Neighborhood History
Idle Hour neighborhood is located southeast of downtown Lexington, KY. Its boundaries are the Idle Hour Country Club to the north, CSX railroad tracks to the east, New Circle Road to the south, and Richmond Road to the west.
The neighborhood extends over a crescent-shaped area northeast from Richmond Road that includes Idle Hour Drive and the "Saint" streets, so named because developer William Blackerby chose to name them after members of his family and attached the prefix to their names, hence St. Phillip, St. Ann, St. Margaret, St. William etc. Idle Hour represents the sort of neighborhood ideal that neo-traditional neighborhoods are striving for now: homeowners living next door to retail shops and restaurants, with easy access to major traffic arteries. Homes vary from expansive ranches backing up to the golf course at Idle Hour County Club to more compact houses and small apartments buildings.
William Blackerby
The neighborhood was developed in the 1950s and early 60s by Mr. Blackerby, owner of Realty Mortgage Co., who had bought the land in 1948. The prosperity that came with the end of World War II brought a housing boom and extensive suburban development to many parts of the USA. Lexington benefited from the economic upswing by becoming the site for one of IBM’s manufacturing plants which brought a surge of new residents. Idle Hour resulted from this post-war population boom.
In 1950, the area that Mr. Blackerby planned to develop lay outside the urban service area and had no access to sewer hook-ups. W.T. Young, a local businessman, negotiated with the city to bring a sewer line to the projected development site, and in return received a parcel of land from Mr. Blackerby located toward the rear of the neighborhood adjacent to a railroad line. This parcel came to be built up with warehouses.
Mr. Blackerby initially sold lots a few at a time, but later moved to full scale development of the land for houses and retail shops. He named the subdivision after the adjacent Idle Hour country club that had been built earlier. Aside from Idle Hour Drive, also named after the country club, the neighborhood streets are named after the patron saints of Mr. Blackerby’s family members:
He named Will Fant Dr. after himself, and St. James, St. William, St. Margaret and Coburn Boulevard after his four children (James, William Fant Jr., Margaret McGurk and Coburn Cashman respectively). St. Mathilda was named after his wife and St. Teresa after his mother. St. Ann and St. Phillip were named after Will Fant Jr.’s wife and son respectively. St. Julie was named in the 1990s after James Blackerby’s daughter. Young Drive is obviously named after W.T. Young and the origins of St. Christopher, St. Michael and St. George are not clear.
Mr. Blackerby Sr. donated Idle Hour Park to the city as a gift to the neighborhood. He developed the Idle Hour shopping center which was operated by himself and, after his death, by his family until several years ago when it was sold.
An aerial view of our neighborhood in 1937.