The Dame

Was sad to see this place go.

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous that this wonderful music venue was taken down for greed. This section of town underwent an Urban renewal project on its own with grassroots efforts.  The result was a lively, safe nightlife area.  The crown jewel of this area was The Dame.  Yeah, it was dirty, and yes it was old but no where else could you hear a rockabilly group one night and a heavy rock group the next.  During the summer this place had a show six out of seven nights of the week, and usually for no more than three dollars for a cover charge.

About three years ago, Lexington was declared the 2010 host city for the Equestrian games. So developers thought it would be a grand idea to build a huge world class hotel in the middle of a mid-sized city which already had several 3.5-4 star hotels (Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, Marriott suites, etc.). Rather than think about the long-term benefits of having such a property they plowed forward quite literally to demolish this block of buildings.  People petitioned and fought it, but government said no it is for the betterment of the city.  Flash-forward now to the present, our economy has gone through a recession, the Equestrian games have past and now that city block is an empty lot. Why you may ask? The construction firm that was going to build it lost funding.