Lexington marks 200th anniversary of Marquis de Lafayette visit this weekend
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.
Two hundred years ago, the last remaining general from the Revolutionary War traveled to Lexington, where he was celebrated.
This weekend, Lexington will celebrate him again.
In 1825, on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Revolutionary War, President James Madison and Congress invited the Marquis de Lafayette to return to the United States to see what the country he helped to found had grown into. Although he was only supposed to stay for four months and tour the original 13 colonies, his visit stretched out to 16 months and included a tour of all 24 states.
“The French are not enthralled with Lafayette like we are,” said Mandy Higgins, executive director of the Lexington History Museum. “Lafayette visiting Lexington was a pretty big deal in 1825 because while we were still a major city, it’s when Lexington started to peak in its earliest decade.”
At that point in time, she said, Lexington was the first city of the American West. Having Lafayette as an early international celebrity visitor was an important moment in the city’s history.
According to some historians, Lafayette was coming up the Ohio River from a visit in Tennessee when his boat sank. All of the passengers on the boat were able to make it to shore, but Lafayette lost all of his possessions. In time, a boat captain going down the Ohio River saw the boat’s passengers on the bank of the river and stopped to rescue them. Learning who it was, the boat captain insisted on turning his boat around and taking Lafayette to Louisville.
On May 11, Lafayette landed in Louisville for a one-day visit and then traveled to Frankfort. But his stay in Lexington was much longer. On May 15, he stopped at what was then called Keene Place, Higgins said. He had served with Abraham Bowman, a frontiersman and Revolutionary War officer who lived at what is now part of Keeneland.
Bowman’s daughter was married to a Keene, so they chose to host him at Keene Place. After staying the night there, he traveled to Lexington.
“When he came into town, there was a huge parade and folks came out and lined the streets and spoke to him about their service (in the Revolutionary War),” Higgins said. “There’s a famous moment when he tipped his hat to Lewis Hayden, who had been enslaved by Henry Clay at the time. Hayden would later claim that was the moment he knew that freedom was possible, and he had to seek it. He went on to escape enslavement in the 1840s.”
Later on May 16, Lafayette spoke at Transylvania University, and then visited with Lucretia Clay at Henry Clay’s home, Ashland.
As part of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of his visit, officials will mark his visit with plaques in his honor — one in Gratz Park that was then Transylvania University, and another at Ashland. The events are also part of 250Lex, the city’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Lexington’s founding.
The events then, and this weekend, are a reminder of Lexington’s long history, and the significance the city has had in our country’s democracy, Higgins said.
“As we mark 200 years since that visit, it matters that Lexington was seen as a site of that democracy through Transylvania, through our education system, and even in some of the darker parts of our history with Hayden and that moment that sparked a longing for freedom,” Higgins said.
“Lexington is the first city in the American West,” she continued. “It’s not by the 1830s because of the river and the way that goods traveled… but Lexington has always been the heart of Central Kentucky, and the center of what folks thought of Kentucky. Lafayette’s visit makes that even more real.”
On Thursday, Keeneland Library hosted a sold-out reception to celebrate his visit. On Friday, two celebrations, at 10 a.m. at Ashland, and at 3 p.m. in Gratz Park, will dedicate plaques to honor him. One of Lafayette’s descendants, Sabine Sablionere, will be in attendance.
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 May 16, 2025 at 8:25 AM.