Views of Castleton Lyons farm in Fayette County on Iron Works Pike.

In 1793, a Virginian by the name of John Breckinridge was to buy 2,467 acres of prime Kentucky farmland. He named the farm, which would later become known as Castleton, “Cabell’s Dale.” Breckinridge was a dedicated thoroughbred breeder who would himself go on to become a United States Senator and to serve as Attorney General in the cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson. Upon his death in 1806, he would leave one of the country’s finest thoroughbred broodmare bands behind him.

On his death, the property was inherited by his daughter, who was to marry a David Castleman in 1816. It was the Castlemans who would hold title to the land through most of the nineteenth century. In 1840, Castleman built the Greek revival mansion that is still a landmark of the farm. He also gave the farm a name based upon his family’s name—he called it “Castleton.”