Bill Monroe Museum
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The Bill Monroe Museum is an ongoing project by the Monroe Brothers Foundation to build a museum encompassing the life of Bill Monroe and the early foundations of bluegrass music. The museum is located at the home in Rosine, Kentucky where Monroe grew up.
After Bill Monroe's death in 1996, bluegrass fan Dr. Campbell Mercer formed The Monroe Brothers Foundation, dedicated to promoting and preserving the music, life and legacy of Bill Monroe and his brothers Birch and Charlie. Few forms of music can be directly traced to such a clear beginning, and so Mercer and the foundation initiated an ambitious plan to buy the 930-acre Monroe family farm, known as Jerusalem Ridge, and build a museum and amphitheater in Rosine where bluegrass music can be played during annual spring and fall festivals.
Beginning in 2001, the Foundation restored the five-room wooden home to its 1917 appearance and filled it with Monroe family heirlooms and mementos. In the same year, they began hosting the annual Jerusalem Ridge Bluegrass Celebration & Festival. Going forward the Foundation intends to restore the entire Monroe farm, including the barn, fields, and Uncle Pen's cabin. Eventually the area will include a "living history tour of the path they took to their Uncle Pen's home as they met to go play square dances, allowing bluegrass pilgrims to retrace their steps through the woods.
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