I have a lot of different kinds of things on “The List.” One group of things I want to be sure to hit is campgrounds people have recommended. Many People I met during my Airstreaming days were extremely enthusiastic about Kentucky Horse Park Campground. If you are a lover of all things equine, and you want to camp, this is the place for you. It was a good campground with plenty of trees, level, paved sites and enough space between the sites so that you didn’t feel crowded. Who could ask for more?
The campground is part of the Kentucky Horse Park. Not only is it close to the horses and the horse museums, it is close to Lexington. I didn’t have too much time to spend in the area, so I didn’t visit the museums or Lexington. I spent a couple of days in Lexington during my first year on the road, so I didn’t feel bad about skipping it on this trip.
No, my goal was to visit Frankfort, the capital of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It was only about 25 miles to the Northwest.
I arrived in Frankfort. It wasn’t too hard to pick out the capitol. Although it is the capitol of Kentucky, it has a small-town feel to it. I looked up the population and discovered that an estimated 28,000 people live there. It is classified as a home-rule class city.
In Kentucky, there are currently two classes of cities: First class and home rule. There used to be many more different categories, but they switched things around a few years ago. There are 419 cities in Kentucky. Two of them are first class cities – Lexington and Louisville – and the rest are home rule.
On to the capitol!
This stately building was inaugurated in 1910. Designed by Frank Mills Andrews, he used the Beaux-Arts style.
Now, this capitol has a dome and a rotunda. I entered and walked in to see what I could see.
In the center of the rotunda, I was greeted by native son, Abraham Lincoln. He was born in a log cabin in Kentucky near Sinking Spring. You can still see the spring if you visit Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site, which is about an hour and a half from Frankfort. I visited in 2014, and I’d say it’s worth a visit.
Surrounding Lincoln are other statues honoring other significant Kentuckians.
Alben W. Barkley, who was elected to the U.S. House and Senate and served as Vice President with Harry S Truman.
Then there is Ephraim McDowell, who was a pioneer surgeon. He was the “Father of the Ovariotomy.” If you remember your suffixes, you’ll remember -otomy means “the removal of” and it comes from the Greek “ectomy.”
Okay, this ‘pioneer surgeon” was removing ovaries with, apparently, morpheine the only option for anesthesia and before Joseph Lister got antiseptic surgical procedures to be accepted. It boggles the mind. Well, my mind is boggled.
Henry Clay was born in Virginia in 1777, but moved to Kentucky before the end of the century. He served in the U.S. House and Senate as well as serving as Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams. He died while he was serving as Senator.
Then, there is Jefferson Davis. Born in Fairview, Kentucky, he moved at an early age to Mississippi. He is honored for two things: being born in Kentucky and being the only president of the Confederacy. Seems like just maybe they could have found a woman to honor somewhere in Kentucky’s history.
The dome is something to behold – but more about that later.
Just another look around before I head off to explore.
Up the marble stairs.
My goodness! What a lot of stairs! My Preferred Source says that the staircases are replicas of those of the Opera Garner in Paris.
On to the House, which seems like a calm venue to do the people’s business.
This map would help you be able to pick out your Representative.
Next, the Senate. This chamber seems a little more imposing.
They, too, provide a guide to help you identify your Senator.
Ah! The Governor’s office.
Well, this was 2018, after all. Governor Bevin was replaced by Andy Beshear in the 2019 election.
I saw this sign posted in a window as I walked around the building. I wonder if there is a connection to Bevin’s ouster and public employees?
I guess it’s a good idea not to push teachers past their breaking points.
Even though I wasn’t a constituent, they let me have a souvenir.
One thing they do have that I’ve never seen in any other capitol is a collection of first lady dolls.
This is the 1st First Lady, Susannah Hart Shelby.
And the First Lady at the time I visited, Glenna R. Bevin.
I guess the doll collection makes up for the lack of female representation in the statuary.
It was just after Halloween when I visited, and the library was still decorated for the season, with cob webs galore.
They also made a coffin out of the law books.
Just in case you are curious, this is the book that is open on the end of the coffin.
Although this library is modest in comparison with Tennessee’s capitol library, there was this hint of metallic grace. I wonder why the frame is empty?
And, who do you suppose this woman is?
The State Reception room was open for viewing.
It was quite an elegant venue for a soiree.
They made extensive use of stone. It was quite grand.
Okay, back to the rotunda and the dome.
The Kentucky Capitol Centennial Commission selected the rotunda pendentive murals as the legacy project for the 100th anniversary of the capitol. Just in case you are wondering about the word “pendentive,” it refers to those triangular shapes that permit placing a circular dome over a square room.
They are quite elegant.
You can see Kentuckians’ points of pride: horses and agriculture…
industry…
planning for the future.
This photo shows how the pendentives help transition the circular shape of the dome to the square room below.
This dome does something I have never seen in any of the other state capitols – it has a light show!
It changes from the yellow to green…
to pink…
to blue…
and finally to purple.
Isn’t that unique?
I am just about done with my visit to the capitol. Before I leave, I want to share a few photos I snapped of things that interested me.
The seal of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I got to wondering about the difference between a state and a commonwealth, so I went looking. Essentially, there is no difference. There are four states that identify themselves as commonwealths. (If you want to check your knowledge, you can click on the link and see if you were right.)
Oh, all right…the four commonwealths are Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia were members of the original 13 colonies. Kentucky was originally a part of Virginia. It split from Virginia in 1792 and became the 15th state to join the union. I guess it just made sense to use the title “commonwealth” – or maybe they were trying to stake a claim to being part of the original 13 by keeping the designation Virginia uses.
I rather liked this pink drinking fountain. It reminded me of my house with the pink porcelain bathroom fixtures I had before I left for my Airstream adventures.
I liked this ornamental door plate.
You know, it’s a little ironic that their state motto is “United we stand, divided we fall.” I mean, they divided themselves from Virginia and they honor the president of the Confederacy in their rotunda…
Before I left, I asked if they had a brochure for the self-guided tour. There was a guide, but it had to be returned to the desk. I have no cause for complaint – Wikipedia can give me the information that I can’t remember and I did get a sticker from the governor’s office. Besides, the visit was free.
There was quite a view from the entrance.
I turned around to look back at the entrance.
That is quite a sculpture on the pediment above the entrance!
I wondered if there might be a better photo that showed the sculptures in better detail. I found one here, on the Frankfort Public Art website. I also learned that it was the work of David Henry Niehaus and is made of Indiana Limestone.
This historic photo, from the same source, gives you an idea of the monumental scale of the sculptures.
A short ways away from the capitol is the Executive Mansion. According to the marker in front, it was built just after they finished the capitol. The two year construction project cost $95,000, which would be equal to $2,516,755 in today’s money. The 25-room limestone mansion is patterned after Marie Antoinette’s villa. I wonder if they might have been able to find a building to copy of someone who wasn’t removed from prominence so…permanently.
I headed over to the older section of town. There were banners celebrating “Frankfort Faces”
Huh! I didn’t know that Johnny Depp was from Frankfort!
Well…he isn’t, although he is from Kentucky. He was born in Owensboro, about 150 miles away. His bio says that his family moved frequently, so maybe he lived here. Or maybe he went shopping here. Or maybe he rode the train through town.
I mean, he could have ridden the train through town, as the tracks run right down the middle of what would have been the main street at one time.
My next stop was the Old State Capitol.
This is actually the third capitol building. From 1792-1830, two other buildings were used as the seat of the government, but both of them burned down completely. This building was in use from 1830 until the new capitol opened in 1910.
This building was designed in the Greek Revival style by 25-year-old Gideon Shyrock of Lexington, and it was his first building. His chose the Greek Revival style to symbolically link the relatively young republic of Kentucky with ancient Greece, the prototype of popular democratic government.
The front of the building is modeled after the Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene. Since Greek temples had no windows, he chose not to have windows in the front.
It is now a museum. I can’t remember if I was there on a day when it wasn’t open or if I didn’t feel like paying to visit.
This statue is of William Goebel, who was elected in the 1899 governor race.
He was assassinated at the Capitol on his way to be inaugurated.
Do you remember my last post where I commented on the transience of trees as memorials? Apparently, inaugurations were carried out beneath an elm tree for more than a century. It is no longer here, but the tree carries on in trees grown from cuttings.
This elm is at the Stanley-Case home in Shelbyville, Kentucky. It’s only about 20 miles away, if you care to go take a look. (I didn’t. I borrowed the photo from the above website.) The oldest part of the building dates from the early 1800s. It is now the headquarters of the Shelby County Historical Society.
Now, I’m not 100% certain, but I think this is the keystone of the arch at the entrance to the Old Kentucky State Prison. According to a plaque nearby, the “penitentiary house” was erected in 1799, and the keystone was place in 1837. The prison was abandoned in 1937 and the towers and the arch were razed in 1950. The State Office Building in Frankfort now stands on the site it once occupied.
I was starting to feel peckish and I went looking for some lunch.
Along the way, I saw this banner.
Ah! Pizza would be good for lunch.
I got a slice so big they needed two plates.
Thus restored, I headed out for a bit more exploration.
I crossed the tracks that ran right through town and over to the historic shopping area.
I thought this planters were interesting. I liked the decorative cabbage that was planted in them and this Buffalo Gal can’t resist a buffalo!
I’ll bet that this is a cute part of town to explore when the weather is nice. But, I had another objective for my visit to Frankfort. I wanted to see where Daniel Boone was buried. I headed over to the Frankfort Cemetery.
I liked how they made it easy to find this grave. Here’s the first sign.
Here’s the second sign.
Judging why the number of cars parked nearby, I think this last sign was pointing to the gravesite.
While I was there, I met a man who claimed to be related to Daniel Boone. It was right around Daniel Boone’s birthday, which is November 2.He had come to pay his respects.
I walked around the monument and looked at the carvings depicting scenes from Daniel’s life.
Rebecca got a panel, too. Here she is, milking a cow, which is a practical skill to have.
The monument was erected in 1860 and the marble panels were added in 1862. The panels were vandalized during the Civil War and restored in 1906 and again in the 1940s.
There is some interesting information about the cemetery and the Boones at this phone number.
Apparently, they established this new cemetery in the 1840s and thought that it would help make if more popular if there were famous people buried in there. they convinced Daniel Boone’s son to permit his parents’ to be dug up in from where they were buried in Missouri and reinterred here.
While there is no dispute that Rebecca’s remains are here, there is a question as to whether they dug up Daniel’s remains. Rebecca predeceased Daniel by seven years. When they were ready to bury Daniel, the spot next to Rebecca had someone else in it, so they buried him at her feet. So, they aren’t quite certain is Daniel is here or if he got left behind in Marthasville, Missouri. If you are in the St. Louis area, and you want to go looking for where Daniel Boone’s remains might…remain, just go to Google Maps and put in Old Bryan Farm Cemetery, and it will take you right there.
Just in case you can’t wait, here is a photo of the original gravesite in Missouri.
The cemetery is a great place for a view of the capitol and the Kentucky River.
With that, it was time to head back to the campground.
It was getting toward dusk, so I imagine that they would be turning on the horse lights soon. I had to get packed up and ready to roll in the morning, so I didn’t wait around to see them illuminated.
Next stop: Cincinnati!
