmer retired shortly after the bombing.
Palmer was also a community leader and the first Black person to serve on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustee. He served from 1972 to 1979. He was also a leader in the NAACP and other civic groups.
Over the past several years, the city had asked for potential partners to restore the property but got no takers due to escalating costs to save the building.
Then in 2021, the United Way of the Bluegrass stepped up to help save the building, said Chris Ford, the commissioner of general services for the city.
The city spent more than $300,000 on environmental remediation, foundation work and replaced the roof, Ford said.
The council approved the transfer of the property on Thursday. As part of the transfer, there are deed restrictions on the property for a decade.
A new life and a big investment
Timothy Johnson, president and CEO of the United Way of the Bluegrass, said the group has raised $1.1 million to do further renovations to the interior of the property.
“It took a while to get that kind of funding,” Johnson said.
Construction should take more than six months, he said. They hope to be in the building by Dec. 11, which is Zirl Palmer’s birthday. The United Way plans to commemorate and honor Palmer’s legacy with some type of display or memorial in the building, Johnson said.
The building will be one of the United Way of the Bluegrass’ Marksbury Family WayPoint centers.
The group opened two such centers in July 2021 — one at the city’s Charles Young Center and a second at Black and Williams Center.
WayPoint centers bring services under one roof to areas where people need help and transportation is limited, Johnson said.
One of the programs is a jobs fair on Wednesdays where various employers looking for employees interview people who need jobs.
“We’ve had people come in and leave with a job,” Johnson said.
The program at the Charles Young Center will move to the Palmer building once it is open, he said.
It will be busy.
“We had a goal of serving 500 families last year,” Johnson said. “We served 1,200.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
