’A Sense of Place’ update: Cadentown restoration moves to phase 1; city outlines programming and markers

Tiffany Brown, chief opportunity officer in the mayor’s office, told the General Government and Planning Committee on Jan. 14 that the A Sense of Place initiative will stabilize and interpret historic rural Black hamlets in Fayette County, starting with Cadentown.

Brown said the project aims to remember and celebrate the history of the county’s rural Black hamlets by stabilizing buildings, cleaning cemeteries, collecting oral histories and creating exhibits. The city owns the Cadentown property that includes the Cadentown Rosenwald School and the Cadentown Missionary Baptist Church; staff described the school as a wooden one‑story building constructed in 1923.

Phase 1 will focus on repairs to the school’s siding, windows, paint and HVAC. Brown said an RFP for the school repairs will be released in February 2025, with work intended to begin in March and an estimated 90‑day completion window so that the site could be featured at Juneteenth programming in June 2025. Phase 2 would add ADA-accessible bathrooms and a pathway at the church site.

Brown said the initiative has conducted roughly 14 public engagement meetings, collected oral histories and artifacts, and formed a steering committee that includes members of the hamlet communities. She said organizers are conducting a feasibility study for exhibit design and are developing an oral-history training and collection event on April 15 at the Lexington History Museum. Collection stewardship is currently handled by the Lexington History Museum, and the project’s website is listed as www.lexingtonhamlets.org.

Brown provided fundraising details: she said organizers have raised $730,144.97 in total to date, with about $430,271 in unrestricted funds, and an endowment of $106,874 whose spendable earnings are limited by endowment rules. She said $100,000 in 2023 fund balance was set aside for a historic-marker grant program to produce, install and prepare marker sites for hamlet communities; the marker program will be community‑led and paid for by the city if requested by the hamlet residents.

Committee members and community volunteers described the initiative as a public–private partnership. Several councilmembers praised the work and encouraged colleagues to attend community events and oral-history trainings. Councilmembers asked whether the city owns other hamlet properties; Brown said Cadentown is the only hamlet property currently owned by the city and that other markers or restorations on private property would proceed with community willingness and, where appropriate, private or grant funding.

The committee did not take formal action on the initiative; staff described next steps as completing repairs at Cadentown, advancing cemetery cleanup with Parks, continuing exhibit and collection work, and pursuing grant applications (including an African American heritage fund).