The Capital City Museum opened on November 18th, 2004 as part of downtown Frankfort’s annual Candlelight Tour. In this photograph, Frankfort Mayor Bill May prepares to cut the opening night ribbon.  To his right is Frankfort Parks & Recreation director Steve Brooks.  To the mayor’s left are Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Ratliff, who donated the building that houses the museum to the City of Frankfort. 550 people toured the museum that evening.

At present, the new Capital City Museum occupies the former Gayle Drug Store building at 325 Ann Street. Over the next few years, the museum will expand its exhibits into the old Capital Hotel, which was built by the City of Frankfort in the 1850s to provide comfortable accommodations for the Kentucky General Assembly and others doing business with state government.

This scale model of Kentucky’s Capitol helps the museum tell about Frankfort’s rich political history. The museum also has a large collection of Kentucky political memorabilia. Although a state capital city, Frankfort has remained a small town.  The conduct of state government is the community’s biggest business.

One of the museum’s major exhibits shows off products made in Frankfort over the last 200 years. Shown here are an inlaid table and three chairs made around a century ago in the Kentucky State Penitentiary. The prison was an important part of the Frankfort scene from the early 19th century until it closed in 1937.  Over those decades, a great variety of products were manufactured and sold to the public by the prison workshops.

Frankfort was a Union Army garrison town during much of the Civil War. It was also the scene of a couple of skirmishes.  In August, 1862, Frankfort became the only pro-Union state capital occupied by the Confederate Army, but the Confederate stay here was only temporary.  The local militia successfully fought off an attacking detachment of John Hunt Morgan’s cavalrymen in June, 1864.  Lieutenant Sanford Goin was awarded this ornate presentation sword for his part in that action.

Although Frankfort is a state government “company town,” it has been a center for the whiskey distilling industry since its earliest days.  The Capital City museum displays many reminders of Frankfort’s association with the rich history of Kentucky Bourbon.

The Capital City Museum is open from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Saturday. The City of Frankfort’s Department of Parks & Recreation operates the museum. It is located at 325 Ann Street downtown – directly across Broadway from the Kentucky History Center. Admission to the museum is free.  Several seasonal and special interest tours of Frankfort start at the museum. For details, call 696-0607 or email russh@mis.net.