Floyd County Courthouse – Prestonsburg, Ky.

Downtown Prestonsburg is a nice, peaceful place. This courthouse is the fifth courthouse to stand in Prestonsburg Built in the late 1960s to replace an old brick courthouse, it was recently replaced by a judicial center.

For decades, Prestonsburg was the political capital of the eastern part of Kentucky. It was the seat of a county that originally covered all of the eastern portion of the state. [*] In 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy spoke at the pictured Floyd County Courthouse while on his tour of eastern Kentucky. [*]

Solomon DeRossett, an early settler in the area, established a fur-trading post in the area. Trapping and shipping animal skins and pelts from Prestonsburg to customers worldwide. One of DeRossett’s best customers was Napoleon’s France, manufacturing bearskins into hats for the Grenadier Guards.