Founded at Frank's Ford
Frankfort's name is a corruption of "Frank's Ford," after frontiersman Stephen Frank, who was killed at a river crossing here in 1780; the city itself was founded in 1786 by Gen. James Wilkinson on the north bank of the Kentucky River, six years before it became the state capital in 1792.
Gutters on an Older Downtown Roofline
A downtown this old has rooflines built long before modern gutter systems existed, and older buildings near the river tend to sit on tighter lots with less room to route water away cleanly, a real concern given Frankfort's flood history, which includes its worst recorded floods in 1937 and 1978, serious enough to prompt the later construction of levees and floodwalls downtown.
Project Paths
Weighing Roofline Age and Discharge Point
Accounting for the age and pitch of an older downtown roofline matters as much as square footage in Frankfort, with particular attention to where a downspout ultimately discharges given how much water this river-valley setting has moved during past flood events.