Bobby Davis Museum Stands as Heart of Downtown Hazard Heritage

On Walnut Street, perched above the rooftops of downtown Hazard, a lush patch of urban forest shelters one of Eastern Kentucky's most quietly significant cultural institutions. The Bobby Davis Museum & Park serves Perry County as both a living memorial and a working archive, preserving the photographs, artifacts, and hard-won memories of a region shaped by coal, conflict, and community. The City of Hazard's own Parks and Recreation department describes it plainly but pointedly: "This lush, urban forest and museum is a centerpiece for the City of Hazard."

A Memorial With Deep Roots

The museum's origin is inseparable from grief and gratitude. Lawrence Davis founded the institution as a memorial to his son Bobby and to other fallen veterans of World War II, giving the institution a sense of purpose that stretches beyond passive preservation. That founding intention, honoring the local dead alongside the region's living culture, still defines the museum's character. Situated in the heart of the Kentucky Coal Fields, the building and its surrounding parkland represent a deliberate act of civic remembrance in a county that has rarely lacked for history worth remembering.

Martha Quigley and the Expertise Behind the Collection

Any visitor serious about Perry County history will quickly encounter Martha Quigley. The city's Parks and Recreation page identifies her as the curator of the museum and notes that she "is an expert with regards to the City's history and provides a unique historical experience." Researcher and blogger Brandon Ray Kirk, who visited in early March 2019 to investigate the French-Eversole Feud, described her as the museum's director and wrote that she "was very helpful in my learning more about the feud." Quigley's role goes well beyond maintaining display cases: she is photographed placing flowers at Joe Eversole's grave at the Combs-Eversole Cemetery in Hazard, and her name appears as the photo credit on multiple archival images in the museum's collection. She is, in practical terms, the institutional memory of the place.

The French-Eversole Feud and a Gap in Public Memory

Among the museum's most historically significant holdings are materials related to the French-Eversole Feud, one of Appalachian Kentucky's most violent and legally complex 19th-century conflicts. The feud's key events, including multiple murders and what historians refer to as the Battle of Hazard, took place in and around downtown Hazard itself. Yet when Kirk arrived in February 2019, he was struck by a conspicuous absence: "even though most of the feud's key events (and murders) occurred in Hazard, and even though the feud featured a Battle of Hazard, not ONE sign exists in the town to document the feud."

The Bobby Davis Museum fills that interpretive void. Kirk spent March 1, 2019 inside the museum reading about Bad Tom Smith, a notorious figure associated with the feud, and examining an Eversole family heirloom that Quigley photographed and described as "perhaps dating to the feud era." The museum also holds a partial map of French-Eversole Feud sites drawn by Bill McGraw, identified as an Eversole descendant. One of the feud's central victims, Joe Eversole, a merchant and lawyer, was murdered during the conflict; his grave at the Combs-Eversole Cemetery in Hazard has been documented and visited with the museum's involvement. The Combs-Eversole Cemetery itself sits partly in the backyard of a private residence, making the museum an even more essential point of access for anyone researching the feud's geography.

The museum's collection, described in sources as including photographs, artifacts, and archival materials, positions it as the primary institutional resource for this chapter of Perry County history, particularly given the absence of public signage or interpretive markers elsewhere in the city.

Park Programming and Community Life

The Bobby Davis Museum & Park is not only a place of quiet scholarship. Throughout the summer months, the grounds host games, food, music, and plays, drawing families and visitors into the park's canopy of trees above downtown Hazard. The park features a Heritage Herb Garden, and each October the museum celebrates "Cocktails in the Garden," an event the city describes as spotlighting "original recipes and a fun community gathering." The combination of living garden, outdoor programming, and indoor museum creates a layered public space that functions differently depending on the season.

The park is also available for private reservation. Weddings and other special occasions can be booked through the city, making the grounds a venue choice for Perry County residents who want their celebrations rooted in a place with genuine historical meaning.

Hazard's Broader Parks Context

The Bobby Davis Museum & Park sits within a municipal parks system that includes Perry County Park, The People's Park on Main Street, Lothair Park in the Lothair section of Hazard, and the jim rose Courts. Each facility serves a distinct function, but the Bobby Davis property is the only one that combines a functioning history museum with outdoor event space and a curated garden. Perry County Park, by comparison, is described as one of the county's largest parks and offers athletic fields, an outdoor pool, a boat ramp to the Kentucky River, and a horse park, serving a recreational purpose that complements rather than overlaps with the cultural mission of Bobby Davis. The People's Park provides green space on Main Street, while Lothair Park serves the Lothair neighborhood with a playground and picnic shelters.

Visiting the Museum

The museum is located on Walnut Street, overlooking downtown Hazard. The city's contact line for Parks and Recreation is 606-436-3171, and the City of Hazard's main address is 700 Main Street, Hazard, KY 41701. Visitor reviews on TripAdvisor describe the museum as a "very interesting small museum with mostly local artifacts" set on "lovely grounds," and note the surrounding trails as part of the experience. One visitor reported finding half a pistol while metal detecting on the trails, a detail that, intentionally or not, underscores just how much material history still lies embedded in this particular corner of Perry County.

For anyone with roots in Hazard or a serious interest in Appalachian history, the Bobby Davis Museum & Park remains the most concentrated repository of local memory in the city, and one that rewards both the casual visitor and the dedicated researcher willing to sit down with Martha Quigley and ask the right questions.