Good Monday morning, Lexington! We're kicking off another week by getting to know our neighborhoods, and today we're heading out to Hamburg.

That's right! Hamburg sits in southeast Lexington, and if you're trying to picture where that is, think about the area between Man o' War Boulevard on the west side and Interstate seventy-five on the east, anchored by Sir Barton Way and Winchester Road.

Now Hamburg might sound like a pretty modern neighborhood, and in many ways it is. Most of what we see there today really took shape in the late nineteen nineties.

But there's so much more history underneath all that development. The whole area used to be Hamburg Place, which was this incredible thoroughbred farm.

And it wasn't just any horse farm, Sarah. This was owned by John E. Madden, and he actually named the property after one of his champion stallions, a horse called Hamburg.

I love that connection to our horse heritage. You can still see that history today if you know where to look. There's actually a horse cemetery right there in the development that honors Madden's champions, including Hamburg himself.

That's such a neat way to preserve that legacy. Of course, most folks probably know Hamburg best for Hamburg Pavilion, which opened back in nineteen ninety-seven and really became the retail heart of the area.

It's interesting how that timing worked out. The Lex-Fayette Urban County Government had just added Hamburg to the Urban Service Boundary in nineteen ninety-six, so you had all this infrastructure coming together right around the same time.

And it really has developed its own identity over the years. There's even been the Hamburg Journal covering the area as its own distinct neighborhood since two thousand three.

It's one of those places where you can feel both the history and the growth happening side by side. If you live in Hamburg, give us a wave in the chat and let us know what you love about your neighborhood!

Listen live: The Lexington Times runs a 24/7 local news livestream — watch on YouTube or on Facebook. This transcript is from a recent on-air segment.