The Brown-Pusey House

The Brown-Pusey House built in 1825 by John Y. Hill was home for he and his wife, Rebecca. This warm and stately old home was for many years the Hill House, a boarding house operated by "Aunt Beck" Hill. Among the guests at the Hill House were General George Armstrong Custer and his wife Elizabeth. General Custer's assignment in Elizabethtown was to combat the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and the illegal distilleries.

Other notable visitors to the Hill House were the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind, who sang on the front steps, and General John Hunt Morgan of the Confederate Army who dined at the Hill House on several occasions. In 1923, the Brown-Pusey House was restored and given to the community by Dr. William Allen Pusey and Dr. Alfred Brown Pusey (great-nephews of "Aunt Beck") as well as Mrs. Sallie Cunningham Pusey and the related Hastings family.

The Brown-Pusey House serves the community in many ways, as envisioned by its grantors. This Georgian mansion houses the Pusey Room Museum, a genealogical library, and meeting rooms for private and public functions. There is also a beautifully maintained garden for the public to enjoy.

The Library

The Brown-Pusey House Genealogy Library, open during regular office hours, has about 200 patrons per year searching for information about their ancestors and their family history.

The library contains over 2000 volumes of books and family records of early Kentucky settlers that include Hardin, Nelson, Larue, Breckinridge, Meade, Grayson and Hart counties.

Among the resources are near complete collections of Hardin County, Kentucky records dating from 1793 to roughly 1930. These records include marriages, wills, tax lists, court orders, settlements records, deeds, censuses, cemetery inscriptions, family files, bible records, and other items of genealogical interest.

The Museum

The Pusey Room Museum contains much of the professional memorabilia and cherished family mementos of Dr. William Allen Pusey, who was a preeminent physician of the late 1800's and early 1900's. The room, in part, is a replica of his medical office with most of his furnishings and professional related literature on display. Although his practice was centered in Chicago and national in scope, he remembered, in a special way, his native community and family origins.

Aside from Pusey memorabilia, the Museum contains other historically significant items such as an original photograph of General Custer signed and dated by Mrs. Custer. Other artifacts include Civil War related items associated with Confederates General Ben Hardin Helm, Captain Martin Hardin Cofer and Lieutenant John Augustus Warfield.

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