Lexington, MO

Lexington, MO., A Window to the Past

The Civil War ended 136 years ago, but solid evidence remains of that and other periods of American history in Lexington, Mo. (pop. 4,453). A cannonball lodged in a massive column of the Lafayette County Courthouse (see photo, lower right) is just one enduring symbol of the town’s colorful past.

Since its founding in 1822, Lexington has served as a port on the Missouri River, a trading center for travelers on the Santa Fe and Oregon trails, and the site of a three-day Civil War battle in 1861.

It was during that battle that Union troops launched the cannonball that remains today. In the early years after the war, money wasn’t available to repair the courthouse. But over time, the cannonball has come to symbolize Lexington’s heritage and preservation of the past.

“I think in another 20 years, Lexington will be known as the Williamsburg of the West,” says Katherine Amber Van Amburg, a downtown business owner and retired schoolteacher whose ancestors settled in Lafayette County in the early 1800s.

Links to Lexington’s past are evident throughout the community, from the hundreds of restored antebellum homes and businesses to the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site and 1853 Anderson House, which served as a field hospital for both the North and the South during the fighting. Built between 1847 and 1849, the county courthouse is the oldest courthouse in continual use west of the Mississippi River.

Garry Shulkind, a former Kansas City suburbanite who moved to Lexington in 1999 in search of an antebellum home for his primitive antique collection, adores the historic, quiet nature of the town. His 1838 home and English garden on Franklin Street is now one of Lexington’s eight bed and breakfast inns.

“We thought we were getting a beautiful home, but we got so much more,” Shulkind says. “We talk with our neighbors and sit around on the front porch listening to music together.”

Such a scene would surely please the early settlers who envisioned a town rich in cultural opportunities. First attracted here by fertile farmland, abundant hunting, and river access, the town’s founders built three women’s colleges, a military school, and a theater. Their lack of interest in industrial pursuits certainly limited the town’s growth, and many residents now commute to jobs in nearby Kansas City.

“I think early settlers would be pleased that we’ve done a nice job developing a good quality of life for our residents,” says Sarah Black, who for five years chaired the town’s annual Apple, Arts, and Antiques Festival.

In addition to the festival’s juried art show, the town often hosts performances of the Kansas City Symphony and performing vocal groups. Lexington also has its own dinner theater and a community choir that carries on the early settlers’ vision of culture.

“This town’s future is its past,” says Iris Shepard, who operates a gift shop in a log home built in the 1830s.

Her business is one of many specialty shops, tearooms, and antique stores on Main Street, which during the late 1800s and early 1900s was better known as Block 42 because of the 42 saloons that lined the street. Some townspeople still remember that proper women and their children never walked along the sidewalks of Block 42. Now, at 930 Main St., right smack in the middle of Block 42, Van Amburg is co-owner of Riley’s Irish Pub and Family Restaurant.

Riley’s is one reason the downtown is alive with activity seven days a week. The restaurant serves old-fashioned family food with a Southern flair, including sweet potato fries and fried dill pickles.

“We close at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays just so we don’t become too associated with the image of a saloon,” Van Amburg says.

Her tiny deference for the past is another example of how age-old traditions have been maintained in Lexington for nearly 180 years.

Diana Lambdin Meyer is a freelance writer in Parkville, Mo.

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