McAdams and Morford Building

United States historic place

Significant dates

McAdams and Morford Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district Contributing property

The McAdams & Morford Building in 2019
38°02′50″N 84°29′54″W / 38.04722°N 84.49833°W / 38.04722; -84.49833 (McAdams and Morford Building)
Area	less than one acre
Built	1849 (1849)
Architectural style	Italian Renaissance
Part of	Downtown Commercial District (ID83000559)
NRHP reference No.	73000799^[1]
Added to NRHP	October 25, 1973
Designated CP	August 25, 1983

The McAdams and Morford Building in Lexington, Kentucky, also known as the Melodeon Hall, is a 3-story commercial building constructed in 1849. An Italianate cast iron facade was added after 1857. Druggists McAdams & Morford occupied a corner space in the building 1898–1994.^[2]

The building was home to Lexington's Melodeon Hall, a theater and meeting space with seating for 300 patrons. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge addressed a gathering at the Melodeon in 1861, and his remarks helped to preserve Kentucky as a Union state during the American Civil War, although Kentucky maintained separate Union and Confederate state governments during the war.^[2]

The University of Kentucky (Transylvania University) Commercial College occupied the building for 35 years under the direction of Wilbur R. Smith. In 1908 the college was incorporated separately from the university as the Wilbur R. Smith Business College.^[3]^[4]

In 2017 a vehicle damaged the building, and repair workers uncovered arches from the cast iron facade that had been hidden by previous remodeling.^[5]

The McAdams and McFord logo appears on the cover of the 2000 album The Sickness from the nu-metal group, Disturbed.

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
^ ^a ^b Carol Mayfield (July 1, 1973). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: McAdams and Morford Building". National Park Service. Retrieved May 2, 2019. With accompanying pictures
^ What is now Transylvania University operated at the time under the name University of Kentucky. The Commercial College was affiliated with Transylvania University, not with the present University of Kentucky.
^ "IV". Ancestry, Life and Reminiscences of Gen. Wilbur R. Smith. Transylvania Printing Co. 1913. p. 57. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
^ Tom Eblen (March 7, 2017). "After truck crashed into one of downtown's oldest buildings, an architectural discovery". Lexington Herald Leader. Lexington, Kentucky. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved May 2, 2019.