Midway, Kentucky
| Midway, Kentucky | |
|---|---|
| City | |
East Main Street in Midway
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 Location of Midway, Kentucky |
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| Coordinates: 38°9′2″N 84°40′59″W / 38.15056°N 84.68306°WCoordinates: 38°9′2″N 84°40′59″W / 38.15056°N 84.68306°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Kentucky |
| County | Woodford |
| Established | January 31, 1835 |
| Incorporated | February 7, 1846 |
| Named for | its location relative to Frankfort and Lexington |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Grayson Vandegrift |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1.1 sq mi (3 km2) |
| • Land | 1.1 sq mi (3 km2) |
| • Water | 0.0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 827 ft (252 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 1,641 |
| • Density | 1,484.3/sq mi (573.1/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 40347 |
| Area code(s) | 859 |
| FIPS code | 21-52140 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0498164 |
Midway is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, in the United States. Its population was 1,620 at the time of the year 2000 U.S. census. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The town is home to a major thoroughbred race horse breeding operation, the Three Chimneys Farm. In 2003, faced with a declining downtown, a major streetscape renovation project began as part of Main Street Kentucky. New period structures and lighting brought new life to the town.
Before its European exploration, the area around Midway was inhabited by the Mound Builders. Two large and several smaller American Indian mounds have been identified on nearby farms.
The present city began as a small settlement known as Stevenson's at the time of its first post office in 1832. On January 31, 1835, the local farmer John Francisco sold his 216.375-acre (87.564 ha) farm to the Lexington and Ohio Railroad for $6,491.25. The railroad then used the land to establish Kentucky's first railroad town, naming it Middleway for its location relative to Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky. (The town is also equidistant between Versailles and Georgetown.) The major streets of Midway were named in honor of the railroad's original officials. It was renamed Midway in 1837.
The town was home to the Midway Distilling Company, which continued legal operation during the Prohibition era. In 1920, during a robbery of the distillery, Benjamin Rodgers and Homer Nave were killed. A black man, Richard W. James, was arrested for the killings. He admitted to the robbery but denied shooting the men, and claimed that the facility's superintendent of bottling, Samuel Seay, had a deal with James and others to share the proceeds of the stolen liquor. James was convicted of murder, but one member of the jury refused to vote for his execution on religious grounds. On March 13, 1921, a mob took James from the county jail in Versailles, Kentucky and lynched him from a tree near Margaret College, about a half-mile from Versailles. No one from the mob was indicted and, when Gov. Edwin P. Morrow removed the sheriff from his post, local voters elected his wife to replace him. The Rodgers, Nave, and Seay burial plots are at Midway Cemetery, while the James grave is found in Midway Sons and Daughters of Relief Cemetery.
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Wikipedia