This tour is sponsored by the Lyric Theater & Cultural Arts Center which is part of its education and outreach programs. This article gives some great information about the tour and when they will be held.
Merlene Davis: Discover the history of Lexington’s East End in a walking tour
By Merlene Davis — Herald-Leader columnist
Leave it to local historian Yvonne Giles to uncover information the rest of us were mistaken about.
Giles, who has been instrumental in recovering and preserving the history of Lexington, particularly black Lexington, said we have been misspelling Dewees, as in Deweese Street in downtown Lexington, since 1907.
The street was named for Farmer Dewees, who grew up in Midway before moving to Lexington, she said.
“In 1907, someone added the ‘e’ to the spelling of his name,” Giles said. “In 1919, the city council voted to return it to the correct spelling without the ‘e,’ but that didn’t happen for some reason.”
Dewees bought a house on Short Street, just off Back Street, the previous name of Deweese Street. The house was called White Cottage and was later purchased in 1889 by the Women’s Guild of Christ Church and transformed into the Protestant Infirmary.
Read more via Merlene Davis: Discover the history of Lexington’s East End in a walking tour | Family | Kentucky.com.
