Downtown Heritage Walk

This entertaining and informational stroll around the downtown area takes the visitor to many historic buildings where markers tell the establishment's story, both fact and hearsay! Learn about the lively background of these structures, including which one housed a roller skating rink upstairs and which builder's granddaughter wrote several novels based on Bowling Green, while enjoying this cultural tourism trail.

Introduced in 2010, the first marker is at the Warren County Courthouse (429 E. 10th Street), which was erected in 1867-1869. Then stroll over to College Street for the marker at the Milliken Building (1039 College Street), located on the same block as City Hall and designed by a well-known Nashville architect.

Head down College Street for a third marker located at Morris Jewelry (408 E. Main Avenue) on the square where customers have been buying fine gifts for over 130 years. Step inside to admire the wooden display cases, pressed tin ceiling and lovely woodwork.

Walk down Main Avenue to find the next two markers, one on the front of the Nahm Building (422 E. Main Avenue) facing Fountain Square Park and one on the red brick building just behind it at 422 1/2 Main Avenue down Heritage Walk Alley. Originally a dry goods store, Nahm's claimed to be the "largest clothing and gent's furnishings store in Southern Kentucky."

The next marker can be found just a few doors down on the Getty Building (440 E. Main Avenue), built in 1871, where 440 Main Restaurant is located.

A few blocks down State Street is another marker at the Underwood-Jones House (506 State Street). Now housing the Montessori School of Bowling Green, the home was built by John Cox Underwood, Bowling Green’s second mayor and designer of Fountain Square Park.

Make your way back up State Street to 10th Avenue for the next marker at the Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green (1003 State Street). Architecturally ahead of its time, the church served as a Union hospital during the Civil War.

A few recent markers have been added to the Park Row buildings along the Fountain Square, like the Covington Building (415 Park Row) built in the 1860s, the old Gerard Hotel (423 Park Row) is the oldest hotel still standing in Bowling Green, and the Odd Fellows Building (427 Park Row) which still has its speakeasy door from the Prohibition era that also might have been used to screen visitors during the secret meetings of the Odd Fellows organization.

Don't forget the Princess Theatre (432 Main Avenue) in the middle of the block, one of Bowling Green's earliest movie houses that opened in 1914.

There are even more stops along the Heritage Walk waiting to tell you the story of Bowling Green's past:

Cecilia Memorial Church: 716 College Street

Quigley-Younglove Building: 900 State Street

Turpin Building: 914-916 State Street

Williams Building: 908 State Street

Barr Building: 444 E. Main Avenue

Ackermann Building: 911-913 College Street