24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Bardstown, KY

Bardstown is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Nelson County in central Kentucky.

First settled in 1780 and formally established in 1788 as Baird's Town, Bardstown is among the oldest cities in Kentucky.

The city is named for the Bard brothers: David Bard obtained a 1,000-acre land grant in 1785 in what was then Virginia, and William Bard surveyed and platted the town.

Bardstown became the seat of the newly created Nelson County in 1784 and was incorporated by the state assembly in 1838.

Bardstown was the first center of Catholicism west of the Appalachian Mountains; the Diocese of Bardstown, established in 1808 to serve Catholics from the Appalachians to the Mississippi River, left the city the Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral before its seat moved to Louisville in 1841.

Bardstown is nicknamed the Bourbon Capital of the World, a trademarked title celebrated each year at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, which the Kentucky General Assembly designated the state's official bourbon festival in 2000.

Distilleries operating in Bardstown include Heaven Hill, Barton 1792, Willett, and Lux Row Distillers, and bourbon production remains a major local industry.

My Old Kentucky Home State Park preserves Federal Hill, the mansion of Judge John Rowan that inspired Stephen Foster's famous song, and hosts The Stephen Foster Story, designated Kentucky's official outdoor musical in 2002.

The Old Talbott Tavern, built in 1779 and billed as the oldest western stagecoach stop still in operation, hosted guests including Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln.

Bardstown's Civil War Museum is the fourth-largest Civil War museum in the United States, and the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History is housed in Spalding Hall, built in 1826.