Take a self-guided walking tour through downtown Lexington, the colleges and the city’s 19th and early 20th century neighborhoods.

    These days, when you visit most towns and cities, you need your vehicle to get from place to place. Sidewalks may exist in downtown areas, but trying to get to other parts of town may involve walking along a busy street or highway, negotiating drainage ditches, overgrown roadsides and crossing multilane thoroughfares.

     Lexington and Buena Vista offer a refreshing change. Both towns are extremely walking-friendly. Indeed, walking the streets of these Valley towns is the best way to see all there is to see, and to appreciate them. 

     Downtown Lexington undertook a major reconstruction project in the 1970s upgrading the streets, placing utility wires underground and putting in brick sidewalks. This investment by the city, concurrent with efforts by local preservation groups, acted as a catalyst for redevelopment, rehabilitation and adaptive use of old buildings in the downtown area. Today, Lexington is unusual in having a vibrant downtown area. The character of the downtown area changed over the past quarter-century. Traditional retailers such as department stores and hardware stores left downtown for the outskirts of town, and were replaced by more visitor-oriented shops such as art galleries, antique shops and shops featuring local and regional products. New restaurants offering a diversity of cuisines beckon the hungry tourist, and serve locals who work and even live in the downtown area. 

     Lexington’s walking tours start at the Lexington Visitor Center at  105 East Washington St. Pick up their excellent tour map that gives easy directions on a number of tours of varying lengths.