High Tech Locust Grove Renovation Complete

A restoration of the founder of Louisville’s final home and a National Historic Landmark is now complete.  Locust Grove, the nearly 700 acre farm and estate established in 1790 by William Croghan, brother-in-law of Louisville founder George Rogers Clark, received an anonymous donation of half a million dollars to restore the home to its most accurate historic state to date.  The home was restored in the 1960s, but Locust Grove executive director Carol Ely says new technology, such as microscopic paint analysis, enabled experts to determine true wall colors and coverings.  But Ely  says the restoration has enabled an even greater reinterpretation.“In addition to the new paint and wallpaper, we’ve taken this chance to really reinterpret the house, to look again at the particular people who lived here and what they were like as personalities, and what their life was like in this period at the beginning of the 19^th century; America is new.”Locust Grove’s reopening will be celebrated tomorrow; an afternoon lecture series continues the first Wednesday of each month.