The purchase of the historic estate came about due to the efforts of the “My Old Kentucky Home Commission.” The Commission met on March 16, 1921 in the office of Governor Edwin Porch Morrow to discuss how to acquire Federal Hill for a state historic shrine. Young E. Allison, Judge Robert W. Bingham, and A.T. Hart of Louisville, along with Mrs. Clement French of Maysville, and Arch Pulliam and Osso Stanley of Bardstown, concluded that the only way to raise sufficient funds to purchase the Federal Hill property had to be from a statewide effort.