Liberty Hall

Federal mansion of Kentucky's first US senator, with a three-acre boxwood garden

Built between 1796 and 1800, Liberty Hall is one of the earliest and best-preserved Federal-style houses in Kentucky. Senator John Brown — who helped get Kentucky admitted to the Union as the 15th state — commissioned the house from locally fired brick on a site overlooking the Kentucky River. Four generations of the Brown family lived here with minimal alteration, which means the furnishings, woodwork, and layout survive largely intact.

The three-acre boxwood garden behind the house is one of the finest examples of a Federal-period garden in the region, with some of the original boxwoods still in place. The adjacent Orlando Brown House, built in 1835 for the senator's son, is part of the same museum complex. Tours run mid-March through mid-November, Tuesday through Saturday.

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A story
The house was commissioned by Senator John Brown, who had championed Kentucky's admission to the Union, but he was so frequently absent in Philadelphia on government business that the house took years to complete — and when it was finally ready, the glass windows hadn't yet been installed. The Brown family lived here across four generations without changing the furnishings much, which is why the interiors feel so authentically Federal-era today.