History of Louisville, Kentucky
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View of Main Street, Louisville, in 1846. |
The
history of Louisville, Kentucky spans hundreds of years, and has been influenced by the area's unique
geography and location.
Although Kentucky was inhabited by Native Americans in prehistoric times, when white explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in the mid-1700s, there were no permanent Native American settlements in the region. Instead, the country was used as hunting grounds by
Shawnees from the north and
Cherokees from the south.
The area was first visited by
Europeans in 1669 by
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, from
France. He explored areas of the
Mississippi and
Ohio river valleys from the
Gulf of Mexico up to modern-day
Canada, claiming much of this land for France.
[Francis Parkman, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, France and England in North America 3 Williamstown, MA: Corner House Publishers, 1980), 29.]In 1751,
Christopher Gist explored areas along the Ohio River. Following the
French and Indian War, France relinquished control of the area of Kentucky to
England.
In 1769,
Daniel Boone created a trail from
North Carolina to
Tennessee, and then spent the next two years exploring Kentucky. In 1773, Captain
Thomas Bullitt lead the first exploring party into
Jefferson County, surveying the land on behalf of Virginians who had been awarded land grants for service in the
French and Indian War.
In 1774,
James Harrod began constructing
Fort Harrod in Kentucky. However, battles with the native American tribes established in the area forced these new settlers to retreat. They returned the following year, as Daniel Boone built the
Wilderness Road and established
Fort Boonesborough at the site near
Boonesborough, Kentucky. The Native Americans allocated a tract of land between the Ohio River and the
Cumberland River for the
Transylvania Land Company. In 1776, the colony of
Virginia declared the Transylvania Land Company illegal and created the county of Kentucky in Virginia from the land involved.
The first settlement was made in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville in 1778 by Col.
George Rogers Clark, who was conducting a campaign against the
British in areas north of the Ohio River, then called the
Illinois Country. Clark organized a group of 150 soldiers, eventually known as the
Illinois Regiment, after heavy recruiting in
Virginia and
Pennsylvania. On May 12, they set out from Redstone, today's
Brownsville, Pennsylvania, taking along 80 civilians who hoped to claim fertile farmland and start a new settlement in Kentucky, and arrived at the
Falls of the Ohio on May 27. It was a location Clark thought ideal for a settlement and communication post.
The regiment helped the civilians establish a settlement on what came to be called
Corn Island, clearing land and building cabins and a springhouse. On June 24, Clark took his soldiers left to begin their military campaign.
A year later, at the request of Clark, the settlers began crossing the river and established the first permanent settlement and by April were calling it "Louisville", in honor of King
Louis XVI of France, whose soldiers at the time were aiding Americans in the
Revolutionary War.
Today, George Rogers Clark is now recognized as the founder of Louisville, and many landmarks are named after him.
During its earliest history, the colony of Louisville and the surrounding areas suffered from Indian attacks, and the Revolutionary War was still being waged, so all early residents lived within forts, as was suggested by the earliest government of
Kentucky County, Virginia. The initial fort, at the northern tip of today's 12th street, was called Fort-on-Shore. In response to the threat of British attacks, particularly
Bird's Invasion of Kentucky, a larger fort called
Fort Nelson, after
Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson, Jr., was built north of today's Main Street between Seventh and Eighth streets, covering nearly an acre. The
GB￡15,000 contract was given to
Richard Chenoweth, with construction beginning in late 1780 and completed by March 1781. The fort, thought to be capable of resisting cannon fire, was considered the strongest in the west after
Fort Pitt, but due to decreasing need for strong forts after the Revolutionary War, it would be in decline by the end of the decade.
In 1780, the
Virginia General Assembly and then-
Governor Thomas Jefferson approved the town charter of Louisville on
May 1. Jefferson County, named after Thomas Jefferson, was formed at this time as one of three original Kentucky counties from the old
Kentucky County, Virginia. Louisville was the county seat.
Also during 1780, 300 families immigrated to the area and Louisville's first fire department was established. The first street plan of Louisville was laid out by Willian Pope at this time. Daniel Broadhead opened Louisville's first general store in 1783. He became the first to move out of Louisville's early forts. The first courthouse was completed in 1784, a 16 by 20-foot log cabin. By this time, Louisville contained 63 clapboard finished houses, 37 partly finished, 22 uncovered houses, and over 100 log cabins.
Shippingport, incorporated in 1785, was a vital part of early Louisville, allowing goods to be transported through the Falls of the Ohio. The first church was built in 1790, the first hotel in 1793, and the first post office in 1795.
However, the town was not growing as fast as Lexington during the 1780s and early 1790s, due to a variety of reasons, such as the threat of Indian attacks (ended in 1794 by the
Battle of Fallen Timbers), a complicated dispute over land ownership between John Campbell and the town's trustees (resolved in 1785), as well as Spanish policies restricting trade down the
Mississippi to
New Orleans. By 1800, the population of Louisville was 359, to Lexington's 1,759.
From 1784 through 1792, a series of conventions were held to discuss the separation of Kentucky from Virginia. On
June 1,
1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the
United States and
Isaac Shelby was named the first Governor.
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Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia by C.M. Russell |
In 1803,
Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark organized their expedition across America at the Falls of the Ohio and Louisville. The
Lewis and Clark Expedition would take the explorers across the western U.S., surveying the
Louisiana Purchase, and eventually to the
Pacific Ocean.
Pre-Civil War period
In 1815, the
Enterprise, captained by
Henry Miller Shreve reached Louisville from
New Orleans. This is the first steamboat to travel all the way from New Orleans to Louisville.
The city's first library opened its doors in 1816, known as the
Louisville Library Company, and started a subscription-based service. Also, in a series of events ranging from 1798 to 1846, the
University of Louisville was founded from the
Jefferson Seminary,
Louisville Medical Institute and
Louisville Collegiate Institute.
The city grew rapidly in its early years. In 1826, the
Louisville and Portland Canal was completed. This allowed the transportation of boat traffic to circumvent the Falls of the
Ohio and travel through from
Pittsburgh to New Orleans.
In 1828, the population reached a size of 7,000, and Louisville became an incorporated city.
John Bucklin was elected the first Mayor.
In 1831,
Catherine Spalding moved from
Bardstown to Louisville and established
Presentation Academy, a
Catholic school for girls. She also established the
St. Vincent Orphanage, which was later renamed as
St. Joseph Orphanage. Both of these institutions remain in operation to the present time.
Louisville's famous
Galt House hotel—the first of three downtown buildings to have that moniker—was erected in 1834. In 1839, a precursor to the modern
Kentucky Derby was held at Old Louisville's Oakland Race Course. Over 10,000 spectators attended the two-horse race, in which
Grey Eagle lost to
Wagner. This race occurred 36 years before the first Kentucky Derby.
The
Kentucky School for the Blind was founded in 1839, the third oldest school for the blind in the country.
Following the 1850
Census, it was reported that Louisville was the nation's tenth largest city, while
Kentucky was reported as the eighth most populous state.
The
Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company was founded in 1850 by
James Guthrie, who also was involved in the founding of the University of Louisville, and was completed by 1859. Louisville's strategic location at the Falls of the Ohio became central to the city's development and importance in the rail and water freight transportation business.
Also this year, Louisvillian
Zachary Taylor, a hero of the
Mexican War, was elected as the 12th President of the United States. He only served four months in office, however, before dying of
cholera. He is buried in Louisville at
Zachary Taylor National Cemetery on Brownsboro Road.
On
August 6,
1855, a day dubbed
Bloody Monday,
election riots stemming from the bittery rivalry between the
Democrats and supporters of the
Know-Nothing Party broke out.
Founded in 1858, the
American Printing House for the Blind is the oldest organization of its kind in the United States and since 1879 has been the official supplier of educational materials for blind students in the US. It is located on Frankfort Avenue in the
Clifton neighborhood, adjacent to the campus where the Kentucky School for the Blind moved in 1855.
Louisville had one of the largest slave trades in the United States before the
Civil War and much of the city's initial growth is attributed to that trade. Louisville was the turning point for many enslaved African Americans since Kentucky was a neutral state and crossing the Ohio River would lead to freedom in the North.
Civil War period
During the
Civil War Louisville was a major stronghold of Unionist forces which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting and transportation for numerous campaigns. Prominent Louisvillian
James Speed was appointed as the
United States Attorney General. While the state of Kentucky officially declared its neutrality during the war, Speed strongly advocated keeping the state in the union. Seeing Louisville's strategic importance in the freight industry, General
William Tecumseh Sherman formed an army base in the city in the event that the
Confederacy advanced.
In the summer of 1863, Confederate cavalry under
John Hunt Morgan invaded Kentucky from Tennessee and briefly threatened Louisville before swinging around the city into Indiana during
Morgan's Raid.
By the end of the war, Louisville itself had not been attacked even once, even though surrounded by various battles such as the
Battle of Perryville and
Battle of Corydon. The Unionists—most whose leaders owned slaves—felt betrayed by the anti-slavery position of the Republican party. After 1865 returning Confederate veterans largely took control of the city, leading to the jibe that it joined the Confederacy after the war was over. Subsequently, in 1895, a
Confederate monument was erected near the University of Louisville campus.
Reconstruction period
The first
Kentucky Derby was held on
May 17,
1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club track (later renamed to
Churchill Downs). The Derby was originally shepherded by Meriwether Clark, the grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 10,000 spectators were present at the first Derby to watch
Aristides win the race.
On
February 2,
1876, Professional Baseball launched the
National League, and the
Louisville Grays were a charter member of the league. While the Grays were a relatively short-lived team, playing for only two years, they began a much longer lasting relationship between the city and baseball. In 1883, John "Bud" Hillerich made his first baseball bat from white ash in his father's wood shop. The first bat was produced for
Pete "The Gladiator" Browning of the
Louisville Eclipse (minor league team). The bats eventually become known by the popular name,
Louisville Slugger, and the company he started,
Hillerich & Bradsby, rapidly became one of the largest manufacturers of baseball bats and other sporting equipment in the world. Today, Hillerich & Bradsby manufactures over one million wooden bats per year, accounting for about two of three wooden bats sold worldwide.
Downtown Louisville began a modernization period in the 1890s, with Louisville's second skyscraper, the
Columbia Building, opening on
January 1,
1890.
The following year, famous landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmstead was commissioned to design Louisville's system of parks (most notably,
Cherokee,
Iroquois and
Shawnee Parks) connected by tree-lined parkways. Train service arrived to the city on
September 7,
1891 with the completion of the Union Station train hub. The first train arrived at 7:30 am. At the time, Louisville's Union Station was recognized as the largest train station in the South.
Interrupting these developments, on
March 27,
1890, a major
tornado measuring
F4 on the
Fujita scale visited Louisville. It carved a path from the
Parkland neighborhood all the way to
Crescent Hill, destroying 766 buildings (
$3 million worth of property) and killing 78 people. At least 44 of those deaths occurred when the Falls City Hall collapsed. This is one of the highest death tolls due to a single building collapse from a tornado in U.S. history.
In 1893, two Louisville sisters,
Patty and
Mildred J. Hill, both schoolteachers, wrote the song "Good Morning to All" for their kindergarten class. The song didn't quite catch on popularly, and the lyrics were later changed to the more recognizable,
Happy Birthday to You. This is now the most performed song in the
English language.
The city gains its character
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Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1910 |
During
World War I, Louisville became home to
Camp Taylor. In 1917, the English-bred colt "Omar Khayyam" became the first foreign-bred horse to win the
Kentucky Derby. Two years later, in 1919,
Sir Barton became the first horse to win the
Triple Crown, though the term didn't come into use for another eleven years.
In 1923, the
Brown Hotel's chef Fred K. Schmidt introduced the
Hot Brown sandwich in the hotel restaurant, consisting of an open-faced "sandwich" of turkey and bacon smothered with cheese and tomato. The Hot Brown became rather popular among locals and visitors alike, and can be ordered by many local restaurants in the area today.
The
Waverly Hills Sanatorium was opened in 1910 to house
tuberculosis patients. The hospital was closed in 1961. It was later used as a retirement home (1963-1981). It was unused for more than a decade until 1991, when it was reopened for tours.
The
Belle of Louisville, today recognized as the oldest river steamboat in operation, came to Louisville in 1931. That same year, the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes was established to allow black Louisvillians to attend classes. (The college was dissolved into the University of Louisville with the
ending of segregation in 1951.)
In January 1937, a month of heavy rain throughout the Ohio River Valley prompted what became remembered as the
"Great Flood of '37". The
flood submerged about 70 percent of the city and forced the evacuation of 175,000 residents. In Louisville, 90 people died. At the crest on
January 27,
1937, the waters reached 30 feet above flood level in Louisville.
Photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White documented the flood and its aftermath in a series of famous photos. Later,
levees were installed to prevent another such disaster.
Standiford Field was built in Louisville by the
Army Corps of Engineers in 1941.
Bowman Field, a smaller airport, had been previously opened in 1919.
Otter Creek Park was given to Louisville by the
U.S. Government in 1947, in recognition of the city's service during
World War II.
Throughout the 20th century, the arts flourished in Louisville. The
Speed Art Museum was opened in 1927 and is now the oldest and largest museum of art in Kentucky. The
Louisville Orchestra was founded in 1937. In 1949 the
Kentucky Shakespeare Festival was begun, and today it is the oldest free and independently-operating Shakespeare festival in the United States.
The
Kentucky Opera was started in 1952, and the
Louisville Ballet was founded that same year, though it only achieved professional status in 1975. In 1956 the
Kentucky Derby Festival was started to celebrate the annual Kentucky Derby. The next year, in 1957, the
St. James Court Art Show was started. Both these are still popular festivals in the region.
Decline in mid-century
For a variety of reasons, Louisville began to decline as an important city in the 1960s and 1970s. Highways that had been built in the late 1950s facilitated a flight to the
suburbs, and the downtown area began to decline economically. Many formerly popular buildings became vacant. Even the previously strong Brown Hotel closed its doors in 1971.
Fontaine Ferry Park, Louisville's most popular amusement park during the early 20th century, closed in 1969. Despite these signs of decline, a number of activities were taking place that presaged the Louisville Renaissance of the 1980s.
Southeast Christian Church, today one of the largest
megachurches in the U.S., was founded in 1962 with only 53 members. In 1964,
Actors Theatre of Louisville was founded. It was later designated the "State Theater of Kentucky" in 1974.
In 1973, the racehorse
Secretariat made the fastest time ever run in the Derby (at its present distance) at 1 minute 59 2/5 seconds.
Another major (
F4) tornado hit on
April 3,
1974 as part of the
Super Outbreak of tornadoes that struck 13 states. It covered 21 miles and destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area but was only responsible for 2 deaths. It also caused extensive damage in
Cherokee Park.
There were signs of revival in the 1970s. Throughout the decade, new buildings came under construction downtown, and many historic buildings were renovated. Louisville's public transportation,
Transit Authority of River City, began operating a bus line in 1974. And in 1981 the
Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was granted status as a Federal conservation area.
On the down side, in the early morning hours of
February 13,
1981,
sewer explosions ripped through the southern part of
Old Louisville and near the
University of Louisville. The cause was traced back to chemical releases into the sewer system from a nearby manufacturing plant.
Louisville's renaissance
From the 1980s until the present day, Louisville has experienced a regrowth in popularity and prosperity. This can be seen in the many changes in this period, including a great deal of downtown infrastructure.
Many cultural showcases were founded or expanded in this period. The
Kentucky Center for the Arts was officially dedicated in 1983. In 1984 the center hosted one of the
U.S. presidential election debates between
Ronald Reagan and
Walter Mondale. Today the Center hosts many touring plays and performances by the Kentucky Opera and the Louisville Ballet. An
IMAX theater was added to the
Louisville Science Center in 1988. Phase I of the
Louisville Waterfront Park was completed in 1999, and Phase II was completed in 2004. Though originally built as a standard
movie theater in 1921, the
Kentucky Theater was reopened in 2000 as a performing arts venue.
In 1988, the
Louisville Falls Fountain, the tallest computerized fountain in the world, began operation on the Ohio River at Louisville. Its 420 foot high spray (later reduced to 375 feet due to energy costs) and fleur-de-lis patterns graced Louisville's waterfront until the fountain was shut down in 1998. For a single decade Louisville enjoyed this unusual and distinctive landmark on its cityscape.
In communications,
The Courier-Journal, Louisville's primary local newspaper, was purchased by media giant
Gannett in 1987. The
Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), a popular alternative newspaper, was founded in 1990, and the
Snitch Newsweekly was established in the 1990s.
Velocity was later released by the Courier-Journal to compete with the LEO in 2003.
In 2003, the city of Louisville and Jefferson County merged into a single government named
Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government. This merger made Louisville the 16th or 26th
most populous city in the U.S., depending on how the population is calculated.
New changes and growth are still evident in the city. The entertainment and retail district called
Fourth Street Live! was opened in 2004, and the
Muhammad Ali Center was opened in 2005. Louisville's metro area is outgrowing
Lexington's by a significant margin (about 4,100 a year, or 41,000 per census), and is growing nearly as fast as
Cincinnati's metro area.
*
The Filson Historical Society*
Historical Timeline of the City of Louisville*
Lewis and Clark in Kentucky*
"Louisville During The Civil War" — Article by Bryan S. Bush
*
Louisville history from RootsWeb
*
A Place in Time - The Story of Louisville's Neighborhoods*
Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History*
Whirling Tigers of the Air: A Century of Louisville Tornadoes — Historical tornado damage images from the University of Louisville Photographic Archives
