Local History

Not only is the Gratz Park Inn a historic landmark in itself, but also it is located in the heart of the Gratz Park Historic District, one of the most beautiful areas in downtown Lexington. Gratz Park was named after an early Lexington businessman Benjamin Gratz. The park occupies a tract of land that was established in 1781 and was purchased twelve years later by the Transylvania Seminary for its Lexington campus. After Transylvania University’s main building was destroyed in a fire, the school relocated across Third Street to its present location.

The Historic district consists of 16 buildings, our historic boutique hotel being one of them. The Gratz Park Inn is a fine example of adaptive reuse.  In 1906, three physicians built our building to be used to house a medical clinic modeling after the Mayo Clinic.  When the Lexington Clinic relocated in 1958, the building was then used by an engineering firm.  The three-story brick structure was converted to a luxury hotel in 1988. In 1958, Gratz Park became the first designated Local Historic District in Lexington.