Jefferson Davis State Historic Site

The Jefferson Davis Monument State Historic Site is a Kentucky state park commemorating the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, in Fairview, Kentucky. The site's focal point is a 351ft concrete obelisk. In 1973, it was believed to be the fourth-tallest monument in the United States and the tallest concrete-cast one.History of the monumentSimon Bolivar Buckner, Sr., a Confederate general, first proposed the idea of a monument for Davis during a reunion of the Orphan Brigade of the Confederate Army in 1907. Construction began in 1917 but stopped in 1918 at a height of due to building material rationing during World War I. Construction resumed in January 1922 and was finished in 1924 at a cost of $200,000. The monument's base was set on limestone bedrock and limestone was quarried on the site for use in its construction. The concrete walls are thick at the base and taper to thick at the top. The monument was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The obelisk was closed to the public from 1999 until May 2004 for renovations and construction of a new visitor center. At the top of the monument is an observation room with a window in each of the four walls. Originally, this room could only be reached by climbing stairs which went around the interior of the monument; an elevator, installed in 1929, now takes visitors to and from the observation room.