Our Ohio River detour along Hwy-56 rejoins US-50 at Aurora (pop. 9,192), a small riverside town that’s well worth at least a brief stop. The highlight here is the handsome Hillforest Mansion (closed Mon.; $5) at 213 5th Street, an exuberant survivor from the steamboat era whose colonnaded facade is topped by a circular lookout tower from which residents could gaze out at river traffic up and down the Ohio. Built in 1852 and preserved in fine condition, the hillside mansion gives a strong sense of how comfortable and sophisticated life was for the wealthy, even on the so-called frontier.
East from Aurora, approaching the Ohio state line, US-50 forms a seedy gauntlet of roadside motels, diners, cut-rate liquor stores, and fireworks stands, all competing with giant billboards for the tri-state trade. Lawrenceburg (pop. 4,685), along the I-275 freeway three miles west of the Indiana–Ohio–Kentucky border, seems to revolve around the sale of cheap booze, perhaps because the main employer is the massive redbrick Seagram’s distillery at the north end of Main Street—one of the oldest and largest in the United States.
Apart from a wonderfully photogenic collection of old auto-related advertising signs in a used-car lot on the west side of town near the Wal-Mart, the view of Lawrenceburg from US-50 is unpromising, with railroad tracks and a huge levee cutting off the town from the waterfront. However, the historic town center, south of the highway along Walnut Street, holds a number of interesting old buildings dating from the steamboat era of the early 1800s, when Lawrenceburg was a favorite Ohio River port of call. Among the many church spires competing for preeminence is that of the Presbyterian church, where in 1837 orator Henry Ward Beecher (father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, she of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame) held his first pastorate.
Places to eat in old-town Lawrenceburg emphasize the 80-proof aspects of local life: Whisky’s (812/537-4239), at 334 Front Street, for example, serves steaks in an old button factory on Front Street.
