From Kentucky: a historic structure restored:

It’s considered the oldest existing Catholic building in the Midwest, an 18th-century log house where the first frontier seminarians studied, where the first bishop in Kentucky lived and where an order of nuns began their work.

For later generations of children, it was a rustic schoolhouse with no running water where pupils studied near nesting chickens.

And the building was close to falling down before area Catholics and preservationists rallied to save it.

Today, they’ll celebrate the fruits of that $350,000 project when the restored Bishop Flaget Log House is formally dedicated.

"This is a structure that’s worth restoring, because it represents a tremendous facet of our Kentucky Catholic history," said the Rev. Stephen Pohl, pastor of St. Thomas Church near Bardstown. The log house is next to the brick church building, which itself is the oldest standing sanctuary in the Archdiocese of Louisville.

"There’s just an unbelievable amount of history associated with all of this," Don Parrish, chairman of  the committee overseeing the restorations, said Friday as he helped with last-minute preparations for today’s ceremonies.

"We wanted to make sure it was put back exactly as it was 200 years ago," he said.

Here’s the website for the Bishop Flaget Log House.