Old Talbott Tavern

Opened in 1779, the Old Talbott Tavern is one of the oldest western stagecoach stops in America. This historic inn has hosted Daniel Boone, Abraham Lincoln, French King Louis Philippe, and the outlaw Jesse James.

The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, Kentucky, built in 1779, is likely the oldest surviving building in the state and one of the oldest continuously operating taverns west of the Allegheny Mountains. Constructed a year before the settlement of Salem — later renamed Bardstown — even began, the stone tavern served as a vital stagecoach stop on the frontier road system. Its guest register across two and a half centuries reads like a textbook of American history: Daniel Boone, General George Rogers Clark, Abraham Lincoln, and the exiled French King Louis Philippe all took shelter within its walls.

But the tavern's most infamous guest was Jesse James, who came to Bardstown to visit family, including his cousin Donnie Pence, who served as the local sheriff. Legend holds that Jesse stayed in an upstairs room and, characteristic of his volatile nature, fired his pistol at the walls — bullet holes that survived even a devastating fire that later damaged the building. It is Jesse James who became the tavern's most prominent ghost. A former bookkeeper working late one night looked up to see a man in a long coat standing on the top landing. He turned to face her, broke into a hideous laugh, and vanished. She later identified the figure as Jesse James after seeing his likeness on a television special.

In 1886, George Talbott purchased the inn and gave it the name it carries today. But the Talbott family's tenure was marked by devastating loss. By 1889, six of George Talbott's children had died within the building's walls, a staggering concentration of grief in a single household. Two of the deaths were particularly tragic — one child fell down the stairs, and a daughter hanged herself. The spirits of the Talbott children have been sensed throughout the inn, their presence adding a layer of sorrow beneath the more dramatic hauntings.

The Lady in White is the tavern's most frequently seen apparition. Multiple witnesses across decades have described a woman in an 1800s-era white dress with long, brown, wavy hair walking through the Audubon Dining Room. One couple fled the inn mid-night after both woke simultaneously to find a lady in white hovering directly over them in their bed. She floated out the window beside the bed and disappeared.

The catalog of paranormal activity at the Old Talbott Tavern is extensive and well-documented by the inn itself. Forks, glasses, and keys disappear and reappear in different locations. Furniture jumps spontaneously. Shadows emerge from dark corners and vanish. Guests hear phantom music, clock chimes, piano playing, footsteps, and knocking from empty rooms. Orbs of red, yellow, and white have been photographed hovering and bouncing around guest rooms. Some visitors report electrical sensations and an inability to move, as if temporarily paralyzed. Televisions cycle on and off by themselves, and heaters have been known to overheat without explanation.

The Old Talbott Tavern continues to operate as both a restaurant and a five-room bed and breakfast. It has been featured on the Food Network and the Travel Channel and was ranked the thirteenth most haunted inn in the United States. Guests are actively encouraged to report their encounters with the tavern's ghostly residents, adding to a collection of testimonies that stretches back generations.