Bluegrass Museum Seeks Funds

OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) - Money is tight for the group trying to turn the boyhood home of bluegrass legend Bill Monroe into a $20 million tourist attraction.

The Bill Monroe Foundation has only $800,000 in the bank, a figure the group's director says has to be augmented if a planned history museum and 1,000-acre complex has a chance.
"It's time to drop the pride and raise money,'' said Campbell Mercer, the foundation's executive director.

Restoration of Monroe's boyhood home in Rosine was finished this year at a cost of about $230,000. But the renovation of the 1,100-square-foot home where the father of bluegrass first played is only the beginning of what the foundation calls the "Rosine Project.''

The hope is to build a living history museum with a farm that will include a tour of the walking path Monroe took to get to his fiddle-playing uncle's house, wagon rides and an amphitheater.
Monroe was born in Rosine in 1911 and was buried in the town cemetery in 1996.
Mercer said the foundation is launching a fund drive to keep itself solvent while raising capital for the projects.
Monroe's songs include "Blue Moon of Kentucky,'' "Uncle Pen,'' "My Little Georgia Rose'' and "I'm Working on a Building.''