Bourbon County Courthouse - Paris, Ky.


Bourbon County's courthouse in Paris gets a lot of attention, and rightfully so. It's pretty impressive. It sits up at the top of the hill in Paris, and dominates the downtown area. I'm not sure if its always been this way, but it looks like some of the old buildings on the courthouse square have been torn down over the years, leaving a bunch of open parking areas downtown.
In another French connection with the Commonwealth, according to the historic marker Bourbon County was named for the French Royal family for the assistance given during the Revolutionary War. Bourbon was among the original counties of Virginia. the first courthouse was constructed on this site in 1787. At that time, Paris was called "Hopewell."

I was told by my friend Kyle that the reason the Bourbon County Courthouse is so huge and ornate is that at the time of its construction, Frankfort had not been chosen as the state capital and Paris was still in the running.

Comments

Peter Brackney said…
I've been to Paris many a time, but I don't remember the courthouse. Paris needs to be a No Destination (oxymoronic, I know).

First impression: looks like a capitol building. Turns out, I was right per Kyle.
John Marshall said…
Hello fellow blogger. I am from Paris Ky and just recently started my own blog. I ran across your blog looking for other blogs about Kentucky.
Enjoyed looking around your blog today. I thought you might be interested in sharing a link exchange of our blogs?
Here is my blog http://pariskentucky.blogspot.com

My email address is on my blog if you are interested?