Your Questions, Answered

Kelley's Landing is a 30-acre public park located along the Kentucky River. It is the first public park in Fayette County to provide direct river access.

Kelley’s Landing is a park where people learn about and experience the environmental and cultural features of the Kentucky River. The site and the surrounding area are integral to the formation and development of the city of Lexington and have been for centuries.

Kelley’s Landing is about 17 miles from downtown Lexington at 8949 Old Richmond Road, near the I-75 Clay’s Ferry Bridge. The area along the Kentucky River is the Palisades region, notable for its towering limestone cliffs that formed over millions of years through a continuous erosion process.

The Master Plan serves as the foundation for Lexington’s first public access to the Kentucky River. Developed through inclusive and equitable community engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, the park is a vital addition to Lexington’s quality of life. It drives public support for the protection and preservation of our community’s natural resources.

This master plan guides the cultivation of Kelley’s Landing as a unique natural area park, offering river-based outdoor programming and features. The project transforms Lexington by promoting:

• Outdoor recreation

• Environmental education

• Engagement through a universally accessible park landscape

• Direct access to the Kentucky River in Fayette County

• Intentional community engagement efforts, the public has helped shape the park’s amenities and features including trails, educational programs and more.

The City of Lexington purchased Kelley’s Landing in May 2022 from Mr. John Kelley and his family. The site has a documented history that dates back to before European colonization of the area. Early Native Americans established communities near the river palisades area due to ready access to food, water, and trade, navigating the river in dug-out canoes made from local hardwood trees (Kentucky River Authority).

Archaeological records suggest that the area around the new park site has been inhabited by faunal-following humans for over 10,000 years (North of Center, 2022). The site of the new park is also known to be one of the oldest settlements in Fayette County, known as Cleveland before later becoming Clay’s Ferry. In the mid-1700s, the site contained a hemp mill used to make ship cordage and sails (Kentucky Senate Journal, 1835). By the end of that century, the area had added a shipyard and warehouses, along with the mills and a ferry was operated there in the 1790s. The house formerly located on the site was built in the 1850s and served as both a boarding house and a restaurant that catered to the loggers who ran rafts until the early 1900s (Ellis, 1988).

Throughout the early to mid-1800s, the park site was used to welcome fleets of coal boats from downriver. Coal, quickly becoming the fuel of choice, was transferred from boats to wagons and pulled into Lexington by horses (Johnson and Parrish, 1999). With the preeminence of the railroad and the rise of automobile use and bridges in the early 1900s, commercial and passenger traffic along the Kentucky River declined significantly, and the river became more of a recreational destination (Kentucky River Authority). It was right around this time, in 1924, that the grandparents of Mr. John Kelley purchased the property, where they ran a general store, selling everything from gasoline and coal, shoes, nails, medicines, sardines, cheese, meats, and bologna, often allowing customers to rack-up $3,000 or more of credit (Ellis, 1988).

Due to energy shortages and gasoline rationing in 1942, recreational boating decreased, and there was a revival of coal barging on the upper river; towboats were barging in close to 1,000 tons of coal per week to the park site to supply Lexington’s energy needs (Johnson and Parrish, 1999). In 1946, the Clay's Ferry Bridge (built in 1869) was superseded by a high, reinforced concrete bridge, which later became the northbound lane of Interstate 75 (Kubriack, 1988). Pleasure boating along the river became more popular once again in the 1960s and 1970s. Mr. John Kelley opened a boat dock in the late 1960s on his parents’ property, and his parents recalled the site being incredibly busy, especially on weekend days. Mr. Kelley managed the dock on the site until he got married, at which point his focus shifted to starting a family and maintaining their farm (Ellis, 1988). Since that time, the property had been seldom used, with the buildings falling into disrepair.

In 2022, it was announced that the city would purchase the property from the Kelley family for future development into a park, including public river access, a first for the City of Lexington.

In May 2024, a groundbreaking ceremony took place to officially kick off the clean-up of the park and the development of the park's master plan. Lexington Parks & Recreation worked with Fund for Greater Lexington, a newly launched permanent community endowment focused on improving the quality of life for all of Lexington (which launched along with the groundbreaking), to hold meetings with stakeholders and survey the community to develop the master plan. Fund for Greater Lexington has committed to the enhancement and development of the park, identifying it's potential as a game-changer for the City of Lexington.

While the park ownership has been officially transferred to Lexington Parks and Recreation, it is not currently open to the public until initial clean up and clearing is complete. The recent “groundbreaking” was a kick off for the master planning process.

Kelley's Landing is envisioned to be the 4th natural areas park in Lexington, a designation given to parks that have a particular focus on natural ecosystems. These natural areas parks generally provide passive recreation, environmental education and access to nature. Given this programming and the park size along with the infrastructure needed to facilitate trailers and larger vehicles for motorized boats, currently the park is only planned to allow paddlecrafts, such as kayaks and canoes, at the launch.

The project team has been working with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District 7 to identify a safe and improved entrance to the park off of Old Richmond Road. Currently the area below I75 Clay's Ferry Bridge is currently a large gravel area. The team plans to improve this by providing a paved entrance point based on optimal site distance to watch for approaching traffic on Old Richmond Road. A future parking area will be better defined and secure.