Frankfort

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Read Next

The United States Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C.

14 Questions About Government in the United States Answered

Bar graph of the United States Death Toll during major events. Infogram chart.

U.S. Death Toll During Major Events

The Battle of New Orleans, by E. Percy Moran, c. 1910. Andrew Jackson, War of 1812.

26 Decade-Defining Events in U.S. History

Groups of depositors in front of the closed American Union Bank, New York City. April 26, 1932. Great Depression run on bank crowd

Causes of the Great Depression

President's bingo. Guess and select to correct president based on images.

Britannica’s U.S. Presidents Bingo

Discover

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

Thanksgiving Celebration Traditional Dinner Setting Food Concept

Why Is Thanksgiving in the U.S. Celebrated on a Thursday?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart rehearsing his 12th Mass with singer and musician. (Austrian composer. (Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

7 Famous Child Prodigies

Close-up of tobacco plants in Ontario, Canada. Tobacco, Nicotiana, cured leaves used after processing in various ways for smoking, snuffing, chewing, and extracting of nicotine.

7 of the World’s Deadliest Plants

Super Typhoon Noru over the western tropical Pacific Ocean as observed by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA Aqua satellite July 31 2017

What Is the Difference Between a Typhoon and a Super Typhoon?

A Factory Interior, watercolor, pen and gray ink, graphite, and white goache on wove paper by unknown artist, c. 1871-91; in the Yale Center for British Art. Industrial Revolution England

Inventors and Inventions of the Industrial Revolution

Young boys working in a thread spinning mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. Boys are so small they have to climb onto the spinning frame to reach and fix broken threads and put back empty bobbins. Child labor. Industrial revolution

The Rise of the Machines: Pros and Cons of the Industrial Revolution

Frankfort

Kentucky, United States

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Frankfort, capital (since 1792) of Kentucky, U.S., and seat of Franklin county, located 50 miles (80 km) east of Louisville and 26 miles (42 km) northwest of Lexington. Frankfort was founded in 1786 on the Kentucky River by Gen. James Wilkinson. The name is a corruption of the name Frank’s Ford, which was derived from an incident in which Stephen Frank, a frontiersman, was killed (1780) in an Indian skirmish at a local fording place on the river. Twice during Frankfort’s early history the capitol building was burned, and at both times the larger cities of Louisville and Lexington attempted to usurp the seat of state government; Frankfort was retained, however, because of its central location. During the American Civil War it was occupied briefly (1862) by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. The city was flooded in 1937 and suffered widespread damage.

Frankfort is a trading centre for the Bluegrass region, producing tobacco, corn (maize), and Thoroughbred horses. Its manufactures include automotive parts, bourbon whiskey, candy, furniture, electronic parts, machinery, and apparel. The State Normal School for Colored Persons (1886) eventually became Kentucky State University. The State Capitol (1910) is crowned by a dome 212 feet (65 metres) high. The city’s historic buildings include the Old Capitol (1827–30), Liberty Hall (c. 1796), and the Orlando Brown House (1835). The graves of pioneer Daniel Boone and his wife, Rebecca Boone, are in the Frankfort Cemetery. Newer attractions include the Kentucky History Center (1999) and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where a sundial casts a shadow on the name of each veteran on the date of that veteran’s death. Inc. city, 1839. Pop. (2000) 27,741; (2010) 25,527.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.