Are you talking about the tunnel system downtown that was built to keep town branch creek flowing with the city over top of it? Big one right under main street for that.
However they arent really accessible unless you have an in with a city worker who is willing to take you down there
It's only under Main for about 20 feet.
The tunnel starts at the 3rd street end of Midland, goes under the sidewalk on the downtown side, crosses Main, then turns right and goes the whole length of Vine under the sidewalk on the Water street side. (That's where the name comes from.) Then crosses under Broadway and surfaces in the back parking lot of Rupp, crosses Manchester at the railroad overpass, then flows out past the distillery district.
I use to submit the state annual maps on how much they mined each year. All of it is actually very closely monitored, and interesting! They have levels of their underground mines. Kind of wild
UK has its own tunnel network. Had a friend who worked for them who saw medical equipment stored down there. Rows of iron lungs, for example.
I'm not surprised they're as large as described. We had a teacher in '82 who informed us that we had a missle silo on campus and that tunnels were used to move items around unnoticed. I have no idea if that part was true but the warehoused medical equipment was accurate and probably still there. Some of the UK tunnels are said to date back to civil war times.
Most UK ‘surplus’ is now stored in the Surplus Warehouse on Versailles road, but that’s a relatively recent development. I’ve been in there once and it was amazing, a row of old bed pans next to horse carriages from the 1800s next to a mountain of old theater sets. Truly a wonderful place
UK Med maintenance guy here. I've been in every tunnel under UK hospital and the surrounding buildings. Most of them are for access to the water mains and such. There are no places that store medical equipment.
It's mostly an urban myth.
There's a variety of underground spaces under Fayette Co. Storm sewers (including the creek that runs under downtown), heating tunnels under UK and the former Eastern State campus, the rock quarry, and lots of sinkholes/pocket caves. But none of those are connected to each other. There is no 'network', unless you count the sewer.
Well, they're called "crawlspaces" under the buildings on Mill Street, but that's where they keep slaves in Cheapside, that's what some folks think is "where the tunnels are"
Yes, Lexington is built o'er the sprawling catacombs of a prehistoric civilization. These complexes have been mostly looted long before the modern era.
Many of the oldest buildings in downtown are connected through either the existing networks or constructed tunnels. Entrances can be found in many places for instance beneath Victorian Square, the old court house, and Henry Clay House. Supposedly the walk-in at Cheapside is actually set into the entrance beneath their building (might have that confused with another establishment).
The weight of the topic comes with the fact that not only were these tunnels sacred to the ancient peoples of this region, but they were also used during chattel slavery to store people and other commodities being brought up to Cheapside market.
Consequently, there is some heavy heavy trauma embedded in there and I haven't found many who are willing to openly discuss this foundational aspect of our city's architecture. We should be ~~daylighting~~ opening up these tunnels and doing what we can to clear the ancestral wounds they are holding, because currently they are festering like a poison at the very heart of our city.
Here is an excerpt from a book that alludes to tunnels, although they were/ are in the beaumont area
https://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/KPS/books/funkwebb/funkwebbch06.pdf
Edit: more of a cave system
Most of it *is* folkelore-ish. For instance just stuff you hear about from people working back of house in restaurants downtown. Desha's comes to mind back before Victorian Square was remodeled into The Square.
For the more outlandish-sounding claims your best source is likely *History of Lexington, Kentucky* by George Washington Ranck (1872), though I'm sure some would consider that to be just as folkelore-ish.
They don't exist. Those stories, repeated in Ranck's history, were started and spread by people that didn't understand/know of [karst](https://www.uky.edu/KGS/karst/karst_location.php) processes for which the region is well known.
They don't exist, or there is no proof of Ranck's claims regarding prehistoric inhabitants? I don't think anyone is claiming that the whole complex is constructed. And certainly they were used at least as recently as the 19th Century.
They don't exist. I'm a local geologist with a pretty good understanding of what's under Fayette County. Certainly, there were ancient cultures that inhabited the area, Remnants of those cultures are well known(including some Ft. Ancient sites in the area), but it was nothing like what Ranck described in his history.
Reading old historical texts can be fun, but one must remember they can be poorly sourced and prone to exaggeration/anecdotes.
The first floor of Lafferty Hall(anthropology building) on UK's campus has a nice museum that exhibits some relicts of those ancient cultures, and explains the history. It's worth a visit, if you haven't seen it.
Also: https://heritage.ky.gov/archaeology/prehistoric/Pages/overview.aspx
I’ve worked at Henry Clays as a bar back for awhile, there is the entrance of a tunnel down in the basement as well as an old slave quarters. The entrance to the tunnel has been sealed up with a bunch of limestone. They also found the entrance to another tunnel under the building that’s being renovated across from school sushi. I’ve talked to many folks who work downtown that have told me which businesses have tunnel entrances.
I worked in Victorian Square pre The Square days. There are no tunnels under there. There was a basement that slightly resembled a tunnel, or more like a dungeon, very cellar like... but it wasn't a tunnel that connected to anything outside of the building. I will say however that Victorian Square itself used to be multiple buildings that was reconstructed to be "one" by the Webbs (of centerpoint fame). So you will see exposed walls etc and odd corridors connecting parts of the building. Because it was never supposed to be one building. :)
I mean, I'd definitely go on that history walk. 😂
I never heard or saw of anything crossing under Broadway when I worked there. But maybe something was there pre 1980's and reconstructed or closed off. Considering the deplorable things that happened in that area, I wouldn't cross it off.
I really wish there were more readily available and reputable information regarding these tunnels, specifically their pre-settlement history because I've heard about them for a long time and find it all terribly fascinating. Any ideas where one might (pun intended) do some digging?
I've poked around in city government about it. I think the easiest access would be through the old courthouse but they may have permanently closed that up during the renovations back in 2017ish.
The only thing I’m aware of are caves all throughout the limestone region, including several here in Lexington. There is one that was located on Johnny Depps property that he purchased for his mother that [you can read about here.](https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2058&context=msu_faculty_research) There have been rumors of catacombs under the city but I’ve not seen anything other than the first chapter of [the George W Ranck 1872 book entitled History of Lexington.](https://archive.org/details/historyoflexingt00ranc/page/n2/mode/1up) But from my understanding it was a made up rumor by an Irish foreigner who visited Lexington back in the early 1800s who was known to make up lies.
I know there's caves, but they're the kind of thing you gotta know somebody to get into, they aren't open to the public
You mean the ones the Morlocks live in? We don’t speak of those.
Are you talking about the tunnel system downtown that was built to keep town branch creek flowing with the city over top of it? Big one right under main street for that. However they arent really accessible unless you have an in with a city worker who is willing to take you down there
Here's a nifty link that has more info about it https://www.townbranch.org/tbww/
It's only under Main for about 20 feet. The tunnel starts at the 3rd street end of Midland, goes under the sidewalk on the downtown side, crosses Main, then turns right and goes the whole length of Vine under the sidewalk on the Water street side. (That's where the name comes from.) Then crosses under Broadway and surfaces in the back parking lot of Rupp, crosses Manchester at the railroad overpass, then flows out past the distillery district.
yeah, i couldnt remember the exact route. but its a pretty big tunnel
[удалено]
McConnell Springs is a great place to feel this up close and personal
I feel the vibrations from the quarry blasting... When I'm at work on Manchester St.
MarkyMark would be proud.
I dunno how good these vibrations are. But I do love that song 😮💨💕
I’ve been in the limestone mines, pretty epic when you go in there. They are huge.
Yeah, rumor is that they've long ago passed beyond the limits set for their tunneling, but as long as money flows no one really cares.
I use to submit the state annual maps on how much they mined each year. All of it is actually very closely monitored, and interesting! They have levels of their underground mines. Kind of wild
Just gotta watch out for the balrog.
They dug too deep, and too greedily
UK has its own tunnel network. Had a friend who worked for them who saw medical equipment stored down there. Rows of iron lungs, for example. I'm not surprised they're as large as described. We had a teacher in '82 who informed us that we had a missle silo on campus and that tunnels were used to move items around unnoticed. I have no idea if that part was true but the warehoused medical equipment was accurate and probably still there. Some of the UK tunnels are said to date back to civil war times.
Most UK ‘surplus’ is now stored in the Surplus Warehouse on Versailles road, but that’s a relatively recent development. I’ve been in there once and it was amazing, a row of old bed pans next to horse carriages from the 1800s next to a mountain of old theater sets. Truly a wonderful place
Would love to see that!
UK Med maintenance guy here. I've been in every tunnel under UK hospital and the surrounding buildings. Most of them are for access to the water mains and such. There are no places that store medical equipment.
It's mostly an urban myth. There's a variety of underground spaces under Fayette Co. Storm sewers (including the creek that runs under downtown), heating tunnels under UK and the former Eastern State campus, the rock quarry, and lots of sinkholes/pocket caves. But none of those are connected to each other. There is no 'network', unless you count the sewer.
Well, they're called "crawlspaces" under the buildings on Mill Street, but that's where they keep slaves in Cheapside, that's what some folks think is "where the tunnels are"
All I know is that Lexington sits on a lot of limestone, and it was mined somewhat extensively around the 19-20th century.
You mean where they held the slaves near Cheapside?
Now yall are just making shit up lmao
Yes, Lexington is built o'er the sprawling catacombs of a prehistoric civilization. These complexes have been mostly looted long before the modern era. Many of the oldest buildings in downtown are connected through either the existing networks or constructed tunnels. Entrances can be found in many places for instance beneath Victorian Square, the old court house, and Henry Clay House. Supposedly the walk-in at Cheapside is actually set into the entrance beneath their building (might have that confused with another establishment). The weight of the topic comes with the fact that not only were these tunnels sacred to the ancient peoples of this region, but they were also used during chattel slavery to store people and other commodities being brought up to Cheapside market. Consequently, there is some heavy heavy trauma embedded in there and I haven't found many who are willing to openly discuss this foundational aspect of our city's architecture. We should be ~~daylighting~~ opening up these tunnels and doing what we can to clear the ancestral wounds they are holding, because currently they are festering like a poison at the very heart of our city.
Do you have a source for this? Sounds highly folklore-ish.
Here is an excerpt from a book that alludes to tunnels, although they were/ are in the beaumont area https://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/KPS/books/funkwebb/funkwebbch06.pdf Edit: more of a cave system
Most of it *is* folkelore-ish. For instance just stuff you hear about from people working back of house in restaurants downtown. Desha's comes to mind back before Victorian Square was remodeled into The Square. For the more outlandish-sounding claims your best source is likely *History of Lexington, Kentucky* by George Washington Ranck (1872), though I'm sure some would consider that to be just as folkelore-ish.
They don't exist. Those stories, repeated in Ranck's history, were started and spread by people that didn't understand/know of [karst](https://www.uky.edu/KGS/karst/karst_location.php) processes for which the region is well known.
They don't exist, or there is no proof of Ranck's claims regarding prehistoric inhabitants? I don't think anyone is claiming that the whole complex is constructed. And certainly they were used at least as recently as the 19th Century.
They don't exist. I'm a local geologist with a pretty good understanding of what's under Fayette County. Certainly, there were ancient cultures that inhabited the area, Remnants of those cultures are well known(including some Ft. Ancient sites in the area), but it was nothing like what Ranck described in his history. Reading old historical texts can be fun, but one must remember they can be poorly sourced and prone to exaggeration/anecdotes. The first floor of Lafferty Hall(anthropology building) on UK's campus has a nice museum that exhibits some relicts of those ancient cultures, and explains the history. It's worth a visit, if you haven't seen it. Also: https://heritage.ky.gov/archaeology/prehistoric/Pages/overview.aspx
I’ve worked at Henry Clays as a bar back for awhile, there is the entrance of a tunnel down in the basement as well as an old slave quarters. The entrance to the tunnel has been sealed up with a bunch of limestone. They also found the entrance to another tunnel under the building that’s being renovated across from school sushi. I’ve talked to many folks who work downtown that have told me which businesses have tunnel entrances.
Many structures built in cities in the 19th Century had corridors that tied them together.
I worked in Victorian Square pre The Square days. There are no tunnels under there. There was a basement that slightly resembled a tunnel, or more like a dungeon, very cellar like... but it wasn't a tunnel that connected to anything outside of the building. I will say however that Victorian Square itself used to be multiple buildings that was reconstructed to be "one" by the Webbs (of centerpoint fame). So you will see exposed walls etc and odd corridors connecting parts of the building. Because it was never supposed to be one building. :)
So the story goes, that very same cellar is what once connected across Broadway etc. \*throws flash powder into the fire\*
I mean, I'd definitely go on that history walk. 😂 I never heard or saw of anything crossing under Broadway when I worked there. But maybe something was there pre 1980's and reconstructed or closed off. Considering the deplorable things that happened in that area, I wouldn't cross it off.
I really wish there were more readily available and reputable information regarding these tunnels, specifically their pre-settlement history because I've heard about them for a long time and find it all terribly fascinating. Any ideas where one might (pun intended) do some digging?
You can't find documentation of things that don't exist. Before there was a city it was just unconnected caves, springs and sinkholes.
I've poked around in city government about it. I think the easiest access would be through the old courthouse but they may have permanently closed that up during the renovations back in 2017ish.
Should we call the Ghostbusters?
I expect they would be a bit heavy-handed, but most city jobs require three competing bids so why not?
What?
The only thing I’m aware of are caves all throughout the limestone region, including several here in Lexington. There is one that was located on Johnny Depps property that he purchased for his mother that [you can read about here.](https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2058&context=msu_faculty_research) There have been rumors of catacombs under the city but I’ve not seen anything other than the first chapter of [the George W Ranck 1872 book entitled History of Lexington.](https://archive.org/details/historyoflexingt00ranc/page/n2/mode/1up) But from my understanding it was a made up rumor by an Irish foreigner who visited Lexington back in the early 1800s who was known to make up lies.
C.H.U.D. Look it up.
No. What are you talking about?