Monday night’s Christmas tree lighting may have lit up Lexington’s Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, but the park itself remains under construction.
Organizers hope the final result will do far more than highlight the achievements of its namesake.
It’s a cold and rainy December evening as East End residents huddle underneath tents to watch the tree lighting, an event Isaac Murphy board member David Cozart was reluctant to endorse at first but later came to think of as an appropriate metaphor for the whole project.
"This is a symbol of things to come," he tells a shivering audience of about 30. "We hope you'll stay tuned for Spring 2015."
That’s when the final art installations will be added, bringing a more than seven-year effort to a close. And while the garden will focus on African-American jockey Isaac Murphy, the “LeBron James of his day” according to one board member, the larger purpose is to bring attention to the neighborhood he once called home back in the 1800s, Lexington’s East End.
"What better time than the holiday season and what better time than these last three weeks [when] there have been as many shootings that have been highlighted in this one mile radius of where were standing. But there's much more positive in the East End than there is negative."
Once finished, the garden will be able to play host to performances, kids looking for a spot to play, and visitors biking and walking to the site via the Legacy Trail.
