Locust Grove

Louisville exists because of the Falls of the Ohio, the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio and the Gulf of Mexico: boats had to unload and portage their cargo around the rapids, and the settlement George Rogers Clark founded at the Falls in 1778 grew up as that portage town. Historic Locust Grove is where Clark, the city's founder, spent the last years of his life, from 1809 until his death in 1818. The 55-acre site in eastern Jefferson County preserves the Georgian brick mansion built around 1790 by William Croghan and his wife Lucy Clark Croghan, George Rogers Clark's sister. The house and outbuildings were built by enslaved African Americans, and more than 40 people were enslaved on the farm at its peak in 1820. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark stopped here on November 8, 1806, on their way home from the Pacific, and Locust Grove is the only surviving residence west of the Appalachians known to have sheltered them. Owned by Louisville Metro and run by Historic Locust Grove, Inc., it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and has a visitor center with a museum.