MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME

The home and its surroundings became Kentucky's first state park, and remains popular for its grounds and for the state shrine, majestically overlooking Bardstown from its hill. The Home, as it's also known, was built between 1795 and 1818, mostly by slaves. Its construction has no nails - only wooden pegs - yet the home has withstood the test of time and the tramping of millions of feet. According to legend, it was at Federal Hill (as it's also known) that in the 1850s famed composer Stephen Collins Foster soaked up the inspiration to write how "the sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home." The ballad is now Kentucky's state song, and is renowned worldwide as the opening song of the Kentucky Derby each year. The home was built by Judge John Rowan, who served on both the Kentucky Court of Appeals and in the U.S. Senate. The state took over ownership of the home in 1922 from John Rowan's granddaughter, keeping its promise to turn the home into a shrine.