On Nov. 1, 1854, David A. Sayre founded a school for women at this site named Transylvania Female Institute. School renamed Sayre Female Institute in 1855; boys admitted to the Primary Dept. in 1876. School renamed Sayre School in 1942. Graduates include suffragette Laura Clay, 1865, and Nobel Prize winner William N. Lipscomb, 1938.
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Born in Madison, NJ, in 1793, Sayre moved to Lexington in 1811. A prominent silversmith and banker, he founded Sayre School to promote female education of "the widest range and highest order." A staunch Unionist during the Civil War, he now lies buried in the Lexington Cemetery.