We’re thrilled to announce a new and exciting POP-UP lecture for the 2025 Spring Season! (Be sure to write this one down!)
Russ Hatter’s Franklin County Reference (2025) is not a completely developed history of Franklin County. As requested by Franklin County Fiscal Court, the original report was written to denote what the Capital City Museum contained concerning the county outside city limits. Each chapter highlights research material from files recognizing people, places and historical events. By nature of the report there is deliberate repetition and overlap. A helpful index provides access to content.
Russ Hatter is a native of in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended Kentucky Christian College and Kentucky State College. He began his 40-year career in broadcasting in 1961 at WGOH in Grayson, Kentucky. He moved to Frankfort in 1965 where he was morning announcer for WFKY. In 2001, he left radio to pursue a new career as Assistant Curator of Historic Sites for the City of Frankfort’s Department of Parks and Recreation, where he participated, along with Nicky Hughes, in the establishment of the Capital City Museum. After retiring in 2013, Hatter returned shortly afterward as the newly-created City Historian at the Capital City Museum, where he again retired in 2021 after twenty years of service.
Throughout his time in Frankfort, Hatter has appeared in or directed numerous theatrical productions, acted in three local movies, and can still be seen occasionally on Frankfort Plant Board’s Cable 10 with his popular walking tours. He has written and researched numerous books related to the incredible history of Frankfort and Franklin County through Frankfort Heritage Press. In 2024, Hatter was awarded the Dr. James C. Klotter Lifetime Dedication to Kentucky History Award by the Kentucky Historical Society. He resides with his wife Karen and their little dog MacKaye in South Frankfort.