History
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Hattie Howell Howard, born about ten miles from here in 1886, grew up hearing local lore about Abraham Lincoln. After her brother James opened the Nancy Lincoln Inn next to Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park, Hattie sought her own way to honor the sixteenth president. In 1928, she and her husband Chester purchased the Knob Creek Farm, hoping to preserve the land and use it to share the story of Lincoln’s early years in Kentucky. To serve growing numbers of tourists, they built the Lincoln Tavern there, opening it for business in 1933. Visitors bought food and refreshments from the kitchen, purchased gas from outside pumps, and enjoyed live music and dancing in the evenings. The Howards built the tavern from rough-hewn logs using trees found on the property, as frontier settlers like Thomas and Nancy Lincoln might have done. The Lincoln Tavern and Knob Creek site were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988 and became part of the National Park Service in 2001.
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Kentucky · United States
