Monday, August 10, 2015

Georgetown, KY

Another sunny day with the threat of showers.  Oh, well, we will make due if that happens.

Our ventures today center in Georgetown.  Georgetown 's first permanent settlers, Baptist Minister Elijah Craig and members of his flock, arrived in 1784 and incorporated the town of Lebanon.  The territory was at that time part of Virginia.  In 1790 the Virginia legislature renamed the city George town in honor of President George Washington.  It is believed that the first bourbon whiskey was made in Georgetown by Rev. Craig in 1789.  Bourbon is no longer produced in the county, however, the state remains the nation's largest whiskey producer.

Our first stop is at the Kentucky Horse Park which is a world famous equine park dedicated to sharing Kentucky's love of horses with the rest of the world.  It is a 2,224 acre park which is home to a number of horse events, an international museum of horses, a working farm, and many shows.  The grounds are beautiful but we are not into horses much so elect to walk around the outer grounds taking some of the pictures below honoring Secretariat and Man  of War.





Along the road back we pass the Old Friends Farm for Retired Thoroughbreds which is a 92 acre farm that is home to over 65 former racehorses.  The non profit retirement center was established in 2003 and cares for mostly stallions whose racing and breeding careers  have come to an end.

Taking another back road, we head north taking pictures along the Buffalo Gals Barn Quilt Trail where we find many barns with wood quilt block designs attached to the barns.  Each quilt pattern is unique.  We have seen this in a couple of other states, but never driven the roads until today.  Below are a number of the barns we photographed.  





So much of the back roads lead you past what I typically associate with Kentucky and horse raising shown below.  It really is beautiful countryside with wooden fences, lots of green grass and beautiful homes and barns.



Many of the barns in this area are worth more than a million dollars such as the one below.

Just out of town and on our way downtown is this beautiful old national landmark home, Ward Hall, built in 1853 and believed to be the largest Greek Revival house in Kentucky.  Unfortunately they only do tours on the weekend.


We finished our day today taking pictures of some of the beautiful large old homes along the Main Street of Georgetown and walking the historic downtown streets taking more pictures of the interesting buildings.  We never seem to get enough of these old buildings.  They are all so different and yet the same.

This is the old Scott County Jail


Note the quilt blocks on the railing and side of the building

Old City Hall

Note the date on the building below.









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