Munfordville, KY

Today I wanted to explore some local history, so Munfordville was the place I started. Munfordville abounds with history and is clearly evident by the architectural buildings that remain standing from the 19th century. In 1801 Richard Munford settled on the Green River at a site known as Big Buffalo Crossing. By 1816 a thriving town was established bearing Munford's name.


The Woodson House was the home of Anthony and Eliza B. Chapline Woodson 

The Woodson House and Farm was of strategic importance during the Civil War due to its close proximity to the massive Louisville-Nashville Railroad Bridge over the Green River. Because of this many resident's homes and buildings were requisitioned by the Union military. Scores of acres of prime timber were cut for lumber and fuel. Fortifications were built and a network of roads criss-crossed through what was once fertile fields.

 

Leaving the Woodson homestead and driving toward the town of Munfordville I saw in a distance a very strange rock formation. This formation is known as the Kentucky Stonehenge created by a local named Chester Fryer.

Chester Fryer scoured the Hatcher Valley for the rocks that created his masterpiece. The Kentucky Stonehedge does not exactly resemble the real one but rather it reflects points on a compass.

The town of Munfordville is filled with turn of the century buildings and unique gift shops stocked with local Amish jams and jellies.

Chapline Building

The Chapline Building located in the center of Munfordville was contructed in the 1890s. The brick used to manufacture the building was from native clay.

Wood House circa 1834

Presbyterian Church/Union Hospital circa 1834

Village School/Nurse's Quarters circa 1833

Originally consisting of two separate brick chambers, the structure supplemented the field hospital church across the street during the Civil War. After the war the structure was used as a school, one room for girls the other for boys. In the 1900s the rooms were joined and converted into a private home.

Hart County Courthouse

Circa 1910

Thomas Bolin Munford & Eliza Wintlock Munford House circa 1823

This home predates all the brick homes in town. Underneath the present exterior are logs and the interior walls are 16 inches thick.