Pigs and Dinosaurs!

Today we did some errands and some exploring in "Downtown" Lexington, which is really called "Historic Uptown" Lexington.  Saw some strange critters and a few pigs. " Pigs in the City" is a public art initiative coordinated by Uptown Lexington , Inc., created to revitalize the downtown ("Uptown") area of Lexington.  People pay commissions to artist  to decorate life sized sculptured pigs, which are installed throughout the city.  There are a total of twenty of these pigs throughout the city.  We saw a few today. Why pigs you say?  To celebrate the annual North Carolina BBQ Festival held each October. Lexington claims to be the BBQ capital of North Carolina. Of course, those of us from Texas, know better!  Who puts red slaw on good BBQ and does not offer the sides of pickles and onions!   Note"  Red Slaw is distinguished from coleslaw because red slaw contains no mayonnaise.  It is a combination of cabbage, vinegar, ketchup, and crushed ground black pepper! The BBQ meat is always pork shoulder cooked slowly over a hardwood fire and basted in a sauce "dip" made of vinegar, ketchup, water, salt, pepper and other spices.  YUCK!  Thus the explanation of the "Pigs in the City" and the BBQ. 

 Brief history of Lexington

First settled around 1750 as an unnamed, village.  In 1775, an express rider came through the village with news of the Battle of Lexington in Massachusetts.  To commemorate this event the village was so named.  In 1828  Lexington was incorporated.  In 1838. the first operating silver mine in the country was opened in Lexington and was named Silver Hill Mine.  The oldest surviving house is called The Homestead and was built by Dr. William Holt.  Dr. Holt was an ardent secessionist and lost three sons in the Civil War.  Additionally, his home was occupied by the Union Army. 

The Uptown Lexington Historic District is a five block area of commercial construction with almost no missing or destroyed structures.

In 1824 a courthouse ( Old Davidson County Courthouse) was built in the middle of the town square around 25 acres which became "Uptown".  This courthouse burned down and a new courthouse was built in 1858, which also was burned and rebuilt in 1867.  It is a lovely example of Classical Revival architecture.

Around 1885, the first brick structures appeared just south of the courthouse.  During the next few decades all the original wooden buildings were overbuilt with brick which still exist today.

Along the way we spotted a couple of oddities not usually spotted in town!

Legend has it, this one bites!