Audio Narration

Built in 1950, the University of Kentucky’s Memorial Coliseum was home to the school’s nationally ranked men’s basketball program for 26 years. The structure was built for $4 million dollars and was named to honor over 9,200 Kentuckians who died in the second World War. While in use by the program, the coliseum hosted 345 men’s basketball games of which the team won 307. Many important events in the team’s history happened at the venue including two national championship victories and eight other championship games. Many notable figures in Kentucky basketball history played and worked at Memorial Coliseum. Legendary coach Adolph Rupp would coach his final years at the venue until his retirement in 1972. Rupp’s career spanned 42 years at the University of Kentucky and the team’s next stadium, Rupp Arena, was named in honor of his accomplishments. Players from the period who gained notoriety from this era are Adrian Smith, Frank Ramsey, Louie Dampier, Cliff Hagan, Dan Issel, and Pat Riley. The basketball program began at the University of Kentucky in 1902 when the women’s team was founded; the men’s team follow shortly after in 1903. The teams would play in smaller arenas, not well-suited for large audiences, until 1924 when the Alumni Gymnasium was opened. Alumni was the home to both of the school’s programs until Memorial Coliseum was constructed in 1950.  Since the building was constructed, it has undergone several renovations. Most notable among these was the 1990 update that reduced seating but saw the addition of more training facilities, the 1998 addition of the tutoring center, and the Joe Craft practice facility in 2007. This recent addition as named in honor of UK graduate Joe Craft who donated the funds to construct the facility. Craft is a billionaire businessman whose success largely comes from involvement in the coal industry.  Though no longer the seat of the men’s basketball team, the Memorial Coliseum is still a center for UK sports. The arena houses women’s basketball, gymnastics, volleyball and a variety of other events. The CATS tutoring facility and the practice gym are both still in active use, making Memorial Coliseum a central fixture on UK’s campus. Information on upcoming events and ticket sales is available from UK Athletics.

Built to house the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team in 1950, the Memorial Coliseum saw two of the team's championship wins. UK basketball icons Adolph Rupp and Pat Riley were a part of the structure’s history among other athletes who would go on to play in the NBA. The team has relocated to Rupp Arena for games since 1976, but the Memorial Coliseum still hosts a variety of other sports and events and is the practice facility for UK’s men’s basketball team. The facility has undergone a series of renovations since it opened which have expanded the services offered to include tutoring.  

Memorial Coliseum

Learn about the growth of UK and a variety of aspects of the school's history as you walk from north campus to south campus. 

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky in Lexington is run by the university's College of Fine Arts. The museum is a part of the Singletary Center for the Arts which also features concert and recital halls where audiences can view performances by students, faculty, and guest performers. Since opening in 1979, the center has served an estimated 3.7 million patrons. The arts center is named for Dr. Singletary, the university's 8th president. The Art Museum offers free admission to visitors and tickets are able to be reserved in advance. Over 4,500 works of art can be viewed in the museum with six traveling exhibits yearly. Styles on display range from the pre-Columbian era to modern and contemporary art. Famous artists such as Goya, Rodin, Durer, Ansel Adams, and Lichtenstein are featured in the collection. Additionally, there is a collection of 160 works created with the support of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was one of the New Deal programs run by the federal government during the Great Depression. It helped to foster the arts during the financial crisis of the time and provided work to struggling artists. The Memorial Hall mural is another on-campus example of a WPA piece.

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky is located in the Singletary Center for the Arts building. It was founded in 1976 and contains 4,500 works of art that range from pre-Columbian to modern and contemporary art. It houses numerous works by famous artists such as Goya, Rodin, Durer, Ansel Adams, and Lichtenstein. It also contains a collection of 160 works created with the support of the Works Progress Administration, which was one of the New Deal programs run by the federal government during the Great Depression. The museum presents six traveling exhibits per year.

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky

Prior to the construction of the Margaret I. King Library, the University of Kentucky’s collection was housed in the Carnegie library building. This previous structure had been built in 1909 after the university received a donation from Andrew Carnegie, the steel tycoon well-known for funding the construction of libraries across the United States. At this time the university’s collection was small enough to be held in a single room.Three years after construction ended on the Carnegie Library, Margaret I. King was named the university’s first librarian. King had previously served as the secretary for the school’s first president, James K. Patterson, and was an 1898 graduate of the school. As the library and the university grew, a new building was needed so in 1938 this structure was built and named in honor of King. The building is five-stories and is made of red brick, located on what is now central campus. During her time as librarian King expanded the university’s collection to reach 400,000 items by 1948 and retired from all positions the following year. The collection would later outgrow the original building and two additional wings were added in the 1960s and again in 1974.When the William T. Young library was opened in 1998, the main collection was transferred to the new building. The King Library remained opened but has since become home to the library’s Special Collections, maps, science texts, and the notable oral history collection. Visitors to Special Collections must make an appointment and tours are available upon request. The building also houses the King Library Press which has been in operation since 1956. Several exhibits are available online through the Special Collections Research Center’s website. Outside of the King Library stands a historical marker honoring King and the library. The marker was placed in 2009 and gives a brief history of the structure.

Home to the University of Kentucky’s Special Collections Resource Center, the Margaret I. King Library was the university’s main library for 67 years. The structure’s namesake was the school’s first librarian. King served in this position in addition to working as a Library Science and English professor and was able to work alongside the university’s first president, James K. Patterson. Today the structure features an exhibit on Women’s Suffrage in Kentucky and an oral history collection focused on the history and development of the region. A historical marker with a summary of the structure’s significance has stood outside of the library since 2009. 

Margaret I. King Library

This statue, dedicated in 1934, shows the first president of the University of Kentucky, James K. Patterson. Designed by sculptor Augustus Lukeman, the piece was dedicated on the anniversary of Patterson’s 100th birthday in honor of his service to the university. The funds to construct the statue came from Patterson’s family and Patterson’s own will and cost $25,000. Originally, the statue sat between the Administrative Building and Maxwell place, but it was relocated to storage in 1967 while the Patterson Office Tower was under construction. In 1969 the statue was placed near its current location at the feet of the Patterson building. It was later relocated to its current place outside of the main entrance of the Patterson building in 2003.James K. Patterson was a Scottish immigrant who moved to the United States in 1842 with his family. An 1856 graduate of Hanover College, Patterson was a scholar throughout his life. Mainly a student of languages, Patterson taught Latin and studies Greek, Sanskrit, and Hebrew among other languages. Later in his life he pursued other subjects and began studying metaphysics, history, and politics. Patterson devoted his career to education and served a number of positions at the Stewart College, Transylvania College, and A&amp;M College among others.During Patterson’s time as President of Transylvania College, the merger began between A&amp;M College, Transylvania, and Kentucky University. This merger failed and in 1878 A&amp;M officially separated from the other institutions. That year he was elected as an interim president, his position became official in 1880 when he was re-elected. To help repair the financial damaged caused by the merger and subsequent separation of the colleges, Patterson famously advocated for the state’s General Assembly to institute a tax to raise funding for the college. Despite the tax being initially unpopular, Patterson was able to persuade the body to vote in its favor and the tax was implemented beginning in 1882. This move and Patterson’s decision to take out a personal loan to assist the college helped save the school from financial ruin.Before his retirement in 1910, Patterson oversaw the name change from A&amp;M College to State University, Lexington, Kentucky. As President of the school, Patterson also helped guide the institution to university status. Patterson remained an active part of the university community until his death in 1922, even living on campus in the president’s home after his retirement and attending board meetings.

Made in honor of the University of Kentucky’s first president James K. Patterson, this statue has stood on the campus’s grounds since 1934. The Scotland native oversaw the transformation of the three local colleges into the state university we see today. Patterson served several colleges as a professor of Latin and administrator in addition to working occasionally as a writer for local papers. Patterson was known among his colleagues for having studied sciences in addition to the classics and showed a passion for education throughout his life. The statue has sat at its current location at the base of the Patterson Office Tower since 2003 but had been relocated several times prior to this.

James K. Patterson Statue

Created as a part of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1934, the mural in Memorial Hall at the University of Kentucky was designed by artist Ann O’Hanlon. The hall itself had been built just five years prior. It was named in honors of Kentuckians who died in World War I; all 2,756 names are displayed in the lobby. The fresco was intended to illustrate the history of Kentucky up to the mural’s creation and today represents one of few true frescoes in the country. O’Hanlon included depictions of white settlers, technological innovations, and several autobiographical references. The technique applied in the painting is similar to that employed by famed fresco artist Diego Rivera. O’Hanlon and Rivera both studied at the California School of Fine Art, though the two were not there at the same time.  However, the most notable aspects of the mural are its depictions of African Americans which have been criticized by the members of the campus community since the 1970s. Many criticisms argue that O’Hanlon’s depictions of African Americans as slaves and segregated is outdated and harmful to Black students on campus. Others feel that the mural should be preserved as a historical artifact.  These discussions came to a head and began to receive national attention in 2015 when a group of Black students approached University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto to express their concerns about the mural. The students advocated for the removal of the fresco which was covered by the administration for several months while a solution was discussed. Ultimately, university officials in 2016 felt that adding context was necessary for the mural to remain. Philadelphia artist Karyn Olivier was selected to add depictions of the Black community that were left out of O’Hanlon’s original design. Olivier added this section to the ceiling as a means of adding context to the piece.  Just three years after this announcement, two student groups on campus, the Basic Needs Campaign and the Black Student Advisory Council presented a list of demands to President Capilouto that included the removal of the mural at Memorial Hall. The students began a sit-in in the campus’s Main Building in April of 2019 and within two days President Capilouto announced that the mural would be covered again. After the death of George Floyd sparked worldwide protests racism and police brutality, President Capilouto announced that the university would move forward with the removal of the mural.  Before progress on the removal began, artist Wendell Berry and his family sued the university to halt the removal. The Berry family argues that the university has no right to remove the piece which was commissioned by the federal government. No specific removal date has been announced, and the mural remains covered and intact today. Likely no progress will be made on the mural until the suit is resolved.

Completed in 1934, the Memorial Hall Mural has been a point of contention on the University of Kentucky’s campus for decades. The mural was designed by artist Ann O’Hanlon who intended to show the history of Kentucky up to the 1930s. Students protested the mural in 2019 with a hunger strike and a sit-in resulting in an announcement that the mural would be covered. In 2020 President Capiluto announced that the mural would be removed, but the process to do so has been stalled by a suit against the university which alleges the school has no right to destroy the fresco.  

Memorial Hall Mural

Though the Kentucky Kernel was founded in 1908, it would not produce its first publication until 1915. The Kentucky Kernel is not the first student-run paper at the University of Kentucky (UK), but it is the longest running. What began as a brief student paper focused on UK topics, has grown into an independent publication covering local news. The paper became independent in 1972. Today, it continues to publish physical copies in addition to the digital content available on their website. Print editions are published weekly during the regular semester and are free to members of the campus community.  The historical marker honoring the paper was placed in front of the Grehan building in 2005. The building has been the home of the paper since it was completed in 1951 and became the home of the Communications Department. Today it is also known as the Grehan Journalism Building.

This historical marker informs passersby of the founding of the University of Kentucky’s student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel. The Kentucky Kernel published its first edition in 1915 and has since become an independent paper with a focus on UK events and Lexington-area news. The historical marker was placed in front of the Grehan Building in 2005.  

Kentucky Kernel Marker

In 1948, Lyman T. Johnson paved the way for African American students to begin attending the University of Kentucky when he filed a suit against the university. At that time, UK would not allow Black students to enroll at the university. Johnson’s lawyer argued that African Americans must be admitted into the university’s graduate programs as there were no equal facilities elsewhere in the state. This argument relied on the precedent set in the Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court ruling. Johnson won the case in March of 1949 which enabled Johnson and other African American students to enroll at the university for the first time.  Johnson and other students were confronted with racism from students, faculty, and community members as they attended the university. During Johnson’s time on campus, 17 crosses were reportedly burned in an attempt to intimidate the Black students. Johnson himself never graduated from the university and in interviews claims he never intended to. Rather, he wanted only to enable other students to attend the university if they so desired.  Today, Johnson is remembered with this historical marker and has a residence hall and scholarship named in his honor. The marker sits in front of the Lyman T. Johnson Residence Hall.

This historical marker stands in honor of Lyman T. Johnson and the 1948 suit that would eventually lead to the desegregation of the University of Kentucky. Johnson‘s lawyers used the precedent of Plessy v. Ferguson to argue for the admission of Black students to UK. The first African American students on UK’s campus experienced racism throughout their time at the university as they received death threats and crosses were burnt across campus.  

Desegregation of the University of Kentucky Historical Marker

Opened in 1905, Scovell Hall was for many years the largest building on the University of Kentucky’s campus. The hall takes its name from Melville A. Scovell who served as the first director for the university’s Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station (KAES). This branch of the university is still in operation today and focuses on agriculture-related research. Scovell served in this position for 27 years before becoming the Dean of the College of Agriculture briefly before his death in 1912. Scovell’s work helped to grow the KAES into the research center it has become today. His background as a chemist and scientific approach became a model which other states and universities would go on to replicate.  The building has undergone several renovations and expansions since it first opened, with the most notable being in 1913 and 1937. Until the 1990s the building was mainly used for the research of the College of Agriculture. Today the building instead houses the university’s Human Resources Department. It retains its original colonial-style exterior. A historical marker stands in front of the building.

Scovell Hall has stood on the University of Kentucky campus since 1905. With a colonial style, the building was the largest structure on campus for many years. The hall takes its name from Melville A. Scovell who headed up the university’s Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station when it first opened. Scovell helped transform the KAES into a model for other agricultural research institutions. The hall still stands today and is now home to Human Resources for UK. There is a historical marker in front of the hall.  

University of Kentucky Walking Tour