MEDIA ADVISORY

Dedication of Preserved and Restored Log House, Earliest Symbol of Catholicism in Midwest

(Bardstown, Kentucky) On September 10, 2006, at 2:00 p.m. Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly will dedicate the preserved and restored Bishop Flaget Log House, located on the property of St. Thomas Parish, 870 St. Thomas Lane, Bardstown. This is the earliest structure related to the Roman Catholic faith still standing in the Midwestern United States.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this house was built in 1795 by Thomas and Ann Howard. The house, along with $5,000 and 369 acres of land, was willed to the Catholic church in 1810. This structure became the first home of St. Thomas Seminary, the earliest seminary established west of the Alleghenies, and from 1812 to 1819 the log cabin was the residence of Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget, the first bishop of the Diocese of Bardstown (now the Archdiocese of Louisville). In 1812, it also became the founding site of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.

In 1999, the Log House Restoration Project was formed to oversee the development and restoration of this structure. Since that time the committee has conducted studies and archaeological digs, collected artifacts and established a long-range plan for the use of the structure. The mission is to preserve the site for religious, historical and educational purposes. Future plans include establishing an endowment to fund the ongoing maintenance of the log house and building a visitors’ center for groups who wish to learn more about early Kentucky history and early Kentucky Catholicism. The restoration of the log house was the first phase of this project.

The original fabric of the structure is nearly 100% intact and has been restored to authentically demonstrate early life in the house. All of the structures that were replaced (roof, chimneys, clapboard siding) have been matched with period elements from disassembled buildings of the same era. The renovated log house contains furnishings consistent with those that were used in the early nineteenth century.

The dedication will last about 45 minutes and will conclude with a reception and tours of the log house.

The Diocese of Bardstown was created on April 8, 1808, along with three other dioceses (Boston, New York and Philadelphia). These were the third dioceses founded in the United States; only Baltimore (1789) and New Orleans (1793) came before them. The Diocese of Bardstown (which became the Diocese of Louisville in 1841 and the Archdiocese of Louisville in 1937) was the first inland diocese. The Diocese of Bardstown covered territory that would become 44 other dioceses in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri. Today the Archdiocese of Louisville serves 200,000 Catholic in 24 counties in Central Kentucky.

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