Four stories of brick and stone, the Main Building of the University of Kentucky in Lexington still holds administrative offices and classrooms. Inside, it still houses administrative offices, the President's office, numerous conference rooms, several classrooms, and a visitors center. Dedicated on February 15, 1882, Main Building is the only extant building among the four that originally housed State College.
It was designed in brick, embellished with stone work, and completed at a cost of $81,000 after previous funding attempts failed. So determined was State College President James Patterson that he pledged his entire personal wealth "as collateral" to see the project completed. The original tower carried a 157-foot cupola with a clock and a "captain's walk" used by the local Weather Observatory; between the building's completion and 1919 that cupola progressively shrank, and after 1919 the roof took on the "gabled appearance" that defined the structure until the fire in 2001.
During President Henry Barker's administration (1911–1917), a plan to add stone pillars to the front was considered but abandoned. Notice the roofline where a 157-foot cupola with a clock once rose, before the 2001 fire reshaped this historic building.