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of Warren County and Bowling Green Warren County became a county in 1797. Formed out of Logan County, it was named after General Joseph Warren, a Revolutionary soldier who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1776. The first county courthouse was built on the current site of Bowling Green's Fountain Square and the court held its first meeting in the 20' x 24' log structure in March 1798. In 1805 the county court established New Town on land owned by Robert Moore and Jeffersonville on land owned by John McNeal; the attraction of both communities was their location on the banks of the Barren River. Two years later the court ordered the erection of a courthouse in New Town, but when the construction was delayed, a legislative commission ruled to move the old log courthouse from Bowling Green (Old Town) to Jeffersonville. The 1809 Kentucky General Assembly officially proclaimed Bowling Green as the county seat and two years later the county's second courthouse was built on the square. In 1797 Robert Moore
donated two acres to Warren County for public buildings and during
the next several years a courthouse, jail, stock and pillory,
clerk's office, marketplace and stock pen were erected on the
plot. In 1798 Moore gave adjoining land for a town, which grew
around the "public square" containing the courthouse
and other structures. On January 2, 1798 an
order of the Warren County Court called for the creation of a
town on 30-40 acres of land donated by Robert Moore. On March
6, 1798 the court decided that the town should be "called
and known by the name of Bolin Green." It was named for
Bowling Green Square in New York City where patriots pulled down
a statue of King George III and used it to make bullets to fire
at the British during the American Revolution. |
