History of Science Hill

The history of Science Hill nearly coincides with the history of its residence, the City of Shelbyville. Wakefield-Scearce Galleries was founded 150 years later.

Kentucky was incorporated as the 15th state in 1792. That November, the Justices of the Quarter Sessions sent a team of men to survey a new town, named Shelbyville in honor of the new state’s first governor.

The following January, fifty-one acres were partitioned by streets to service the newly surveyed lots. The plots began at 7th Street and continued east along Washington Street. Each was numbered, beginning with the number One.

During these early years, Shelbyville lay on one of the main routes through the Kentucky wilderness. The trail probably entered Shelbyville by the lowest ford of Clear Creek at the foot of Washington Street. Hundreds of thousands of eager pioneers ventured through the Cumberland Gap into Eastern Kentucky. Carrying as little as possible, they traveled west by horseback or covered wagon first to the forts of Central Kentucky and then to the Falls of the Ohio, now Louisville. Shelbyville lay between these two locations and offered temporary shelter from harassing Indian attacks that plagued the settlers.

Being surrounded by the water supply of Clear Creek, Shelbyville’s location made it an ideal resting place for weary travelers. The relative safety of Shelbyville and its water supply encouraged the development of numerous small forts nearby. Perhaps the most famous of these is Painted Stone, founded by Squire Boone, brother of the more renowned Daniel, just north of town.