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  I4 THE KENTUCKY ALUMNUS
P south of the present campus. The fair grounds were most accessible from
every direction—from the Harrodsburg road across the open space to their
front, from the Tate’s Creek road through Winslow’s woods, from Lexington
by Broadway, by convergance of Mulberry and Upper and by Van Pelt’s Lane.
, The suburban homes in the neighborhood adjacent, were splendid and well
kept. The old Maxwell home itself passed to Matthew T. Scott and from him
to Mr. Tarleton, a wealthy gentleman from the South, who used it as a summer
. home, coming up in state with his family carriages and servants every season.
For his comfort and luxury during the season was erected over the spring a
stone dairy house of the old time sort, with a solid stone slab about eight by ten
feet on the bottom, upon which rested the crocks of rich milk and cream cooled
by the gently fiowing waters over it. The place extended from Mulberry
Street to Van Pe1t’s Lane and, besides containing the choice small dairy herd,
was planted with ine and rare fruits and a vineyard. The place later passed
to a Mr. G. M. Adams, whose name is preserved in "Adams Town," lying be-
tween Limestone and Rose Street and South of Maxwell Street.
Many still remember the old round amphitheater of the fair grounds and
the splendid woodland where were wont to gather the finest crowds in Ken-
tucky. Here were won the silver cups for fine live stock, now handed down
as heirlooms. Here were served the snowy spreads under the majestic trees
(_ or in the booths under the amphitheatre. Smiling colored servants in fresh
 * attire—cooks, maids, nurses, drivers, body servants—all busy doing the bidding
given them, bringing water from Maxwell Springs, entertaining children, drag-
ging out the huge baskets and spreading the feast that had been days in pre-
paring—-roast pigs with apples in their mouths, roast turkeys, lambs, beef, fried
chicken, hams, pickles, preserves, pastries of all kinds, some exclusive in some
families, the nonpareil beaten biscuits and the thousand and one appetizing
things that only Kentucky knew how to get together and serve.
There were the booths of the officers of the association who dispensed a
lavish hospitality. Alas for him whose wife had not the ability and resources
to grace this hospitality. Her efficiency was a part of his prerequisites for i
holding his office.
Here were met the young men and maidens from the different counties
and many happy marriages in the old Blue Grass dated from the genial social
life gathered on these grounds. Then came the war and the subverting of
everything to it. The amphitheatre burned, the trees felled—all gone save the
rich legacy of a historic past. What more fitting spot for the placing of a
great state university—a universtiy of the people that comes to fulfill and not
M to destroy these legacies, a university that shall express the highest aspirations
of culture and attainment of a proud, free people.
The writer is indebted to the late ]. H. Mulligan, whose home joined the
college campus, for the following history of Maxwell Springs up to the occu-
pancy of the University:
"Within a few years preceding the war—say in about the fifties—the present