Cadillac
Cadillac was formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company. After a dispute between Henry Ford and his investors, Ford left the company along with several of his key partners in March 1902. Ford's financial backers William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment in preparation for liquidating the company's assets. Instead, Leland persuaded the pair to continue manufacturing automobiles using Leland's proven single-cylinder engine. A new company called the Cadillac Automobile Company was established on 22 August 1902, re-purposing the Henry Ford Company factory at Cass Street and Amsterdam Avenue. It was named after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit in 1701.
Cadillac House
However, by the late 1950’s, the resort trade in Lexington was in decline, as the automobile changed people's vacation and travel habits. Renting rooms at the Cadillac was discontinued in 1954 as the owners concentrated on the bar and restaurant. This business remained popular, and the Cadillac House was remodeled in the 1970s. In 2001, the Cadillac House was sold to Martin and Julia O’Brien, who continued to operate it until they sold it in 2016. The new owners restored the building to its original appearance, and reopened both the hotel and restaurant in 2018.