This historical mansion, Federal Hill, is part of the state park property along with a golf course, campground and picnic area. The name comes from the Stephen Foster song, the Kentucky state song, that this house inspired; at least the first verse. He was a guest here as the Rowan family were his cousins.

The song has a complicated history, engendering sympathy for a slave being sold away from his family inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s work Uncle Tom’s Cabin, yet containing a racist term (in modern times). It’s a song meant to be anti-slavery and sad, yet has been adopted by the state of Kentucky as a joyful ballad. The first stanza and chorus are joyful, and are sung at the opening of the Kentucky Derby, as well as by our tour guide in the home. But the rest of the verses are not joyful. The original Rowan who built the house was a slave owner to the tune of about 60 people. Foster had northern relatives who were abolitionists, but he never professed to be one. The song has been recorded by various artists, including Louis Armstrong with a jazzy version and changed lyrics. Foster also has a complicated history and died at 37 in a NYC hospital with historians disagreeing on the cause of death—pneumonia? A bad fall? Self-inflicted injury?

Photographs are not allowed inside the house (there are pictures online). The unique thing about this mansion is that the contents are almost all original to the family and were given with the house to the state. The wallpaper and carpets were all redone in 2006 with the help of historians. The ceilings are 13.5 feet tall, but have no wood trim around them or decorations in the plaster. There is a duel story and deaths from cholera and many portraits to help tell the tales of the Rowan family as we moved through the library, parlor, dining room and three upstairs bedrooms. The grand entrance hallway alone is much bigger than our camper van.

Old Bardstown Village and Civil War Museum occupied the rest of our afternoon. Neither of us had been through a museum dedicated solely to the Civil War (the Western Theater in particular which would include Kentucky), and they have an extensive collection of uniforms, guns, artillery, letters, medical kits and other artifacts on display. Everything is tagged for documentation. Neither of us knew there was a submarine involved in the Civil War. The HL Hunley submarine held seven men sitting sideways and one at the end facing forward turning a hand crank to drive the propeller, and it did sink a union ship, the Housatonic, but then sank and disappeared itself. Best-selling author Clive Cussler found it with a team of divers in 1995.