Bardstown, KY Homes For Rent

Homes for Rent in Bardstown, KY: What You Need to Know

Bardstown, the undisputed Bourbon Capital of the World, is also the second oldest city in Kentucky, behind Harrodsburg.

Things to Do in Town

Bardstown is the official gateway to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as designated by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association. More than a million people take the tour every year. In Bardstown alone, tourists can visit 11 bourbon distilleries, including Bardstown Bourbon Company and Barton 1792 Distillery. The city offers the whole nine yards of bourbon-themed entertainment, dining, and shopping. The mansion that inspired Kentucky's state song, "My Old Kentucky Home," is also a popular destination. The house built in 1818 by Judge John Rowan is located in My Old Kentucky Home State Park. 

Local History

The town was originally called Salem when it was founded in 1778 on David Bard’s land. Later, his brother William laid out the town, which was called Bard’s Town, Bairdstown, and finally Bardstown in the 1820s in honor of the brothers. The city’s heritage as a bourbon producer dates back to 1789, when Elijah Craig, a Baptist preacher, educator, and distiller, developed bourbon. 

Local Culture

The Kentucky Bourbon Festival is an annual weeklong celebration of the local bourbon culture. It features entertainment, great food, a barrel-relay race, and other contests. The Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey tells the history of Bardstown’s bourbon production. Exhibits also discuss Prohibition, including the rise of the temperance movement and organized crime. The museum’s building itself is historic. It used to be the Spalding Hall, circa 1826, which first served as St. Joseph College and Seminary, and later as a hospital during the Civil War.

Cost of Living

You don’t have to be a bourbon drinker to appreciate Bardstown’s small-town charm, and its affordability. The city’s cost of living rate, food, and housing costs are 10.5%, 28.3%, and 29.9% lower than the national average respectively. The median gross rent in Bardstown is $676. Residents in the Bluegrass State pay 5% in income tax and 6% in sales tax. Kentucky levies an inheritance tax, one of the few states in the U.S. with such a requirement.

Know Your Neighborhoods

Bardstown, home to 13,253 people, boasts of about 200 historic buildings, most of them located downtown. Residents rave about their city’s safe and friendly environment and good schools. New Haven and Bloomfield are even smaller than Bardstown, but their public schools are comparable in terms of rankings. New Haven is known for its rustic beauty amid rolling hills that are blanketed in yellow flowers in the spring.