Bourbon County Church Directory
Apostolic
Christ Temple Apostolic Church of Paris
329 Pleasant Street, Paris
987-4004
Abundant Life Worship Center
2021 Alverson Drive, Paris
987-7577
River of Life Ministries
829 Clintonville Road, Paris
987-5407
Centerville Baptist Church
246 Russell Cave Road, Paris
987-7295
Central Baptist Church
829 High Street, Paris
987-3951
First Baptist Church
916 Main Street, Paris
987-3790
First Baptist Church
128 W 8th Street, Paris
987-2545
Millersburg Baptist Church
608 Main Street, Millersburg
484-9380
New Providence Baptist Church
Clintonville Road, Paris
Pleasant Valley Baptist Church
Clintonville Road, Paris
Shady Dell Primitive Baptist Church
Clintonville Road, Paris
Shawhan Baptist Church
Shawhan
Silas Baptist Church
Silas Road, Paris
Spears Mill Baptist Church
Spears Mill Road, N. Middletown
362-4422
Zion Baptist Church
312 W 8th Street, Paris
987-7921
Church of the Annunciation
1007 Main Street, Paris
987-1571
Bedford Acres Christian Church
5414 Lexington Road, Paris
987-4591
Calvary Christian Church
610 Clintonville Road, Paris
987-6643
Little Rock Christian Church
3207 Cane Ridge Road, Little Rock
383-4374
Mt. Carmel Christian Church
1970 Cynthiana Road, Shawhan
987-8259
Paris Christian Church
645 2nd Street, Paris
Ruddles Mill Christian Church
Ruddles Mill Road, Paris
987-7384
Lexington Road, Paris
299-8544
Cane Ridge Road, Paris
987-5350
Clintonville Christian Church
141 Austerlitz Road, Clintonville
987-6040
First Christian Church
911 High Street, Paris
987-3940
First Christian Church
Main Street, Millersburg
North Middletown Christian Church
College Street, N. Middletown
362-4467
Seventh Street Christian
122 W 7th Street, Paris
987-5319
Church of Christ
1434 High Street, Paris
987-6839
Paris Church of Christ
1923 S. Main Street, Paris
987-5623
First Church of God
200 Bethlehem Road, Paris
987-4241
Paris Church of God
222 Main Street, Paris
987-8089
Trinity Church of God
1000 Clintonville Road, Paris
987-5672
St. Peter’s Episcopal
311 High Street, Paris
987-2760
Bible Missionary Church
11th Street, Millersburg
Bible Holiness Church
640 W 2nd Street, Paris
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses
833 Millersburg Road, Paris
987-7143
Centerville United Methodist Church
Georgetown Road, Centerville
First United Methodist Church
617 Pleasant Street, Paris
987-1630
Herrington United Methodist Church
Jackstown Road, Paris
Hilltop Wesleyan
711 Link Avenue, Paris
Hutchison United Methodist Church
251 Hutchison Road, Paris
293-6381
Millersburg United Methodist Church
102 E 6th Street, Millersburg
484-3963
Ruddles Mill United Methodist Church
Ruddles Mill Road, Paris
St. Paul United Methodist Church
1117 High Street, Paris
987-5757
Wiley United Methodist Church
N. Middletown
Veeches Chapel
236 Brentsville Road, Paris
988-0078
Woods Chapel
118 Vimont Street, Millersburg
484-9544
Shorter Chapel A.M.E. Church
116 Chapel Street
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
920 Clintonville Road, Paris
987-1263
Church of the Nazarene
231 W 7th Street, Paris
987-3668
Clintonville Church of the Nazarene
Clintonville
North Middletown Nazarene Church
142 Prescott Road, N. Middletown
362-7053
Bluegrass United Pentecostal Church
10 Spears Street, Paris
First Presbyterian Church
517 Pleasant Street, Paris
987-2770
Hopewell Presbyterian Church
Lexington Road, Paris
Millersburg Presbyterian Church
801 Main Street, Millersburg
484-9700
Church Histories:
First United Methodist Church (1897)
The Methodist Church in Paris was first organized sometime around 1807, although its roots began with the Mt. Gilead Methodist Society in 1790. Members’ homes provided the meeting places until the first building was erected, at the site of the current Annex, in 1819. In 1860, a brick structure was built to replace the first building, and it was replaced in 1897 by the current stone building. After extensive remodeling due to fire damage, with only the exterior walls remaining, the facility was rededicated in 1911, and again in 1930, when more repairs were found to be necessary.
During the fire of 1909, the pastor’s study door was broken down and records were saved, including a church registry that dated back to 1817. These were among the entries:
* In 1820, Hannah Shaw transferred from the Church of England.
* In 1866, a young man was “expelled for dancing.”
* In 1875, one man withdrew from the church to “engage in the manufacture of whiskey.”
* The first infant baptism was recorded in 1881.
* The first marriage recorded was that of Bell Croxton and Harvey Hibler in October, 1881.
In 1865, the first full-time minister, Dr. W.F. Taylor, was appointed. In the early part of the 20th century, the church was the largest of any in the Kentucky Conference, with 740 members.
Catholic mission priests served in Bourbon County as early as 1787. However, the first Catholic church was not built in Paris until 1855. That small frame building is what is now the Parish Hall on High Street. The laying of the first cornerstone for the current church on Main Street took place on August 1, 1858. The first service in the completed church took place on Christmas Day in 1860 with Father E.H. Brandts, the first resident pastor.
The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, have been running St. Mary School since 1888. The school was originally in the current Parish Hall building, with the sisters’ living quarters being upstairs. After fire destroyed the upstairs in 1913, the school and the sisters moved to 1121 Main Street, where the school is still operating today. In the fall of 2000, St. Mary School expanded to a second building on Main Street. In 2001, a kindergarten class was added, and in 2002, St. Mary’s enrolled preschoolers for the first time.
Original construction of Veaches Chapel C.M.E. Church was in1886, in Brentsville (a post-Civil War black community). The first pastor was Reverend R.D. Stoner. A second structure was built in 1909 after a fire, with a single-story frame added in 1957. In January, 2001, a third edifice was dedicated on the site.
Cane Ridge Meeting House (1791)
Bourbon County is home to one of the most important historical churches in the country: the Cane Ridge Meeting House. Guided by Daniel Boone, who first called the area “Cane Ridge,” Kentucky’s early Scots-Irish Presbyterians built this church in 1791, using blue ash logs for the outside walls, and oak and chestnut for the beams. At fifty feet long, thirty feet wide, with fifteen-foot ceilings, the Cane Ridge Meeting House is said to be the largest one-room log structure in the country. It is now enshrined inside a limestone superstructure, built in 1954 to protect it from weather and pests.
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Interesting Fact: At one time, the slaves’ gallery was removed from the meeting house (this congregation took a stand against slavery perhaps as early as 1795) and taken to a barn in another county where it was used as a hay loft for over a hundred years before it was retrieved and reinstalled during a renovation project in 1932 |
More important than its physical stature, the Cane Ridge Meeting House was the site of the Great Revival of 1801, in which an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 worshippers attended. The communion service there became the defining event of American evangelical religion.
Reverend Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844), a Presbyterian from North Carolina, began preaching at Cane Ridge in 1796. In 1804, he and four other men penned the document (the “Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery”) that gave birth to the Christian Church, or the Disciples of Christ, whose numbers are now in the millions. (The beautiful First Christian Church on High Street, built in 1902, is a descendent of Cane Ridge). Reverend Stone is buried in the cemetery adjacent to the meeting house.
There was a 200-year anniversary of the Cane Ridge Revival in August of 2001, where an estimated 6000 came to celebrate, if not relive, the experience of worshippers two centuries ago. One has only to imagine the clusters of tents, wagons, horses, mules, and faithful souls gathered around to hear the word of God when the King’s English was still spoken!
From Paris, take US 460 east 2 miles, turn left onto Hwy 537, and travel 5.4 miles to Cane Ridge. Cane Ridge Meeting House is open from April through October, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 859-987-5350 for more information, or for larger tour groups.
Interesting Fact: The Cane Ridge Meeting House does not qualify for the National Historic Registry because it is enclosed inside another building! |
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (1833)
The first Episcopal services known to have been held in Paris were conducted in 1815 by the Reverend John Ward of Lexington. In 1832, under the organization of Reverend Amos Cleaver, the cornerstone was laid at the present site, and the church was completed the following year. Cleaver is said to have helped with the construction, having hauled sand for mortar on pack horses from Blue Licks. The building was extensively rebuilt and expanded in 1870, after experiencing a resurgence following the Civil War.
Cooper’s Run Church was one of the earliest Baptist congregations in Kentucky. Organized in 1787 by Augustine Eastin and James Garrard (later governor of Kentucky), Cooper’s Run began with less than twenty members. The two-story stone building that still stands today, on the Cynthiana Road, was constructed in 1803. When another church was built, the stone structure was sold to James Garrard, Jr. and was reputedly used as a hemp factory. Since around 1900, the building has served as a horse barn on the Runnymede Farm.
Beginning as early as 1784, the Hopewell Presbyterian congregation is one of the oldest in central Kentucky. The first meetings were held in a log schoolhouse on Bryan Station Road. A brick structure was built on the current site in 1822. After that church was destroyed by fire, many of the buff-colored bricks were reused to build the current structure in 1904. The architect, Edwin Stamler, later designed the Bourbon County Library.
The Paris Presbyterian Church was first organized by Reverend Andrew McClure in 1787. A stone church was later built at the corner of High Street and W. Church Street near Duncan Tavern, and was replaced with a brick building in 1822. The current structure at 517 Pleasant Street was built in 1917 in honor of the 1910 reunion of the North and South Presbyterian congregations, which had split after the Civil War.
Following the creation of the Disciples of Christ at the Cane Ridge Meeting House, the congregation of the First Christian Church was first organized in 1827. As the membership grew, it became necessary to build a small brick church at the corner of Main and 8th Streets. By 1858, the membership had so outgrown this buiding, it was torn down and a new church was constructed in its place. During the Civil War, in December of 1862, a division of Federal soldiers took over the building and used it as their headquarters for several months. As the congregation continued to grow, the current building on High Street was built in 1902. The beautiful stone building with its red-tiled roof and towers was entirely paid for, at a cost of $55,000, at its dedication.