[1] Three of these settlers – Thomas Harrod, John Crow, and James Brown – claimed the land in and around the present-day city of Danville, Kentucky, soon after.

[3] The courthouse was built on what is now Constitution Square in March 1785, and the court convened there regularly until its dissolution when Kentucky gained statehood in 1792.

[4] The trustees sold another portion of the square near Main Street for the construction of private residences in 1823, and the Freemasons purchased the courthouse and the land it occupied in 1828.

[4] In 1854, the Danville Theological Seminary moved from the campus of Centre College to Constitution Square, occupying many of the buildings there.

[6] The brick courthouse became the main building of the seminary, and during the Civil War, it was used as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers – both Union and Confederate – in the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville.

[6] On October 15, 1937, Danville resident Emma Weisiger donated the land that comprises Constitution Square Historic Site to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in memory of her brother, John.

[8] Dedication speeches by Governor Keen Johnson and Centre College president Robert L. McLeod Jr. contained reminders of the ongoing war and praise for the ideals of democracy.

[10] From 1960 to 1968, the state added a fence around the site, installed a new lighting and diorama system, constructed a replica of the square's original pillory, and renovated several buildings, including an early 19th-century brick schoolhouse which became the caretaker's residence.

[11] Part of First Street was closed to accommodate the expansion, and the African-American business district, which lay on Constitution Square facing the Ephraim McDowell House, was razed.

[11] A bronze statue depicting two men shaking hands, a symbol taken from the state seal, stands in the middle of the Governor's Circle.

[10] Shelby is believed to be responsible for Kentucky's adoption of the motto "United we stand, divided we fall", which also appears on the state seal.

[13][14] In the interim, the county received a $500,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to renovate many of the site's properties, turning Constitution Square into an economic hub for the area.

[17] In May 1864, the group of 250 men – mostly slaves, but including some freedmen – marched from Danville to nearby Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, where Colonel Andrew Clark allowed them to enlist after some initial hesitation.

[17] Arriving with wounds inflicted upon them in route, this group was the first to enlist at this site, where 10,000 United States Colored Troops trained.

[18] On September 10, 2013, the Boyle County Fiscal Court voted to endow $100,000 with the Louisville-based Wilderness Trace Community Foundation for maintenance of the park.

[4] When the court moved to Danville in 1785, it ordered that two men determine the cost of constructing the buildings it needed to function, including a courthouse and jail.

[21] Additionally, the Kentucky Council of War used the courthouse as its meeting place, and between 1785 and 1792, a series of ten constitutional conventions were held there.

It houses several personal items belonging to Kentucky's first governor, Isaac Shelby, including his hunting bag, powder flask, surveyor's instruments, and the chair in which he died.

Eleven of the club's thirty members would participate in at least one of the ten constitutional conventions that helped separate Kentucky from Virginia.

Senator from Louisiana), James Brown; its third governor, Christopher Greenup; chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, George Muter; federal judges Harry Innes, William McClung, and Samuel McDowell; Congressmen Willis Green, Stephen Ormsby, Thomas Speed, David Walker, and Matthew Walton; U.S.

[28] The younger Speed later published these minutes with his own commentary about the club, in which he opined that "Full and complete biographies of some of the members would present a history of Kentucky from the beginning of its settlement past the first quarter of the ensuing century.

"[29] One of the few extant references to the Club outside Speed's meeting minutes is an entry in the journal of a U.S. Army paymaster named Major Beatty; while staying overnight at Grayson's Tavern, Beatty recorded that he and his companions were "very much disturbed by a Political Club which met in the next house where we slept and kept us awake till 12 or 1 o'clock.

[30] The replica that stands in Constitution Square houses the offices of the Convention and Tourism Bureau and The Great American Brass Band Festival.

[31] Danville Mayor Bernie Hunstad opposed the arrangement, fearing that park management would dilute both organizations' primary missions of bringing jobs to the area.

[32] Little is known of the brick schoolhouse that faces west onto Constitution Square and stands between the Watts-Bell House and Grayson's Tavern.

[33] The single-story, two-room edifice is built upon a fieldstone foundation with brick laid in common bond and an off-center entrance with a transom above.

[25] It lies between Fisher's Row Houses and Grayson's Tavern on Second Street and also faces west onto Constitution Square.

[35] In 1827, Goldsmith sold the house to Jefferson Polk, then a newspaper publisher, but later a doctor who practiced briefly in Danville before moving to Perryville, Kentucky.

[35] The Alban Goldsmith House contains the Constitution Square Museum Store and the Heart of Danville, a local economic development organization.

[7][41] In February 2009, the Kentucky Department of Parks announced that the festival would be suspended due to budget cuts prompted by the economic recession.