Frazier Museum to Hermitage Farm: 5 things the Brown family helped create in Louisville

The Brown family is among the wealthiest families in the country, and its generosity over generations has left an undeniable mark on Louisville.

The family’s wealth dates back to George Garvin Brown, who launched Brown-Forman in Louisville as a medicinal whiskey company in 1870. More than 150 years later, about 50% of the company’s shares, which is known for iconic brands such as Woodford Reserve, Old Forester and Jack Daniel's, are held by George Garvin Browns descendants.  

With that immense wealth comes a responsibility to give back to Louisville and the world, several members of the family told the Courier Journal. Brown’s descendants, and their spouses, are responsible for pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the community and spending countless hours serving on local nonprofit boards.

It would be impossible to list every contribution the Brown family has made in Louisville or even rank its most influential projects. That said, here is a brief look at five notable Louisville projects in which the Brown family has been deeply involved.

Christina Lee Brown Environme Institute at the University of Louisville

The Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville taps researchers and citizen scientists to examine the natural, social, and personal environments impact health. The Institute views Louisville as an Urban Laboratory and the organization’s researchers partner with community members and policy makers with an eye toward building healthier cities. Christy Brown pledged in 2022 to donate $30 million over 20 years toward renovating buildings in the institute's downtown campus.

The organization’s Green Heart Project, which studies the impact of better air quality on heart disease through urban greening, has found that increasing the number of trees and shrubs in an area can create lower levels of a blood marker associated with inflammation. The institute also launched a wastewater surveillance project, geared at monitoring and anticipating disease trends in communities.

Festival of Faiths

For nearly three decades, Louisville’s Festival of Faiths has celebrated the diversity of faith traditions with an eye toward strengthening the role of faith in society through common action. Owsley Brown III typically hosts and chairs this event, held this year Nov. 12-15 at the Kentucky Center in downtown Louisville. The festival's institutional partners are Brown-Forman, the Owsley Brown II Family Foundation and the Owsley Brown II Philanthropic Foundation.  

This multi-day gathering invites spiritual leaders, renowned scholars and creative thinkers from around the world to engage in a thoughtful and insightful dialogue on pressing social issues. Over the years, the festival has expanded to include artists, musicians, storytellers, poets, and more, all focused on a theme relevant to the social, religious, and political needs of the Louisville community and beyond.

The Frazier History Museum

Owsley Brown Frazier founded what's now known as the Frazier History Museum in 2004. The Frazier, 829 W. Main St., was originally called the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, and it later rebranded with a focus on the state of Kentucky and adopted the slogan “where the world meets Kentucky.”

The Frazier has three floors of exhibit space that total 7,500 square feet. Today, the museum, which became the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 2018, is home to its popular “Cool Kentucky” exhibit. It also offers camps and programs for children as well as a unique program called “Stories in Mind,” which brings local history into senior care facilities.

Frazier Rehabilitation Institute

In 1929, Amelia Brown Frazier, George Garvin Brown’s granddaughter, was injured in an automobile accident that changed her life forever. At the time, Louisville didn’t have a rehabilitation center, and so the heiress traveled to New York to receive care at The Rusk Institute.

With personal knowledge of how difficult it was to travel out of state for care, Amelia Brown Frazier used her resources and influence to spearhead The Rehabilitation Center, Inc. in 1954. In 1984, the name was changed to the Amelia Brown Frazier Rehabilitation Center in her honor. Amelia Brown Frazier’s son later chaired a $75 million campaign to create a state-of-the-art facility.

Today, the Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, 220 Abraham Flexner Way, is part of UofL Health. Over the past six decades, the institution has become a recognized leader in rehab care.

Hermitage Farm

George Garvin Brown’s great-granddaughter, Laura Lee Brown, and her husband, Steve Wilson, have a history of using agriculture conservation easements to protect farmland in the Louisville region. Arguably the most well-known of these projects is the 700-acre Hermitage Farm in Oldham County, which acts as a hub for agritourism and is home to the popular Barn8 restaurant.

21c Museum Hotels co-founders Steve Wilson, left, and his wife Laura Lee Brown. July 10, 2025.

At Hermitage Farm, 10500 US-42 in Goshen, guests are invited to visit with horses, learn about how bourbon goes from seeds to sipping, and enjoy homegrown produce at the restaurant and the Hermitage Farm Store. In addition to Hermitage Farm, Laura Lee Brown and Wilson, who also founded the 21c Museum Hotel chain, have put more than 2,400 acres of land in agriculture conservation easements in Oldham County.

Reach Courier-Journal reporter Maggie Menderski at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Frazier Museum to Hermitage Farm: 5 things the Brown family helped create in Louisville