Just a Memory
The Midway Historic District of Midway, Kentucky, was designated by the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district on November 17, 1978. In 2003, faced with a declining downtown, a major street scape renovation project began as part of the Kentucky Main Street Program.
Midway was the first town built by a railroad company in Kentucky, established by the Lexington and Ohio Railroad, whose goal was to connect Lexington, Kentucky to the Ohio River, bypassing Louisville. The L&O were building a line between Frankfort, Kentucky
and Lexington, starting in 1831, with the first train arriving at the
"midway" point in 1833, on a farm owned by John Francisco. On January
31, 1835, the L&O bought the farm from Francisco for $6,491.25, and
had their civil engineer, R. C. Hewitt, plat out the town. It was named
Midway due to being equally distant from Frankfort and Lexington. Many
of the town's streets were named for individuals that worked for the
L&O. The state of Kentucky incorporated the town in 1846.