Rising 15 stories in front of you, the Fayette National Bank Building is also known as the First National Bank Building or 21c Museum Hotel Lexington. This 15-story high-rise in Lexington, Kentucky was designed by the prominent architecture firm McKim, Mead & White and built by the George A. Fuller Company from 1913 to 1914. Think of that early construction, and how this tower has watched the city for more than a century.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 27, 1980, recognizing its place in local history. In 2016 the building was reimagined and converted into a 21c Museum Hotel, reconfigured into 88 hotel rooms, a restaurant and museum space, with renovations expected to cost in excess of $43 million. The hotel opened in December 2016, and the property was inducted into Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in 2019.
Stand here and take in the layered story: a landmark designed by a famed firm, built by a noted company, later transformed into a hotel and museum. Beside this tower, now a 21c Museum Hotel, the Higgins Block still holds the rest of the block.