Turf Town Real Estate Blog

Meadowthorpe is a neighborhood in northern Lexington bordered by Leestown Road to the south, New Circle Road to the west, and Norfolk Southern railroad tracks to the north and east.  The neighborhood was established in 1949 and consists of homes mostly built in the Ranch or Cape Cod design. 

Originally, the land that is now Meadowthorpe was a stock farm owned by Jacob Hostetter.  Hostetter built a Greek Revival style house on the property around 1849.  After Hostetter’s death in 1886, the farm was sold to William H. Cheppu, who in turn sold the land to Colonel James E. Pepper in order to pay off a $32,000 overdraft in 1892.  Pepper, the owner of the Pepper Distillery, bought the property for $275 per acre, the highest price ever received for a bluegrass farm at the time.  Pepper originally planned to build a large castle on the property, but remodeled and enlarged the existing house and added a front gable inscribed with the name, Meadowthorpe 1892.  After Pepper’s death in 1906, Dr. Samuel H. Halley, president and general manager of Fayette Tobacco Warehouse, acquired the property.  He and his family lived there until at least through the 1920’s. 

In the summer of 1927, the property was converted into Lexington’s first airport.  The hangar was located at what is now Boiling Springs Drive between lots 200 and 204.  World War I flying ace, Ted Kincannon was manger.  Halley Field continued to be used after the war after a municipal airport on Newtown Pike was builty, but was eventually abandoned in 1934. 

The property on the opposite side of Leestown Road where the Winn Dixie shopping center was constructed in 1989, was once a 500 acre farm owned by Rufus Lisle, a prominent farmer who bred and raced thoroughbreds.  He named the property Lisland.  In 1899, eight years after Lisle’s death, the original house on the farm burned.  His widow replace it with a house that was owned the Lisle Family until the development of the shopping center. 

A large number of the original residents of this neighborhood still occupy their original homes and serve on the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association, officially organized in July 1982.  Today, Meadowthorpe is a very close knit neighborhood with mature treees, houses with large front yards and generous backyards, and sidewalks for leisurely evening walks.  Perhaps your next home is just around the corner!

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