Society
for Spanish and
Portuguese Historical Studies
37th
Annual
Meeting
Radisson
Plaza, Lexington,
Kentucky
April 6-9, 2006
Co-Hosted by the University
of Kentucky
and
Eastern Kentucky
University
About Lexington
Self-proclaimed
“Horse Capital of the World,” heart of the Bluegrass region, and home
to nearly
half a million residents in its six-county metropolitan area, Lexington, Kentucky
offers visitors a wide variety of opportunities of cultural and
historical
interest.
For
equine enthusiasts, Lexington
needs no
introduction. For more than two
centuries, the Bluegrass has been the
heartland of North American thoroughbred racing. Eight
of eleven “triple crown” winners in the
history of the sport were bred on nearby farms, and recent local
ordinances to
curb the impact of “urban sprawl” have helped maintain the green,
rolling
horse-farm country for which the area is famous. Our
SSPHS meeting will coincide with the
opening weekend of the 2006 spring racing meet at Lexington’s
historic Keeneland Race Course,
where much of the recent Hollywood
movie “Seabiscuit” was filmed. Some
visitors choose to learn about the local thoroughbred scene at the
nearby Kentucky
Horse
Park, which hosts the
annual
Equestrian Three-Day Event U.S.
championships each spring. Serious horse
fans often take the extra effort while in the area to make required
reservations to visit famous local horse farms such as Calumet Farm,
Three
Chimneys Farm, and especially Claiborne Farm outside nearby
Paris, KY—where
one can not only spend time with living champions, but also visit the
grave
site of the legendary Secretariat.
For
those more interested in the
Bluegrass region’s other best-known export to the world, tours of
(along with
samples from) the region’s historic Kentucky bourbon distilleries such
as
Labrot and Graham’s and Buffalo Trace can be arranged.
Although
direct connections to Spanish history may be scarce, the Bluegrass
also offers much in the way of historic interest. Not
far from the conference hotel itself is
the family home
of Mary Todd Lincoln, and “the Great Compromiser” Henry
Clay’s
Ashland Estate is only a long walk/short drive from the hotel down
Main
Street/Richmond Road. Shaker
Village
at Pleasant Hill, founded in 1805
and
the
largest of the nineteenth-century “western” Shaker communities, is a
fascinating place to visit only twenty-five miles to Lexington’s
southwest. For those interested in the
eighteenth-century British colonial intrusion into the region, Old Fort
Harrod
and Daniel Boone’s Fort Boonesborough
are nearby, while military
historians
may find the Revolutionary War battlefield at Blue Licks or the Civil
War
battlefields at Perryville
and Richmond
of particular interest.
Accommodations
Located on Triangle
Park
across from Rupp Arena in the heart of downtown Lexington, the Lexington Radisson
Plaza Hotel
will host our meeting, with panel sessions held on-site in the hotel’s
conference facilities. Rooms are
available to conference participants each night of the meeting (April
6-7-8) at
the conference rate of $109 for single-occupancy and $119 for
double-occupancy. Reservations must be
made before March 7, 2006 in order to guarantee this rate.
When you make your reservation, be sure to
identify yourself as a participant
in the SSPHS conference. Reservations
may be made by phone at 1-800-333-3333 or 859-231-9000.
Travel
By Air
Lexington’s Blue
Grass Airport has several daily non-stop flights to and from
Cincinnati,
Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Charlotte,
Washington D.C., Dallas, Houston, New York, Newark, Tampa, Orlando, and
Fort
Lauderdale, so flight connections are reasonably easy to arrange from
nearly
anywhere. From the airport, the Radisson
provides its own regular complementary shuttle van service to and from
the
airport for hotel guests.
Driving Directions
Lexington
is within a day’s drive of most major cities in the eastern half of the
United States,
conveniently located at the intersection of I-75 and I-64.
The two interstate highways merge as they pass
through Lexington, and from whichever direction you are coming, the
easiest way
to the Radisson is to take exit 133 (Paris Pike) off of I-75/I-64 and
proceed
west into the city. Paris Pike becomes
North Broadway, and immediately after Broadway crosses Main Street
in the heart of downtown, the
Radisson will be on your left. Parking
in the hotel’s parking structure is complementary for hotel guests.
Dining
For a city its
size, Lexington
has a surprisingly large and varied array of good to excellent
restaurant
choices in all price ranges—many within easy walking distance of the
Radisson
downtown. In the higher price ranges,
some of our favorites include Jonathan’s at the Gratz Park Inn (in a
restored
eighteenth-century building at 120 West 2nd Street), Dudley’s (380 South Mill Street)
and Portofino’s
(249 E. Main Street). For more casual evening or lunch choices
downtown, we recommend the Atomic Café (Caribbean fare at 265 N
Limestone) and
Cheapside Grill and Tavern (131 Cheapside),
Bistro 147 (147 N. Limestone), Alfalfa’s (141 E. Main Street---co-founded
by a UK
History major!) and Natasha’s Cafe (112 Esplanade).
A more complete list of restaurants in the
area will be provided along with the conference materials distributed
at
on-site registration.
Conference
Registration
The conference
registration fee is $35 for those who pre-register by mail before March
7,
2006, $45 for those who register after March 7 or at the conference
itself. The registration fee includes the banquet on Friday
evening April 7 at the Radisson, as well as the Reception at the Lexington Historical
Museum
(in the Old Courthouse across Main Street from the Radisson) on
Saturday April
8. To pre-register, please use this
form:
Revised, Jan. 2, 2006