The self-proclaimed "Bourbon Capital of the World" just gained a new claim to fame. In July, Rand McNally and USA Today proclaimed Bardstown, Ky., the "Most Beautiful Small Town in America."

A yards-wide banner to that effect hangs on the city's dominant building—the redbrick, Victorian visitors center, which was once the courthouse for Nelson County. The visitors center looks out on a downtown that is vibrant with popular shops and eateries—a pretty vista, made all the more so by new landscaping, crosswalks, sidewalks, benches and lamps. Federal stimulus funds paid the lion's share of the $3 million cost.