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Frankfort is both the seat of Franklin county and of the
state government. It lies along the Kentucky River and
is served by I-64, US 60, US 127, US 460, and US 412.
The area was visited by English explorers beginning in
1751 and settlement began in the 1780s. The name
probably comes from Stephen Frank, a settler who was
killed at what came to be known as Frank's Ford. The
town was established in 1786 as Frankfort, Virginia, and
became the capital of the new state in 1792. The
Frankfort post office opened in 1794. The population in
1990 was 25,968.
The original town of Frankfort was on the north side
of the Kentucky River. It has expanded to include the
once independent towns of South Frankfort, south of the
River, and Leestown, which was just north of the
original town.
Frankfort is the home of Kentucky State University.
The Old State Capitol was completed in 1830 and used
until the new capitol was completed in 1920. The Old
State Capitol, the third in Frankfort, was designed by
Kentucky architect Gideon Shryock and includes a
self-supporting circular stone stairway in the rotunda.
It is now operated as a museum by the Kentucky
Historical Society.
From Anthony Trollope's North America (1862)
Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky, and is as
quietly dull a little town as I ever entered. It is on
the river Kentucky, and as the grounds about it on every
side rise in wooded hills, it is a very pretty place. In
January it was very pretty, but in summer it must be
lovely. I was taken up to the cemetery there by a path
along the river, and am inclined to say that it is the
sweetest resting-place for the dead that I have ever
visited. Daniel Boone lies there. He was the first white
man who settled in Kentucky; or rather, perhaps, the
first who entered Kentucky with a view to a white man's
settlement. Such frontier men as was Daniel Boone never
remained long contented with the spots they opened. As
soon as he had left his mark in that territory he went
again further west over the big rivers into Missouri,
and there he died. But the men of Kentucky are proud of
Daniel Boone, and so they have buried him in the
loveliest spot they could select, immediately over the
river. Frankfort is worth a visit, if only that this
grave and graveyard may be seen. The legislature of the
State was not sitting when I was there, and the grass
was growing in the streets.
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