HARRODSBURG

city, seat of Mercer county, central Kentucky, U.S., near the Salt River, in the Bluegrass region, 30 mi (48 km) southwest of Lexington. The oldest permanent settlement west of the Alleghenies, it was founded in 1774 on the Wilderness Road as Harrodstown (later Oldtown, then Harrodsburg) by James Harrod and his pioneer group. In Old Fort Harrod State Park is a replica of the original fort (1776) where Daniel Boone once lived; it includes the George Rogers Clark Block House and the Lincoln Marriage Temple (a brick building sheltering the cabin removed from Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln's parents were married). Other historic restorations include Morgan Row Houses (a five-unit row with a museum, built by Joseph Morgan), and the Old Mud Meeting House of the Dutch Reformed Church (c. 1800). The preserved Shaker town at Pleasant Hill is 7 mi northeast. Harrodsburg's basic market economy (horses, tobacco, dairy products) is supplemented by tourism and a spa dispensing mineral waters. Inc. town, 1776; city, 1875. Pop. (1990) 7,335.