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Land owner moving family's horse cemetery for shopping center
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)--A Lexington land owner who is moving his family's 100-year-old horse cemetery to make way for a shopping center says the new burial site will be more secure and accessible. Patrick Madden has cleared the way for a Super Wal-Mart and a Lowe's home store to be built on the property at Sir Barton Way and Winchester Road. The Urban County Planning Commission recently rezoned almost 57 acres--including the family's horse cemetery--on the family's Hamburg Place horse farm. Madden is planning to move the horse remains to a new Italian-style housing development near Sir Barton Way. "We are not doing this lightly," said Madden, the great-grandson of breeder and trainer John E. Madden, who made his fortune buying and selling horses. "We are doing it with dignity and respect for our equine heritage." The move is set for the summer. The horse graveyard includes 18 monuments and an unclear number of remains. Among the horses interred there are the great standardbred trotter Nancy Hanks, thoroughbreds Pink Pigeon and Bel Sheba--the dam of Derby winner Alysheba--and 1898 Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit. Madden says it will all go to the next location, "to duplicate it as much as possible." The new location, near the confluence of two creeks, is about 1,200 feet south of the cemetery's current site. The new site would make the graveyard a part of the area's greenway and will align with the Tuscany entrance "to identify it as a landmark for the community." Madden has said he has had to defend the move of the cemetery as good for historic preservation. "The history of the farm is what's sacred," he says. "The family is sacred. The horses in the ground off Winchester Road are sacred, too, but they're not in a location that makes it seem very sacred." The graveyard, once open to the public for viewing, hasn't been accessible for more than a decade. Winchester Road, once a rural route, was expanded to five lanes in 1990, making access to the cemetery difficult. Date: 3/31/05
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