Historic Athens- Fayette County

Athens, Kentucky, United States, is a small unincorporated village in the rural services area of Lexington- Fayette Urban County to the east of Interstate 75. First settled in 1786 as the community of Cross Plains, the town was chartered as Athens in 1826[2] and had its own post office from that time until 1906.The current commercial center was reduced to its present size by a series of fires in the mid-19th century.

Like several other communities, the local pronunciation of its name uses a long vowel in the first syllable, making it /ˈeɪθənz/ ay-thənz. The common English pronunciation of this name, which is most notably used for the Greek capital, uses a short "a".

Daniel Boone and some of his family moved from nearby Boonesborough about 1782 and established a settlement outside of the present town of Athens on Baughman Fork. A Boon's Station post office operated at that site during 1812 and 1813. (Boone moved to Maysville in 1786.) The Boone Station State Historic Site on Gentry Road marks the site of the settlement.