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Rabbit Hash Bash, A Community Pig Roast With All the Fixins!

Saturday – March 12 – Noon-7:00 p.m.

General Admission: $50.00 in advance, $75.00 at the door

Buffet/ Live Music/ Beer & Wine/ Silent Auction/Appetizers

VIP Suite: $125.00 in advance

Gourmet Served Dinner/ Live music/ Silent Auction/ mingle with   local celebrity chefs & dignitaries/swag bag

Silent Auction: noon – 4:00 p.m.

Meal Served: 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Live Music, Activities, Photo Booth, Celebrity Local Chefs!

Come out and help support the community of Rabbit Hash!

When: Saturday, March 12, 2016 from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EST) – Add to Calendar

Where: Colonel De Gourmet Herbs & Spices – Parking Lot of 18 North Fort Thomas Avenue Fort Thomas, KY 41075 – View Map

Have items/ services to donate? Planning a benefit for the restoration of the General Store? Send your name, contact information, and a description of your donation or event to restorerabbithash@gmail.com and we’ll get back to you!

Thank you is not enough to all who have been volunteering, offering support, materials, and services, setting up benefits, and donating time and money.  It is clear that the General Store has touched so many people; people who feel so strongly about it that they want to give back! We are so very grateful for that.

Responding to the sheer volume of generosity has become a full time job for our small board. We are working hard to keep track of the offers, events, and donations coming our way. If you have reached out and haven’t heard back, please know that we see you, we appreciate you, and we want your help! You’ll hear from us! We are currently in the process of organizing logistics to make sure every offer is considered and utilized. The RHHS has also set up the RHHS General Store Restoration Account at Forcht Banking Center to ensure that all of your generous personal donations, as well as funds raised at upcoming benefits, are going directly to the restoration. Donations can be mailed to the RHHS General Store Restoration Account:

Attn: RHHS General Store Restoration

Forcht Banking Center

6100 First Financial Dr.

Burlington, KY 41005

If you have large items you would like to donate for the refurnishing of the store, i.e. antiques, large candy display, antique hardware, other displays, etc., they can be taken directly to Markesbery Moving and Storage in Florence, KY, who have graciously donated storage space, where these items will be stored until they can be used.

We are also looking for anyone who has an HO model of the store. These were manufactured and distributed by a local company years ago. The models are to scale and could be extremely helpful to architects planning the restoration. If you have one and are willing to donate it, please let us know!

Keep it coming, folks!

The outpouring of support over the last six days (yes, it has only been SIX days…) has been overwhelming. We have made incredible progress in that time: the store is in the process of being temporarily relocated to the barn and the entire community pitched in to clean out the ruins and salvage what they could for later use. There’s still pickin’ behind the stove and in many ways, this tragedy is becoming less burdensome every day that we plan and push forward.

A lot has been accomplished, and a lot has been planned.

It was easy to assume that the next step was to rebuild the store because it appeared to be a total loss.  What is left after the fire, however, is solid and significant.  The foundation, those iconic wood floors, and three sides survived. So, it is not being rebuilt because the General Store is not gone. It’s not being reconstructed or rehabilitated, because those terms imply total loss of a structure, alterations, and updates to the building. Instead, we will be restoring the General Store, that is, defining its most historically significant time period, in this case the familiar form the building maintained over the last 185 years, and returning the structure back to that period (for more clarification on the critical differences in terminology in the treatment of historic properties click here). To ensure an authentic restoration is achieved, preservationists are laser scanning the ruins to get historical measurements and proportions correct. We also have carpenters, architects, and builders who specialize in historic architecture and materials to execute the historic finishes and details that we all connected with the most. In addition, salvaged, historic materials from Kentucky will be used throughout the process to ensure that the finished restoration is authentically historic and more importantly, that the store feels the way it always has. Just like the spirit of Rabbit Hash, the General Store is not gone, it just needs some help being restored back to its former glory.

Again, if you would like to donate to the restoration, you can do so on the official GoFundMe page, through our “Donate” button at the bottom of this website, or by mailing to: Rabbit Hash Historical Society, 11646 Lower River Road, Rabbit Hash, KY 41091. Thank you for your support and we will keep you updated on our progress.

To say it has been a dark day for Rabbit Hash would be an understatement. The unspeakable has happened in the almost complete loss of the Rabbit Hash General Store due to fire. At approximately 9:15 on February 13, 2016 a fire was reported in the store. Multiple fire departments including Belleview-McVille, Union, Petersburg, and Burlington soon responded and fought the fire for nearly 5 hours. Despite best efforts, however, the store has been destroyed by the fire. Thankfully, no person was injured.

This community, its locals, and many, many of you have an inherent personal and emotional attachment to this place. Some of us grew up here, eating penny candy and drinking pop on the front porch of the store. Some of us discovered it later on and considered the store a true second home with friends that became family. Some of us drove down on the weekends to enjoy the weather, music on Sundays, and the history. And some of us have revolved around this place, dedicating a major part of our lives to its survival. No matter our individual experiences, we have all suffered an incredible loss and will likely never stop mourning. So, it is very difficult to look past this day and into the future. No one can really know what it holds just yet, but we do plan to rebuild. Over 185 years, the Rabbit Hash General Store has given so much to this town and its people, and thousands of others. And now, we must give back. We can start by contributing to the store’s rebuild on the official GoFundMe page (Rabbit Hash General Store – Rebuild), sharing the link to the page on social media, and by respecting the site of the fire if you visit. And we can have hope for the future of Rabbit Hash and take comfort in the fact that with the outpouring of support the town has already received, the General Store has continued to bring people together, even after its near demise.

The General Store gave us almost 200 years of memories. Now it’s time to recover and rebuild so that we, and future generations, have a place to start making new memories. “We can’t replace the historic boards and the antiques that were in there,” RHHS’s Secretary, Bobbi Kayser expressed in a Cincinnati.com article (Patrick Brennan), “but what we can replace, I think, is the spirit with the store. We’re going to need a lot of help to do that.”

(Patrick Brennan. Fire Destroys Rabbit Hash General Store. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/02/13/officials-fire-rabbit-hash-general-store/80361808/)

On Sunday, January 31st, Rabbit Hash’s own Lucy Lou will debate fellow presidential candidate, Limberbutt McCubbins for a gripping segment that will appear on NBC’s Weekend TODAY. Along with debating the big issues with McCubbins, a feline from Louisville, Lucy Lou will be raising money and awareness for the Rabbit Hash Historical Society. The debate is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. Audience space is limited, but come show your support and stick around for live music in the barn! For updates and information on when the segment will air, keep an eye on our website and Facebook page!

Our Rabbit Hash: Center of the Universe movie 10 year anniversary party and re-release is this Saturday (December 13) at the Madison Theater in Covington! We are very excited to have The Fatman Ernie Brown (from 97.3 The Wolf) as M.C. and wonderful music provided by local favorites the Tillers and Ma Crow and the Ladyslippers! The folks who made the film will even present to talk about the production process.

Rabbit Hash Historical merchandise (including your very own copy of the DVD) will be for sale! Split the Pot! And Silent Auction!

We are really looking forward to this event and hope to see you all there!

Advance tickets are available at the Madison’s website:

http://www.madisontheateronline.com/shows/2014/12/rabbit-hash-the-center-of-the-universe-10-year-anniversary-celebration-and-movie-re-release

Sponsored by:

Gray & Pape Inc.

Verona Vineyards

Frost Brown Todd LLC

In Memory of Bob Johnson

Did You Know….that it was just around this same time of the year in 1847 that Rabbit Hash first got its name?
Boone County was experiencing about the same kind of weather back then that we are having now….a big early snowfall followed by a spring-like warm-up and then lots of rain. It was between Thanksgiving and Christmas time in this small, rural hamlet on the Ohio River. Before anyone knew it, the 1847 flood was washing away barns, hen houses, live stock, and whatever else its rushing waters could grasp. The people were watching in dismay as their lives, resources and well being were threatened and ruined.
“Oh, what shall we do for our holiday feasts and gatherings,” they lamented as they watched their plump, fattened hens and turkeys, and their smokehouses full of hams and shoulders, and their cellars full of potatoes and turnips all wash away?
As the rising waters drove the small game critters inland and upland, a very astute and cynical neighbor man consolingly commented, as he was seen loading his shotgun, “at least there will be plenty of rabbit hash!”
It was said that this fellow was the neighborhood jester and was never without the company of his dear friend ‘john barleycorn’. (Not many things change in Rabbit Hash!)
From that day on, the townsfolk nicknamed this old sage Rabbit Hash. Eventually, his moniker morphed over to include the entire community.
In 1919, the U.S. Postal Service had had enough. The official name of Rabbit Hash was really Carlton, because it was in the Carlton Magisterial District, which had been named after an early family that settled the area. Just about 35 miles down river was the town of Carrollton, a much larger and more populated town. It became quite a nuisance to the Postal Service when mail intended for Carlton ended up in Carrollton and vice versa. So they gave the folks in Rabbit Hash the ultimatum: choose a new name or we will assign one! It was a no-brainer.