Maysville, KY – a surprising little town

Today’s port call was Maysville, Kentucky, a town of about 8800 residents. It took us about 12 hours to sail there from Cincinnati; our tour buses took an hour to cover the distance by road.

Maysville was the third town where we were greeted by people from the local tourist board; they were enthusiastic and brought gifts (well, small tote bags filled with literature about the town). Diane and I took separate tours today; she went to the Old Washington section of town and saw historical sites (the first Post Office west of the Alleghanies and the location where Harriet Beecher (not yet Stowe) saw a slave being beaten, to name just two).

I took the downtown tour, which began with a trip to the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center. It has three distinct sections. One focuses on regional history and is filled with artifacts like this “National Currency” note issued by a local bank less than 100 years ago; I hadn’t known that banks were still authorized to issue currency as late as 1935 until today.

The Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Collection was the second section I visited; Kaye Browning has been traveling the world and collecting (or commissioning) 1/12-scale miniatures for more than 40 years. There’s a model of Spencer House (Princess Diana’s ancestral home), recreations of rooms like a Shaker Retiring Room, and much much more. It would be easy to spend a whole morning looking at the collection.

The final section of the museum was the Old Pogue Experience, devoted to the history of Bourbon in Mason County, with special attention paid to the Old Pogue Distillery, which was Bourbon Distillery No. 3 in Kentucky and is once more owned by the original family. I took advantage of the chance to taste their Bourbon and Rye; I thought the Rye was smoother, but I’d drink the Bourbon quite happily, too – if someone else was buying (it’s $110/bottle if you can find it).

Our other stop for the day, the Russell Theatre was just a couple of blocks away, so I walked (it also gave me a chance to visit an ATM!). I ran into our driver just outside the theatre and he asked if I could go with him to the nearby Underground Railroad sites and take his photo there; I was happy to do so. The first site we walked to was Phillips’ Folly; it’s a large house built in 1831, and claims to have hosted escaping slaves on their way to freedom – it’s a private residence and not open to the public. The other site was a long block uphill; it’s the National Underground Railroad Museum, which is a documented Safe House on the Underground Railroad – it’s open to the public, but only on certain days, not including today.

We walked back to the theatre and I joined the tour, already in progress. The theatre was saved from destruction in 1995; the restoration process has been very slow (there still is no HVAC, only fans), but it is being used on a regular basis for shows and movies and other events.

No day in Maysville would be complete without mentioning Rosemary Clooney, who was born in Maysville and is buried there. She chose the Russell Theatre to premiere her hit movie, “The Stars Are Singing” in 1953 (and broke its segregation rules to have her childhood best friend Blanche Chambers sit with her on the main level).

I would have liked to spend more time in Maysville, but we steamed away just before noon for another long stretch on the Ohio, heading to Marietta, Ohio. This afternoon, we had a talk on the Taft Family Dynasty in Ohio Politics, and this evening, there’s a murder mystery. Right now, we’re sitting on our balcony enjoying the river; we just went past Ironton, Ohio.

A hurried visit to Cincinnati

We awoke this morning with Great American Ball Park just outside our window.

Our morning excursion took us to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

As a proud RPI graduate, I felt required to get a good photo of the Roebling Bridge while I was in Cincinnati, and the view from the Freedom’s Eternal Flame Terrace provided the opportunity I needed.

We only had an hour and a half at the Center, and it wasn’t long enough. I knew a lot of the information, but the Center put it in context, and that made a big difference in being able to feel what had happened over the years. The Center doesn’t just talk about slavery; it also has exhibits on what colonization and settlement did to Indians, as well as quite a bit of space given to women’s rights (or the lack thereof). The exhibit on “modern slavery” (human trafficking) was chilling, too. I would have liked to have seen the slave pen and explored the implicit bias material, but there just wasn’t enough time.

After lunch, we took a quick walk along the waterfront; the Reds were hosting the Brewers and the area was busy with people hurrying to the game. We could hear the crowd singing the national anthem when we walked past the ballpark; I was startled when they shot off fireworks at “the rockets’ red glare”.

Then we went to the Cincinnati Art Museum for a slightly longer visit. I spent most of my time on the second floor in the American and European art rooms (they also have good collections of ancient art, Asian and Islamic art, and they devote a lot of the first floor to art created in or related to Cincinnati). Two of my favorite pieces were “Hell Ain’t Half Full” by Ned Cartledge and “Night Writer” by R.M. Fischer, but there were many others I enjoyed, too.

And then it was time to take the bus back to the ship and sail away.