Ashbourne Farms was founded in 1937 by W. L. Lyons Brown and his wife, Sara Shallenberger Brown, although most knew her as "Sally".  Sally Brown's grandfather, Ashton Cockayne Shallenberger gave the newly married couple a champion Shorthorn bull as a wedding gift.

Lyons began to assemble some cleared land outside of Louisville to begin the first herd of registered Shorthorn in the area.  He went on to become a premier builder of the breed in the United States along with his brother, George Garvin Brown.

Lyons died in 1973 and much of the farm was sold.  Sally retained a portion of the farm (850 acres) until she sold it to her daughter, Ina Brown Bond in 1999.

Shortly before selling the farm, Sally placed a conservation easement on the property with American Farmland Trust to protect the land in perpetuity.  It was the largest agriculture easement in the state of Kentucky. In 2008, the farm was listed on the National Historic Register as an Historic Agriculture District.