Last Friday, residents and families of Fayette County’s Fort Spring welcomed visitors for a Juneteenth event spotlighting the historic Black hamlet. For many, it was an occasion to celebrate the community they have called home for generations.
Fort Spring, also called Fort Springs, is located west of Lexington, past Keeneland and Blue Grass Airport. New Vine Baptist Church is its focal point, sitting on top of a hill overlooking the rest of the hamlet.
“This is where my husband’s family lived, in the house up the road here, a little bit. He lived here. We married in 1950,” said 91-year-old Helen Beatty, who has been a member of the church for decades.
According to the Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, the area that eventually became Fort Spring was established by white residents and originally referred to as Reform, and later Slickaway…