--- title: "Greensburg takes shape on the Green River" slug: "greensburg-takes-shape-on-the-green-river" url: "https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/greensburg-takes-shape-on-the-green-river/" era: "Frontier" years: "1779–1804" county: "Green County" counties: ["Green County"] coordinates: "37.2608° N, 85.5020° W" coordinates_precision: "standard (0.0001 deg)" license: "CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)" --- # Greensburg takes shape on the Green River > On Dec. 4, 1794, Walter Beal laid out Greensburg above a Green River ford on the site of Glover's Station; its 1804 stone courthouse still stands. ## At a glance - **When:** 1779–1804 - **Where:** Green County - **People:** James Knox; Thomas Metcalfe - **Coordinates:** 37.2608° N, 85.5020° W ## The story [Greensburg](https://grokipedia.com/page/greensburg_kentucky) grew above a natural ford on the Green River, on ground that had already seen a frontier station. In the fall of 1779 John Glover built Glover’s Station there with his family, relatives, and enslaved people. The station served as a defensive outpost against raids and was abandoned after attacks in 1781. Survivors from Glover’s and from nearby Pitman and Skaggs stations later helped settle the town that replaced it. Long hunters such as Col. James Knox had camped in the Green River country as early as the 1770s. Green County was created on December 21, 1792, from parts of Lincoln and Nelson counties, and organized on January 1, 1793. It was named for Gen. Nathanael Greene of the Revolution. On December 4, 1794, Walter Beal laid out about 100 acres into lots around a public square above the ford. Beal’s plat made Greensburg the county seat from the start, but he is not the subject of this story—the town and its courthouse are. Early lot buyers were required to build houses at least sixteen feet square, with brick or stone chimneys and shingled roofs, within three years. Families such as the Allens, Montgomerys, and Grahams were among the first. A log courthouse went up in 1796, built by Isham Burke for about $450 in silver. It was soon too small. In 1802 commissioners contracted Walter Bullock and Daniel White for a two-story stone building, forty by thirty-four feet, with walls two feet thick and multiple fireplaces. Robert Ball did the stonework; Thomas Metcalfe may have done the masonry. The Old Stone Courthouse was finished in 1804 at a cost of about $2,900 in silver. It served as the seat of justice for 135 years, until 1931, and is widely cited as the oldest surviving courthouse west of the Alleghenies. A newer courthouse was built in 1930–32 outside the square, leaving the old public open space intact. Indian raids in the county are said to have tapered off by about 1795, after which the stone courthouse could stand as a peacetime seat of government. The ford and the Cumberland Trace (later the Lexington–Nashville Turnpike) made Greensburg a stop for migrants and flatboat trade toward New Orleans. The first steamboat reached the Green River country in 1829. The town’s public square—still open, and the only such square remaining in Kentucky—anchors a National Register historic district of dozens of contributing nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century buildings, including the Greensburg Academy (1815–18), the Green River Hotel (1825), and a 1913 railroad depot. ## Kentucky today The Old Stone Courthouse stands on the public square in the Downtown Greensburg Historic District and now houses a library and museum. State and local preservation work, including a 1974 grant for the courthouse, keeps the square the center of Green County’s county-seat story. Greensburg remains a town story, not a biography of Walter Beal. ## People in this story - **[James Knox](https://kyhistorydrive.com/people/#james-knox)** — Long hunter - **[Thomas Metcalfe](https://kyhistorydrive.com/people/#thomas-metcalfe)** — Stonemason, tenth governor ("Old Stone Hammer") ## Sources & research notes ### Sources 1. Grokipedia: Greensburg, Kentucky on Grokipedia [web] — https://grokipedia.com/page/greensburg_kentucky --- Cite as: "Greensburg takes shape on the Green River." Kentucky History Drive. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/greensburg-takes-shape-on-the-green-river/ Text licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.