My Old Kentucky Home State Park
United States · Americas
About
My Old Kentucky Home State Park is a state park located in Bardstown, Kentucky, United States. The park's centerpiece is Federal Hill, a former plantation home owned by United States Senator John Rowan in 1795. During the Rowan family's occupation, the mansion became a meeting place for local politicians and hosted several visiting dignitaries.
The farm is best known for its association with American composer Stephen Foster's sentimental ballad "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night". Foster was a cousin of the Rowan family and reputedly an occasional visitor to Federal Hill, though Foster was likely inspired to write the ballad by Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.
After the popularity of the song increased throughout the United States, Federal Hill was purchased by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, dedicated as a historic site, and renamed "My Old Kentucky Home" on July 4, 1923. Foster's song by the same name was made the state song of Kentucky in 1928. The Federal Hill mansion was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1992, and it is one of the symbols featured on the reverse of the Kentucky state quarter issued in 2001.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.