Campbellsville
Main Street
Historic Downtown Campbellsville, KY
the Heart of the city
In 1809, a Virginia-born settler named Andrew Campbell built a grist mill on Buck Horn Creek in central Kentucky. A couple years later, he built a tavern. By 1814, Campbell began selling lots on a piece of his land he’d that he’d claimed as his own. By 1817, the town that bore his family name was official. Campbellsville was on the map. Two centuries later, the street grid Andrew Campbell laid out is still the heart of this city—Main Street is still where Campbellsville happens.
The Heart of Kentucky — Literally
Taylor County’s geographic boundary is shaped like a heart. And for generations, residents have claimed something else: that Campbellsville sits at the geographic center of the entire state of Kentucky.
There’s evidence to back it up. A survey marker placed by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey — long regarded by locals as the center marker of Kentucky — stands in front of the Montgomery Library on the Campbellsville University campus. The city’s official motto, in Latin, translates to “city in the middle of the commonwealth.” The county has formally claimed it. And whether the geography is exact or approximate, one thing is certain: Campbellsville feels like a center — the kind of place everything converges.
History Under Every step
Walk Main Street today and you’re walking through a National Register Historic Commercial District. The buildings lining these blocks have held general stores and law offices, restaurants and jewelry shops, barbershops and banks. Some of them have stood since before the Civil War — when Confederate cavalry rode through in 1864 and burned the courthouse because the Union Army had been using it for barracks.
After the war, the town rebuilt. It always has. A second courthouse rose on the same site, then a third, then a fourth. The business district grew, changed hands, weathered hard times, and came back. The historic streetscape you see today — the brick facades, the Merchant Tower, the wide sidewalks — is the result of more than 200 years of a community deciding, over and over, that this place is worth keeping.
A Living District
Downtown Campbellsville today is home to locally owned shops, restaurants, professional services, and gathering spaces. Campbellsville University— whose campus begins just blocks from Main Street — brings energy, arts programming, and a steady stream of students and visitors into the district. The Pitman Creek Trail and Miller Park are just a couple minutes drive from Main Street, making the district a natural starting point for outdoor exploration.
Green River Lake State Park is just a few miles south. The university’s performing arts facilities, Taylor County Library events and plenty of happenings downtown— the district’s calendar stays full.
Never visited main street?
Campbellsville Main Street is the organization that works to preserve the historic fabric, support local businesses, and make sure downtown is a place people want to come back to. Click the link to learn more.
Campbellsville Main Street is an accredited member of Main Street America and the Kentucky Main Street program — part of a national network of communities committed to preservation-based economic development.