Editor’s Note:As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
In 1854, a New Jersey silversmith had a vision for a school: “an education of the widest range and highest order” for the women of Lexington.
David Sayre left his profession and home state to move to Lexington. After a successful career as a banker, he and his wife Abby founded the Sayre school on Nov. 1, 1854. In a meeting in the offices of former Kentucky Secretary of State George Kinkead, Sayre and other members of the First Presbyterian Church (then the McChord Presbyterian Church) drew up the school’s articles of incorporation…