Trigg County Historical &
Transportation Museum
41 Jefferson Street Cadiz, KY
The Trigg County Historical & Preservation Society, Inc. was first organized on October 22, 1981. Retired Trigg County School superintendent Roy McDonald called the meeting to order and said “The idea of a historicalThe building that now houses the Trigg County Historical and Transportation Museum was built in 1854 and is the oldest commercial building in Cadiz. It was built as the Cadiz Christian Church downstairs and the Cadiz Lodge No. 121, Free and Accepted Masons upstairs. According to folklore, the Church paid for the bottom story, the Masons paid for the upstairs, stairs and ½ of the front doors. In an article in the Cadiz Record of July 2, 1936, Wiley H. Hillman of Clinton, KY formerly of Cadiz in renewing his subscription to The Cadiz Record recalls that his father, W. W. Hillman, living in Hopkinsville, was the contractor who built the Masonic Lodge and Christian Church in 1854. During the Civil War, the Union forces took control of the building and used it as a hospital and stable. The church and masonic hall were both damaged by the use of the Union soldiers. Little is known about when services were started back in the building, but we do know that after September 28, 1866, which was the date Henry Cornelius Burnett died that his funeral with Masonic rites was held in the building. He was a member of both organizations. The assumption is that both entities continued with services in the building. In 1891 the Christian Church began to build a new building on Main Street. The steeple that was on this building was taken off and moved to the new church. The Cadiz Christian Church had the first service in their new building on May 5, 1894, with the Elder J. W. Hardy of Hopkinsville conducting the service. The Masons continued with services in the upper room until sometime before 1980. society has been on my mind and the minds of others for years”. County Attorney, Kenneth Kennedy, presented the Articles of Incorporation which were adopted. The first board of directors were: Roy McDonald, Sally Elder, Keith Venable, George W. Bleidt, Kenneth Kennedy, Billy Rawls and John Hall.
The bottom was used for different activities between 1894 and 1899. Some stories say it was an Opera House for a short period of time. On November 10, 1898, a fire destroyed the Kentucky Telephone newspaper building on Main Street. In January 1899 Henry R. Lawrence and Cadiz lawyer Denny P Smith bought the newspaper. They changed the name to The Cadiz Record and bought a new printing press powered by a 2hp gasoline engine and installed it on the ground floor of the Masonic building. The Cadiz Record remained there until sometime in the 1960s.
Prior to 1894 because it shows the steeple that was moved to the new Christian Church.
Trigg County purchased the building on August 15, 1977, and the deed was transferred in December 1977. The deed was for East half Lot #48 of Baker’s Addition to Cadiz. The Lodge broke ground on a new building on Russell Hill west of Cadiz on September 17, 1978, and construction began on April 20, 1979. In an article dated September 18, 1980, in The Cadiz Record, the Trigg County Business and Professional Women’s Club had a show of homes and the proceeds was to go to establish a Trigg County Museum in the old Masonic building.
The State Historic Preservation Office of Kentucky met on February 15, 1979, to consider nomination to the National Registry of Historic Places. The building was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places on April 17, 1979. Asset ID: 9460aebf-8550-4d62-9d3f-c7d1e11b709c
After sitting vacant for a period of time, former superintendent of Trigg County schools, Roy McDonald worked to get it used as the Trigg County Senior Kitchen. It remained that until a new Senior Citizens Center was built in 2010. After that, the building fell into disarray for a number of years.
In about 2012, a group tried to promote the buildings use as a fine restaurant. During a meeting of the Trigg County Historical & Preservation Society, Inc. Doug Taylor, a representative of the Kentucky Transportation Department, presented the opportunity for the County to receive a grant from the Federal Department for Transportation. With this grant 40% of one floor would be used for a transportation museum. In 2012, the Trigg County Historical & Preservation Society, Inc. collected $20,000 to go toward the local match for the grant.
The first portion of the grant included retacking the bricks and installing a new roof. This began in 2012 and completed in 2014. The next phase should have started at this time but there was a hold on the construction funds. It was 2019 before the construction began again and it was finally completed in 2020 with Bob Brame supervising the project for the county and historical society.
Picture of the building in the 1960s after it was remodeled to be the Trigg County Senior Citizens Kitchen.
The Trigg County Historical & Preservation Society, Inc. operates the museum and provides displays and educational opportunities to the public and school groups with giving them an understanding of local history.
Since opening the facility, we have constructed a permanent exhibit of The Cadiz Railroad that has won a Kentucky Historical Society Award in 2024. We have a display of “between the rivers”, the area that was taken by TVA during the 1960s which tells the story of the people that lived there. A black history exhibit has been displayed along with a history of the CCC/WPA in Trigg County. A display of the Cumberland River has been started. We have smaller exhibits of local history of our community.
We have a resource center in the museum that the Trigg County Historical & Preservation Society, Inc., has saved that contains many books for research and over 30,000 pictures either in printed form or on our computer systems.