TOWNS
The Nelson County Courthouse is located at 113 East Stephen Foster Avenue, Bardstown KY 40004; phone: 5020348-1820.
Nelson County was formed in 1784, prior to Kentucky's gaining statehood. Bardstown, the county seat, has self-proclaimed and indeed, registered as a trademark, Bourbon Capital of the World®. Promotional literature makes the comparison, Bardstown is to Bourbon what Napa Valley is to wine.
Legend has it that Stephen Foster's song, "My Old Kentucky Home," was written while he was visiting his cousins in 1852 at the Rowan Family's Federal Hill Plantation in Bardstown. Federal Hill (now known as My Old Kentucky Home, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.