Tag: NoDestination

NoDestination: The State Seal

The state seal of Kentucky is memorialized in bronze at the Governor’s Circle in the Constitution State Park (Danville). Around the seal is a depiction of each of Kentucky’s governors.

The seal itself has gone through various designs, but was originally an inspiration of the first governor, Isaac Shelby. Shelby, a war hero, was said to have loved the 1768 John Dickinson tune, “The Liberty Song.” The fourth verse reads:

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall;
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed,
For heaven approves of each generous deed.

Thus the state motto: “united we stand, divided we fall.” The seal depicts “two (2) friends embracing each other, with the words ‘Commonwealth of Kentucky’ over their heads and around them the words, ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall.'” K.R.S. 2.020. One of the friends is a pioneer, the other a statesman.

NoDestination: The Old Talbott Tavern

For over 200 years, the Talbott Tavern has provided accomodation to travelers passing through Bardstown. In the old courthouse square sits the stone building marked by several additions. Bardstown – originally called Salem – was established in 1780, a year after the then-called Hynes Inn opened.

Originally the terminal of a western stage coach line coming east from both Philadelphia and Virginia, the Hynes Inn remains the oldest western stagecoach stop still in operation. Its earlier guests included George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone and exiled-King Louis-Philippe of France. Later Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison and Abraham Lincoln would visit. Henry Clay, John James Audubon, Stephen Foster and Jesse James also rested at the Talbott Tavern. Romanian Queen Marie lunched here in 1926 and General George Patton also passed through. To say the least, it has a “who’s who” list of patrons!

A fire ravaged much of the structure in the 1990s and “generic” renovations were made. Most unfortunate was the loss of murals painted by the entourage of King Louis-Philippe. It would seem that the paintings could be restored, but that funding has remained unavailable.

NoDestination: Tom Dorman Nature Preserve

I wanted to take my sister hiking on the day after Christmas and we were disappointed to find Raven Run closed. No trouble, I thought: we could go to another nearby hiking retreat. The Tom Dorman State Nature Preserve (SNP) encompasses over 800 acres in Garrard and Jessamine Counties (the Jessamine County acreage is not accessible to the public).

The main two-mile loop is described as moderately strenuous, but it is a beautiful walk that follows an old stage coach route. The SNP contains many varieties of trees, several rare species of wildflowers and diverse mammal and reptile populations (other than the trees, I witnessed none of the above).

The most spectacular feature of Tom Dorman is its view of the Palisades. The exposed limestone appears as a mosaic of color and dates to a period when Kentucky was under a shallow sea (thus, marine fossils abound). The Kentucky River began to cut its path through the Palisades about 400,000 to 1 million years ago exposing the ancient Ordovician (450-500 million year old) rock – the oldest exposed rock in the state.

I expect Tom Gorman SNP to grow in popularity. In 2007, the Commonwealth purchased 90 acres of land adjacent to the SNP for the development of Palisades State Park. I hope to visit Tom Dorman again soon (with better equipment than an iPhone!).

NoDestination: Amos Kendall House


At 413 Broadway (Frankfort) sits the house in which Amos Kendall resided from about 1816 to 1828. Kendall, a Massachusetts native, migrated to Kentucky about 1814. He tutored the children of the Henry Clay family before starting his newspaper: the Argus of Western America. His politics transformed and Kendall became a great supporter of the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. The Argus was very pro-Jackson in the campaign and Jackson took Kendall to Washington where he began the Washington Globe.

The Globe was the voice of the Jackson administration. Kendall was later named the Postmaster General of the United States in which office he served through the van Buren administration. He was one of Jackson’s closest advisors and was the author of many of Jackson’s most remembered speeches/texts (annual addresses to Congress and Jackson’s veto of the National Bank’s recharter).

After leaving politics in 1840, Kendall made a fortune as the business manager for Samuel Morse (inventor of the telegraph). Retiring in 1860, Kendall then lived the rest of his live as a philanthropist giving money to churches and a school he organized “for the deaf and dumb.”

NoDestination: Singing Bridge (& Merry Christmas)


The Kaintuckeean wishes all a Merry Christmas! Hopefully we can visit a festive place next year (my wife canned this year’s proposed trip to Southern Lights at the Kentucky Horse Park – the traffic was too much).

This year we’ll all have to settle for Frankfort’s year-round caroler, the Singing Bridge. Crossing the Kentucky River at St. Clair Street, this bridge was constructed in 1893 by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a 406-foot Pennsylvania Steel Through Truss Bridge.

Locals call it the “singing bridge” because the steel grate deck “sings” when you drive over it. Although the state transportation cabinet describes the bridge as “safe to drive on,” it is classified as structurally deficient under the standards of the National Bridge Database. It is a landmark that needs funding and restoration/improvements.

Bridges have crossed the Kentucky River at this point for almost 200 years. In 1810, the Frankfort Bridge Company constructed a link between downtown and the “suburbs.” This wooden crossing collapsed in 1834 and a replacement was built the following year. A span of the replacement lasted only 8 days before it collapsed, killing two. A double-roadway covered bridge was completed in 1847 and stood until it was replaced by the current bridge.

NoDestination: C6, H0


On October 29, 1921 occurred one of the greatest upsets in college football history. The Praying Colonels of Centre College (Danville, Ky.) defeated football powerhouse Harvard (Cambridge, Mass.).

Harvard – undefeated since 1918 – played Centre at Harvard Field the year before when Centre led 14-6 at the half. Harvard went on to win that game 34-14, but Harvard captain offered the game ball to the Centre captain. Centre’s captain, Bo McMillin refused saying that the team would “be back next year to take it home with us.”

Centre delivered. Scoreless at the half, McMillin rushed into the endzone during the third quarter and Centre won 6-0. C6, H0. When the news travelled to Danville, students painted this “formula” on everything (even cows!).

Today, only the above graffiti remains. But the legend certainly lives on… Oh, and Harvard is still scared. The Crimson refused a rematch on the 75th anniversary.

NoDestination: Spears


Spears, Kentucky is one of those county-straddlers. Because the center of Tates Creek Road was used as the boundary between Jessamine and Fayette counties upon the creation of the former, this community on Tates Creek Road (KY-1974 at the junction with KY-169) is also in both counties. It was settled in the early 1790s by John L. Spears; other settlors followed as Spears was a well-educated man known for being both a surveyor and a teacher. (Today, Spears is serviced by two county school systems – depending on which side of the street you are on.) Spears even had its own post office from 1867 until 1915.

Pictured above is the Fayette County Old Country Store; across the street is another market in Jessamine County.

No Destination: Old State Capitol


Pictured is the third capitol constructed in Frankfort. Since the completion of our current capitol in 1910, this building has been known as the Old State Capitol. Erected in 1830 and designed by Lexington architect Gideon Shryock, this Greek Revival building is patterned mostly after the Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene.

One of the most interesting features is inside; the main circular staircase is self-supporting and is held in place by a capstone which if moved 1/10th of an inch would cause the entire staircase to collapse.

Constructed of “Kentucky Marble” (aka limestone), a wire saw was invented by Joel Scott (warden of the state penitentiary) to cut through the stone and to expedite construction. Scott single-handedly had control of the state prisons from 1825 to 1832. Scott was to “employ the convicts at hard labor, treat them humanely, pay the State half of the net profits [minimum $1000 per year], and keep the other half of the net profits in lieu of salary.” [Cite, which has a lot more interesting stuff about early Kentucky prisons and Mr. Scott] It can be presumed then that much of the labor employed in constructing the capitol was from prisoners.

NoDestination: Capitol Murals

Admittedly, the picture above is not my own. It was taken by Finance Secretary Jonathan Miller (posted via Twitter @millerky). Pictured is First Lady Jane Beshear (right) unveiling pictures of the four murals that will be placed at the top of the rotunda above statues of Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln. The four murals represent agriculture, industry, civilization and integrity.

The original design for our 1910 capitol was to include murals, but funding was never available. Artist Frank Millet was scheduled to come to Frankfort to create murals for the captiol, but he died on the 1912 maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Today, Terry and Marion Forcht (the owners of Forcht Bank) are funding the project. EverGreen Architectural Arts of NYC is designing the new murals which are being installed as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Capitol.

No Destination: Offut-Cole Tavern

The Offut-Cole Tavern is located at the corner of Old Frankfort Pike and US-62 in Midway. According to the historic marker, the log portion of the structure dates to the 1780s-1790s. Major John Lee, a founder and early leader of Woodford County, lived here and began its tradition as a tavern. Leased to John Kennedy and William Dailey, it grew in fame as a stagecoach stop (midway) along the toll road from Lexington to Frankfort.

A separate tavern located on Cole’s Road (now known as Leestown Road) was known as Cole’s Bad Inn. Owned by Richard Cole, Sr. and nicknamed “Little Sodom,” it can only be imagined what there occurred. English journalist Fortesque Cuming visited both Dailey’s Tavern and Little Sodom in 1807 as he traveled to and from Frankfort by Lexington. Cuming wrote:

Quitting Frankfort, we took Coles Road, a different route to that by which we had come, which brought us after riding ten miles mostly through woods, to Cole’s who keeps an Inn on this road in opposition to Dailey, on the Old Frankfort-Lexington Turnpike. But any traveler who has once contrasted the rough vulgarity and the badness of his table and accommodations, with the taste, order, plenty and good attendance of his mulatto competitor will never trouble Mr. Cole a second time, especially as there is no sensible difference in the length of goodness of the roads, and that Mr. Bailey’s is through a generally much better settled county.

Little Sodom burned in 1811. Cole, Jr. bought his father’s former competitor’s tavern and named Major Lee’s old tavern the Black Horse Inn. (Side Note: Cole, Jr’s great-grandson was the infamous Jesse James.)

The tavern also served as a tollhouse for the company owning the Frankfort Pike from Lexington. When in the early 1850s, the road from Midway to Versailles (now US-62) was constructed, the tavern became a dual tollhouse taking tolls from travelers from all directions.

A tavern of many names. Black Horse Inn. Lee-Cole Tavern. Lee’s Tavern. Dailey’s Tavern. But what of Offut? The historic marker suggests that Horatio Offut leased the tavern from Major Lee (or his widow) and constructed the brick section, but genealogical researchers suggest that no leases or deeds were ever recorded to Mr. Offut.