Frankfort
"Frankfort is the rare state capital that still feels like a small Kentucky town first and a seat of government second."
Kentucky's small, hilly capital, where the state government shares the Kentucky River bluffs with a bourbon distillery and Daniel Boone's grave. Lia and I climbed to the old cemetery at dusk and watched the capitol dome light up below us, the whole town suddenly feeling much bigger than its population.
Frankfort became Kentucky’s capital in 1792 mostly because it sat conveniently between the rival factions of Lexington and Louisville, and it’s kept that in-between, unassuming character ever since — a town of about twenty-eight thousand people wedged into a gorge cut by the Kentucky River, government buildings sharing hillsides with bourbon warehouses and modest bungalows. We came expecting an afternoon of civic architecture and ended up staying through dinner, pulled along by a town that keeps surprising you around each bend of the river.
The Capitol and the river
The current State Capitol, finished in 1910, sits on a bluff with a dome you can see from most of downtown, its interior floored in marble with a rotunda mural cycle depicting Daniel Boone among Kentucky’s founding scenes. We walked the grounds at sunset, the Kentucky River curling below in a horseshoe bend that makes the whole town feel wrapped rather than built on flat ground. Lia, who finds most government buildings forgettable, admitted this one earned its dome.
Frankfort Cemetery and Buffalo Trace
Up on a ridge above downtown, Frankfort Cemetery holds Daniel Boone and his wife Rebecca, reinterred here in 1845 despite a long-running dispute over whether the right bones ever made the trip from Missouri. The view from the bluff looks straight down over the capitol and the river bend, and we lingered until the streetlights came on below us. Downhill and along the river, Buffalo Trace Distillery has been running continuously through Prohibition and everything since, and its warehouses release a warm, sweet smell over the eastern edge of downtown most afternoons — you can smell Frankfort before you can see it, depending on the wind.
Getting There
Frankfort sits almost exactly between Louisville and Lexington, each about a forty-five-minute drive via I-64, with Louisville’s international airport (SDF) generally offering more flight options. Blue Grass Airport in Lexington (LEX) works just as well if you’re combining Frankfort with bourbon country. A car is essential — there’s no meaningful public transit for reaching Frankfort or getting around once there.
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