The bells of St Patrick’s Catholic Church ring at noon as passengers board the Maysville Trolley at 3rd Street in front of the historic Cox building for an hour-long tour. Tour guide Danny Weddle welcomes the group.
“Welcome, everyone, to the Maysville Trolley Tour. I’m Danny Weddle, and our driver is Kenny Mulliken, and we’re going to make a couple of laps in the downtown business district and then go out to Old Washington. I’m going to give you a lot of names and talk a little about architecture. Our kind of a timeline of the city and some of our interesting characters,” announced Weddle.
Tour guide Danny Weddle has been hosting Maysville tours since 2019. He welcomes a small group of riders onto the green and yellow vehicle.
It’s a warm sunny day and the temperature is mild. As the trolley heads down Third Street, Weddle mentions out six different churches, including the First Christian Church, the Tudor-style Episcopal Church, and St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church.
“The Roman Catholic Church, St Patrick Church, is there on the driver's side. It’s their second church. Their first church building was on Limestone Street, facing Limestone Street. It opened in 1847. This church opened in 1909, had its first mass before the church was actually finished being built. The first church was right here, where the parking lot is. Bob Newhart, the comedian, his maternal grandparents were from Maysville. They were married in that church,” reported Weddle.
The town that one could describe as quaint sits on the Ohio River in Mason County. Weddle said it was established in 1787. It was originally called Limestone and eventually named Maysville. Weddle said Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone are among the city’s founders. The trolley tour moves toward the Ohio River near the Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge.
“Now Simon Kenton was one of our early settlers. He is a contemporary of Daniel Boone, and in my opinion, is just as important as Daniel Boone. But Daniel Boone had a biographer, so Simon Kenton is not as well-known. Simon Kenton actually saved the life of Daniel Boone at Fort Boonesborough. The Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge opened in 1931, named for him. Opened as a toll road. Later, the tolls were taken off,” said Weddle.
This bridge connects Maysville with Aberdeen, Ohio, and is visible from Maysville’s floodwall. Weddle said the floodwall is 14 thousand feet long. The Trolley slows down as Weddle talks about the murals along the wall, a project that began in the late 1990s and was created by artist Robert Dafford. The artwork depicts historical scenes of the region, including a Native American bison hunt, and Maysville’s Rosemary Clooney, the legendary singer.
“Next is a mural to Lafayette. He stopped here in 1825, and we just recreated his visit back in May. Next is a tribute to the Underground Railroad. The slaves were trying to get to Ohio and eventually to Canada, that’s for the Underground Railroad,” said Weddle.
As the trolley travels through downtown Maysville and then 4 miles out to the historic neighborhood known as Old Washington, Weddle shares stories about everything from the area’s arts to its architecture. He recalls information about entertainers, politicians, and pioneers, including Mary Draper Ingles.
“This is also the Mary Ingles Highway. Mary Ingles was captured by the Indians in Virginia, taken all the way south of Cincinnati what is Big Bone Lick State Park. She escapes with another woman. She makes it all the way back to her family in Virginia. She’s believed to be the first white woman in this part of what became Kentucky,” said Weddle.
Weddle reports on numerous legendary characters connected to this region. He said three names in his mind synonymous with Maysville are pioneer Simon Kenton, singer Rosemary Clooney, and Stanley Reed, a Supreme Court Justice who was appointed by FDR.
”He’s the last Supreme Court Justice to not have a law degree. You could actually be a Supreme Court Justice without a law degree. But he was on the Brown v Education Ruling. Stanley Reed Court by the Old Courthouse is named in his honor,” said Weddle.
As the Trolley returns from Old Washington and reaches the edge of Maysville’s downtown, Weddle points out a large white house.
“This white house here is the Bierbower House. It’s also the National Underground Railroad Museum,” said Weddle.
Maysville Tourism Director, Katelyn Bailey, explains the house and its relationship to the Underground Railroad.
“Yes, this was a very famous stop on the Underground Railroad. And again, this is the National Underground Railroad Museum, not to be confused with the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.”
“So, the National Underground Railroad Museum is actually called the Bierbower House. And the Bierbower House was home to a family of abolitionists. They’re descendants of German immigrants who left Pennsylvania in 1837 and came to Maysville. So, the family of the Bierbower descendants came back to town this late spring, early summer of 2025, and they brought with them one of the original candelabras that they used inside of the home that they would light to let the slaves know that their home was safe to come in. And there’s a place inside of the museum that you can see where the slaves would have hidden when people would have come to check the home,” reported Bailey.
The Trolley returns to Maysville’s downtown business district close to the iconic Russell Theatre.
The Russell Theatre, here on the driver’s side, built in 1930," said tour guide Weddle.
The premiere of Rosemary Clooney’s 1953 film, The Stars are Singing, was held at the theater. Maysville Main Street Director, Caroline Reece, says Maysville, Kentucky, is Rosemary Clooney’s hometown.
“Rosemary was born here and raised here, along with her brother Nick, who would be George’s father. And she used to sing, she said on the street for free right up there on Third and Market Street, I sing for free here. And that’s what she did, she and her sister Betty, people threw them coins, and then they went down to WLW on the radio in Cincinnati, and that’s kind of how their careers got going. Well, fast-forward to the late 90s, early 2000s, and there was a Rosemary Clooney Music Festival here in town, the proceeds going to Russell Theatre. Closed down the streets. She would come and sing, and she did it until she died. She did it about three or four years. After she died, the Clooneys wanted that to continue. So, big artists came. We had Michael Bolton here, Neil Sedaka, Roberta Flack, The Pointer Sisters. All those people have been here performing in Maysville, kind of in honor of Rosemary Clooney,” said Reece.
The Trolley Tour ends where it began, and tour guide Danny Weddle said there are so many layers to Maysville, and information on the Trolley Tour is just the tip of the iceberg. Weddle encouraged everyone to take a Trolley Tour as he thanked the passengers.
