Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, on a farm outside Hodgenville, about 28 miles and 50 minutes southwest of Bardstown. Today that farm is the free Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park, where a granite memorial with 56 steps shelters a symbolic log cabin above the spring his family drank from. Drive down US 31E, stop at the Knob Creek boyhood farm on the way, finish at the Lincoln Museum on Hodgenville’s square, and you have one of the easiest and most rewarding half days in the region.
Why this trip works from Bardstown
The Lincoln story in Kentucky is a Bardstown-adjacent story. The president’s grandmother moved the family to Beech Fork near Springfield in the 1780s, his parents married in Washington County, and the Talbott Tavern downtown claims young Abe stayed there with them. Hodgenville is where the thread becomes something you can stand on.
The route itself does half the work. US 31E runs straight out of Bardstown past horse fences and tobacco barns, drops into the Knob Creek valley and rolls into Hodgenville. Nothing on the road is a detour. If you want the fuller picture of how the Lincoln family moved through this part of Kentucky, read our overview of Lincoln country near Bardstown before you go.
The Birthplace: what you actually see
The park covers about 344 acres, and the part most people come for sits in a tight cluster near the parking lot.
The Memorial Building. The architect John Russell Pope designed this neoclassical Beaux-Arts temple. Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth in 1909, and William Howard Taft dedicated it in 1911. The numbers are the fun part: 16 windows and 16 ceiling rosettes for the 16th president, and 56 steps up the front for the age he was when he died. Count them on the way up. Everyone does.
The cabin inside. Be clear-eyed about it. The original cabin was dismantled before 1865, and the logs in the symbolic cabin date mostly to the 1840s, according to the park’s history. It still lands. Standing inside a marble hall built around a one-room log hut says a lot about how the country chose to remember a man born with almost nothing.
The Sinking Spring. Walk down the steps and around to the stone-lined spring at the bottom of the hollow. This is the original feature of the land, the reason the farm was called Sinking Spring Farm, and the most honest artifact on the property. Kids and adults alike tend to linger here longer than they planned.
The visitor center. Start here. The exhibits set up the Lincoln family’s Kentucky years, and the rangers can tell you whether the Knob Creek tavern visitor center is open that day.
The park recorded 212,899 visitors in 2025, but it rarely feels crowded outside of Lincoln’s birthday weekend in February and summer Saturdays.
Hours, fees and practical details
The Birthplace visitor center and parking area are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern, and the Memorial Building is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., per the official hours page. The park closes on New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is no entrance fee. The phone is (270) 358-3137.
| Stop | Drive from Court Square | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knob Creek boyhood farm | About 30 min (18 miles) | Grounds dawn to dusk; tavern visitor center seasonal | Free |
| Lincoln Birthplace | About 50 min (28 miles) | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Memorial Building to 4:30 | Free |
| Lincoln Museum, Hodgenville | About 50 min | Mon to Sat 8:30 to 4:30; Sun 12:30 to 4:30 | $8 adults, $6 seniors, $3 ages 4 to 12 |
A few tips that save frustration:
- The Memorial Building closes half an hour before the visitor center. Climb the steps first if you arrive after 3:30.
- There is no restaurant on site. Pack snacks or plan lunch in Hodgenville.
- Wear shoes with grip in wet or icy weather. The steps are stone and they are steep.
Knob Creek: the farm Lincoln actually remembered
Lincoln left the Birthplace farm at age 2. He left Knob Creek at 7, which makes this the place he later had memories of. The family farmed about 30 of the unit’s 228 acres from 1811 until December 1816, when they moved to Indiana. Lincoln later said the move was “partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the difficulty of land titles in Kentucky.”
The Knob Creek unit is at 7120 Bardstown Road (US 31E), right on your way. The grounds are open dawn to dusk. The Gollaher Cabin, built around 1800 and moved here, belonged to the family of Austin Gollaher, Lincoln’s boyhood neighbor. Thomas Lincoln did well here for a while: he worked as a road surveyor, and by 1814 he ranked 15th in wealth among 98 property owners in the area.
The stone Lincoln Tavern by the road was built in 1933 as a dance hall, turned into a museum and gift shop when the county went dry in 1942, and now serves as a seasonal visitor center. And yes, it is the same Knob Creek name you know from a bottle at the Jim Beam gift shop.
The Lincoln Museum on Hodgenville’s square
The Lincoln Museum at 66 Lincoln Square is a private museum facing the Lincoln statues in the middle of town. Expect life-size dioramas of scenes from his life, wax figures, period artifacts, Civil War memorabilia, original Lincoln art and an exhibit on the funeral train. It is old-school in the best way, and it fills in the adult Lincoln that the park sites, focused on childhood, mostly leave out.
Admission is $8 for ages 13 to 59, $6 for seniors, $3 for children 4 to 12, and free for children under 4 and active military. Hours are Monday to Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Call (270) 358-3163 around holidays.
A simple plan for the day
- 9:00 a.m. Leave Court Square on US 31E south.
- 9:30 Knob Creek. Walk the fields, see the Gollaher Cabin, check whether the tavern is open.
- 10:15 Continue to the Birthplace. Visitor center exhibits, then the 56 steps, then the Sinking Spring.
- 11:45 Into Hodgenville for the Lincoln Museum and a look at the statues on the square.
- 1:00 p.m. Lunch in town, then drive back to Bardstown by mid-afternoon.
That leaves the rest of the day for a distillery back in Bardstown or a nap before dinner. To turn it into a full Lincoln day, loop east on the way home to the Lincoln Homestead near Springfield, where Thomas Lincoln courted Nancy Hanks. Our day-trip routes page maps that longer loop.
When to go
Fall is the prettiest time. The knobs south of Bardstown turn copper and red in mid to late October, and the light on the white memorial in the morning is worth the early start. Spring comes second, with redbud along the road. Summer works, but bring water; there is little shade between the parking lot and the memorial.
February 12, Lincoln’s birthday, is the park’s big day. Check the park’s news page for special events if you plan to go then.
Where to eat and pair it with
Hodgenville has small-town lunch options around the square, and they change often, so look at a map app on the morning you go and have a backup. For dinner, you will be back in Bardstown with the whole restaurant guide to pick from. The Old Talbott Tavern is a fitting end to a Lincoln day, since it claims the Lincoln family as early guests.
Want more history on the same trip? The Getz Museum of Bourbon History in Spalding Hall displays Abraham Lincoln’s liquor license, a fun footnote to the day. And if the kids have energy left, the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven is a short hop from US 31E on the way back.
For every other trip out of town, start at the day trips hub.
