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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky.
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History
Louisville is the historical and nominal county seat of Jefferson County. It was named after King Louis XVI of France, and was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians.
The city's early growth was influenced by the fact that river boats had to be unloaded and moved downriver before reaching the falls. By 1828, the population had grown to 7,000 and Louisville became an incorporated city.
Early Louisville was a major shipping port and slaves worked in a variety of associated trades. The city was often a point of escape for fugitive slaves to the north, as Indiana was a free state.
During this point in the 1850s, the city was growing and vibrant, but that also came with negativity. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting, and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the Western Theater. Ethnic tensions rose, and on August 6, 1855, known as "Bloody Monday", Protestant mobs attacked German and Irish Catholic neighborhoods on election day, resulting in 22 deaths and widespread property damage. Then by 1861, the civil war had broken out. During the Civil War, Louisville was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. By the end of the war, the city of Louisville itself had not been attacked, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville and Corydon, took place nearby. After Reconstruction, returning Confederate veterans largely took political control of the city, leading to the jibe that Louisville joined the Confederacy after the war was over.
The first Kentucky Derby was held on May 17, 1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club track (later renamed Churchill Downs). The Derby was originally shepherded by Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., the grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and grandnephew of the city's founder George Rogers Clark. Horse racing had a strong tradition in Kentucky, whose Inner Bluegrass Region had been a center of breeding high-quality livestock throughout the 19th century. Ten thousand spectators watched the first Derby, which Aristides won.
On March 27, 1890, the city was devastated and its downtown nearly destroyed when an F4 tornado tore through as part of the middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak. It is estimated that between 74 and 120 people were killed and 200 were injured. The damage cost the city $2.5 million (equivalent to $69 million in 2019).
In 1917, shortly after the United States' entry into World War I, Louisville was selected as the site of Camp Zachary Taylor. Camp Taylor was one of the country's largest World War I training camps. It was home of the 84th Infantry Division and trained over 150,000 men by the end of war, including F. Scott Fitzgerald. The camp was closed in 1921. Many of the buildings and infrastructure in the Camp Taylor neighborhood of Louisville are there as a result of the training camp.
In 1929, Louisville completed the lock and dam in the Falls of the Ohio and the city began referring to itself as "where Northern enterprise and Southern hospitality meet". Between the industrial boom of that year and through the Great Depression, Louisville gained 15,000 new residents.
Throughout January 1937, 19.17 inches of rain fell in Louisville, and by January 27, the Ohio River crested at a record 57.15 feet , almost 30 feet above flood stage. These events triggered the "Great Flood of 1937", which lasted into early February. The flood submerged 60–70 percent of the city, caused complete loss of power for four days, and forced the evacuation of 175,000 or 230,000 residents, depending on sources. Ninety people died as a result of the flood. It led to dramatic changes in where residents lived. Today, the city is protected by numerous flood walls. After the flood, the areas of high elevation in the eastern part of the city had decades of residential growth.
Louisville was a center for factory war production during World War II. In May 1942, the U.S. government assigned the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Company, a war plant located at Louisville's air field, for wartime aircraft production. The factory produced the C-46 Commando cargo plane, among other aircraft. In 1946, the factory was sold to International Harvester, which began large-scale production of tractors and agricultural equipment.
Similar to many other older American cities, Louisville began to experience a movement of people and businesses to the suburbs in the 1960s and 1970s. Middle class residents used newly built freeways and interstate highways to commute to work, moving into more distant but newer housing. Because of tax laws, businesses found it cheaper to build new rather than renovate older buildings. Economic changes included a decline in local manufacturing. The West End and older areas of the South End, in particular, began to decline economically as many local factories closed.
In 1974, a major (F4) tornado hit Louisville as part of the 1974 Super Outbreak of tornadoes that struck 13 states. It covered 21 miles and destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area, causing two deaths.
Since the 1980s, many of the city's urban neighborhoods have been revitalized into areas popular with young professionals and college students. The greatest change has occurred along the Bardstown Road/Baxter Avenue and Frankfort Avenue corridors as well as the Old Louisville neighborhood. In recent years, such change has also occurred in the East Market District (NuLu).
Since the late 1990s, Downtown has experienced significant residential, tourist and retail growth, including the addition of major sports complexes KFC Yum! Center, Lynn Family Stadium and Louisville Slugger Field, conversion of waterfront industrial sites into Waterfront Park, openings of varied museums (see Museums, galleries and interpretive centers below), and the refurbishing of the former Galleria into the bustling entertainment complex Fourth Street Live!, which opened in 2004.
Festivals & Art
Louisville is home to many annual cultural events. Perhaps most well known is the Kentucky Derby, held annually during the first Saturday of May. The Derby is preceded by a two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival, which starts with the annual Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks display in North America. The Kentucky Derby Festival also features notable events such as the Pegasus Parade, The Great Steamboat Race, Great Balloon Race, a combined marathon/mini marathon and about seventy events in total. Esquire magazine has called the Kentucky Derby "the biggest party in the south".
Usually beginning in late February or early March is the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, an internationally acclaimed new-play festival that lasts approximately six weeks.
On Memorial Day weekend, Louisville hosts the largest annual Beatles Festival in the world, Abbey Road on the River. The festival lasts five days and is located on the Belvedere in downtown Louisville.
The summer season in Louisville also features a series of cultural events such as the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival (commonly called "Shakespeare in Central Park"), held in July of every year and features free Shakespeare plays in Central Park in Old Louisville.
Also in July, the Forecastle Festival draws 35,000 visitors annually to Louisville Waterfront Park in celebration of the best in music, art and environmental activism. Past performers include The Black Keys, The Flaming Lips, Widespread Panic, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Avett Brothers, The Black Crowes and hundreds more.
The Kentucky State Fair is held every August at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville as well, featuring an array of culture from all areas of Kentucky.
In September, in nearby Bardstown, is the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, which celebrates the history and art of distilling bourbon whiskey. The suburb of Jeffersontown is also the home of the annual Gaslight Festival, a series of events spread over a week. Attendance is estimated at approximately 200,000-300,000 for the week.
The month of October features the St. James Court Art Show in Old Louisville. Thousands of artists gather on the streets and in the courtyard to exhibit and sell their wares, and the event is attended by many art collectors and enthusiasts. The show typically brings in a crowd of over 150,000 people and $3 million in sales.
Another art-related event that occurs every month is the First Friday Hop. A free TARC bus takes art lovers to many downtown area (especially East Market District/NuLu) independent art galleries on the first Friday of every month.
Louisville has blossomed as a booming center for independent art, music and business.
A Louisville locale that highlights this scene is Bardstown Road, an area located in the heart of the Highlands. Bardstown Road is known for its cultural diversity and local trade. The majority of the businesses along Bardstown Road, such as coffee shops, clothing stores and art galleries, are locally owned and operated businesses. Though it is only about a mile long, this strip of Bardstown Road constitutes much of the city's culture and diverse lifestyle, contributing to the unofficial "Keep Louisville Weird" slogan.
In downtown Louisville, 21c Museum Hotel, a hotel that showcases contemporary art installations and exhibitions throughout its public spaces, and features a red penguin on its roof, is, according to The New York Times, "an innovative concept with strong execution and prompt and enthusiastic service".
Louisville is home to a thriving indie music scene with bands such as Love Jones, Tantric, Squirrel Bait, CABIN, Slint, My Morning Jacket, Houndmouth, Young Widows and Wax Fang. Acclaimed singer-songwriters Will Oldham, who performs under the moniker "Bonnie 'Prince' Billy", is a resident, as was country/rock singer-songwriter Tim Krekel. Cellist Ben Sollee splits his time between Louisville and Lexington. Long running rock/jazz fusion band NRBQ also formed in Louisville in the late 1960s as well as 1980s psychobilly band Bodeco. Post-grunge band Days of the New, at one time including future breakout pop star Nicole Scherzinger, formed in Louisville in the mid-1990s. Popular local singer Bryson Tiller paid homage to Louisville is his chart-topping T R A P S O U L with the song "502 Come Up", referencing the city's area code, and rapper Jack Harlow also calls the city home.
The Louisville music scene reaches a crescendo every July during the Forecastle Festival, a three-day music, art and environmental activism festival taking place at Louisville Waterfront Park.
Especially catering to Louisville's music scene is 91.9 WFPK Radio Louisville, a local public radio station funded, in part, from local listeners. The station features not only national and international musicians common to public radio, but also local and regional talent. The station also hosts summer concerts on the waterfront from April until July, where up-and-coming alternative artists are brought to stage.
Museums & Historic Sites
The West Main District in downtown Louisville features what is locally known as "Museum Row". In this area is the Frazier History Museum, which opened its doors in 2004 as an armaments museum, featuring the only collection of Royal Armouries artifacts outside of the United Kingdom. Since then the Frazier has expanded its focus to broader history. The Frazier Museum has three floors of exhibits, an education center and a tournament ring, which presents daily performances, as well as event spaces available for rent, including a rooftop garden featuring native plants and 4th floor loft-style space that accommodates up to 360 people seated.
Also nearby is the Kentucky Science Center, which is Kentucky's largest hands-on science center and features interactive exhibits, IMAX films, educational programs and technology networks. The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, opened in 1981, is a nonprofit organization. The Muhammad Ali Center opened November 2005 in "Museum Row" and features Louisville native Muhammad Ali's boxing memorabilia.
The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) is a patriotic, historical, and educational non-profit organization and a leading male lineage society that perpetuates the ideals of the American war for independence and the founding of the United States. The SAR opened its National Genealogical Research Library in 2010 along Louisville's Museum Row next door to its national headquarters, with an on-site American Revolutionary War Education Center expected to be completed soon.
The Speed Art Museum opened in 1927 and is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Kentucky. The museum was closed for three years, re-opening in 2016 with 220,000 sq. ft. of renovations. Located adjacent to the University of Louisville, the museum features over 12,000 pieces of art in its permanent collection and hosts traveling exhibitions. Multiple art galleries are located in the city, but they are especially concentrated in the East Market District (NuLu), immediately to the east of downtown. This row of galleries, plus others in the West Main District, are prominently featured in the monthly First Friday Hop.
Several local history museums can be found in the Louisville area. The most prominent among them is The Filson Historical Society, founded in 1884, which has holdings exceeding 1.5 million manuscript items and over 50,000 volumes in the library. The Filson's extensive collections focus on Kentucky, the Upper South and the Ohio River Valley, and contain a large collection of portraiture and over 10,000 museum artifacts. Other local history museums include the Portland Museum, Historic Locust Grove, Conrad-Caldwell House Museum, the Falls of the Ohio State Park interpretive center (Clarksville, Indiana), Howard Steamboat Museum (Jeffersonville, Indiana) and the Carnegie Center for Art and History (New Albany, Indiana). The Falls interpretive center, part of the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area, also functions as a natural history museum, covering findings in the nearby exposed Devonian fossil bed.
There are also several historical properties and items of interest in the area, including the Belle of Louisville, the oldest Mississippi-style steamboat in operation in the United States. The United States Marine Hospital of Louisville is considered by the National Park Service to be the best remaining antebellum hospital in the United States.[92] It was designed by Robert Mills, who is best known as the designer of the Washington Monument. Fort Knox, spread out among Bullitt, Hardin and Meade Counties (two of which are in the Louisville metropolitan area), is home to the U.S. Bullion Depository and the General George Patton Museum. The previously mentioned Locust Grove, former home of Louisville Founder George Rogers Clark, portrays life in the early days of the city. Other notable properties include the Farmington Historic Plantation (home of the Speed family), Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing and the restored Union Station, which opened in 1891. The Louisville area is also home to the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a turn-of-the-century (20th) hospital that was originally built to accommodate tuberculosis patients, and subsequently has been reported and sensationalized to be haunted. The Little Loomhouse maintains historical records of local spinning and weaving patterns and techniques, and also offers tours, hands-on activities, and professional-level classes and materials.
Music & Theater
The Kentucky Center, dedicated in 1983, located in the downtown hotel and entertainment district, features a variety of plays and concerts. This is also the home of the Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Bourbon Baroque, StageOne Family Theatre, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, which operates the oldest professional outdoor Shakespeare festival, and the Kentucky Opera, which is the twelfth oldest opera in the United States.
The Louisville Orchestra was founded in 1937 by conductor Robert Whitney and Charles Farnsley, then Mayor of Louisville, and was a world leader in commissioning and recording contemporary works for orchestra from the 1950s to 1980s. The Louisville Orchestra today performs more than 125 concerts per year with a core of salaried musicians and is recognized as a cornerstone of the Louisville arts community.
Actors Theatre of Louisville, is in the city's urban cultural district and hosts the Humana Festival of New American Plays each spring. It presents approximately six hundred performances of about thirty productions during its year-round season, composed of a diverse array of contemporary and classical fare.
Louisville is home to a fast-growing independent theatre scene. Theatre 502, Savage Rose Classical Theatre, The Bard's Town Theatre Company, The Liminal Playhouse, Looking For Lilith, Bunbury Theatre Company, Louisville Repertory Theatre, Louisville Improvisors, Pandora Productions, Eve Theatre Company, Squallis Puppeteers and Baby Horse Theatre all curate full seasons of contemporary, classical and experimental work.
The Louisville Palace, the official venue for the Louisville Orchestra, is an ornate theatre in downtown Louisville's so-called theatre district. In addition to orchestra performances, the theatre shows films and hosts concerts.
Iroquois Park is the home of the renovated Iroquois Amphitheater, which hosts a variety of musical concerts in a partially covered outdoor setting.
Sports
College sports are popular in the Louisville area. The Louisville Cardinals have competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), since joining that league in July 2014.
College basketball is particularly popular. The Louisville Cardinals's Freedom Hall averaged sellouts for 10 straight years and the downtown KFC Yum! Center following suit with regular sellouts. The Cardinals ranked third nationally in attendance in 2012–13, the most recent of the program's three national championship seasons. The Cardinals also hold the Big East conference women's basketball paid attendance record with nearly 17,000 attending the game against the Kentucky Wildcats in 2008. The Louisville market has ranked first in ratings for the NCAA men's basketball tournament every year since 1999. The Kentucky Wildcats used to play an annual game in Freedom Hall.
The Louisville Cardinals football team has produced successful NFL players such as Johnny Unitas, Deion Branch, Sam Madison, David Akers, Joe Jacoby, DeVante Parker and Ray Buchanan. The Cardinals won the 1991 Fiesta Bowl, the 2007 Orange Bowl, and the 2013 Sugar Bowl. In 2016, sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson took the football team to new heights. Lamar was the school's first Heisman Trophy winner, which is awarded to the most outstanding college football player nationwide during that season. He was also one of the youngest players to ever receive the award. The team also matched their highest ranking in school history at No. 3. The University of Louisville baseball team advanced to the College World Series in Omaha in 2007, 2013, and 2014, as one of the final eight teams to compete for the national championship.
Horse racing is also a major attraction. Churchill Downs is home to the Kentucky Derby, the largest sporting event in the state, as well as the Kentucky Oaks which together cap the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. Churchill Downs has also hosted the renowned Breeders' Cup on eight occasions, most recently in 2011.
Louisville is also the home of Valhalla Golf Club which hosted the 1996, 2000 and 2014 PGA Championships, the 2004 Senior PGA Championship and the 2008 Ryder Cup. It is also home to David Armstrong Extreme Park (formerly Louisville Extreme Park), which skateboarder Tony Hawk has called one of his top five skate parks.
Louisville has seven professional and semi-professional sports teams, but no major league teams. It is the fourth largest U.S. city without one, with only Austin, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; and El Paso, Texas; larger. The Louisville Bats are a baseball team playing in the Triple-A East as the Triple-A affiliate of the nearby Cincinnati Reds. The team plays at Louisville Slugger Field at the edge of the city's downtown.[citation needed] Louisville City FC, a professional soccer team in the second-division USL Championship, began play in 2015 at Slugger Field and has moved into their own stadium, Lynn Family Stadium, in 2020.[96] The team was originally the reserve side for Orlando City SC of Major League Soccer, but the two organizations were separated in 2016. Racing Louisville FC, an expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League began play in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium.
Louisville had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Louisville Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1924 and the Louisville Colonels in 1926.
Between 1967 and 1976, Louisville was home to the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. The Colonels were one of the ABA's most successful teams during its existence, winning four division titles and the 1975 ABA Championship, but was not invited to join the NBA when the two leagues merged in 1976, and subsequently folded.
Louisville has the added distinction of being the only city in the world that is the birthplace of four heavyweight boxing champions: Marvin Hart, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Ellis and Greg Page.
Current professional teams:
- Louisville Bats Baseball 2002 Triple-A East Louisville Slugger Field
- Derby City Dynamite Women's football 2013 Women's Football Alliance John Hardin High School (Radcliff)[100]
- Louisville City FC Soccer 2015 United Soccer League Lynn Family Stadium
- Racing Louisville FC Women's soccer 2021 National Women's Soccer League Lynn Family Stadium
Parks
Louisville Metro has 122 city parks covering more than 13,000 acres. Several of these parks were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York City's Central Park as well as parks, parkways, college campuses and public facilities in many U.S. locations. The Louisville Waterfront Park is prominently located on the banks of the Ohio River near downtown and features large open areas, which often hold free concerts and other festivals. The Big Four Bridge, a former railroad bridge spanning 547 feet but is now a pedestrian bridge connecting Waterfront Park with Jeffersonville, Indiana's waterfront park, fully opened in May 2014 with the completion of Jeffersonville's ramp. Cherokee Park, one of the most visited parks in the nation, features a 2.6-mile mixed-use loop and many well-known landscaping and architectural features including the Hogan's Fountain Pavilion. Other notable parks in the system include Iroquois Park, Shawnee Park, Seneca Park and Central Park.
Further from the downtown area is the Jefferson Memorial Forest, which at 6,218 acres is the largest municipal urban forest in the United States.,[104] The forest is designated as a National Audubon Society wildlife refuge and offers over 30 miles of various hiking trails.
Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area, owned and operated by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, is another large park in nearby Brandenburg, Kentucky. The park's namesake, Otter Creek, winds along the eastern side of the park. A scenic bend in the Ohio River, which divides Kentucky from Indiana, can be seen from northern overlooks within the park. The park is a mountain biking destination, with trails maintained by a local mountain bike organization.
Other outdoor points of interest in the Louisville area include Cave Hill Cemetery (the burial location of Col. Harland Sanders), Zachary Taylor National Cemetery (the burial location of President Zachary Taylor), the Louisville Zoo and the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area.
In development is the City of Parks, a project to create a 110-mile (180 km) continuous paved pedestrian and biking trail called the Louisville Loop around Louisville Metro while also adding a large amount of park land. Current plans call for making approximately 4,000 acres of the Floyds Fork flood plain in eastern Jefferson County into a new park system called The Parklands of Floyds Fork, expanding area in the Jefferson Memorial Forest, and adding riverfront land and wharfs along the Riverwalk and the Levee Trail, both completed segments of the Louisville Loop.
Crime
The Standard Gravure shooting occurred on September 14, 1989, in Louisville, Kentucky, when Joseph T. Wesbecker, a 47-year-old pressman, killed eight people and injured twelve at his former workplace, Standard Gravure, before committing suicide. The shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in Kentucky's history. The murders resulted in a high-profile lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company, manufacturers of the antidepressant drug Prozac, which Wesbecker had begun taking during the month prior to his shooting rampage.
In a 2005 survey, Morgan Quitno Press ranked Louisville as the seventh safest large city in the United States. The 2006 edition of the survey ranked Louisville eighth.
In 2004, Louisville recorded 70 murders. The numbers for 2005 ranged from 55 to 59 (FBI says 55, LMPD says 59), which was down 16 percent from 2004. In 2006, Louisville-Jefferson County recorded 50 murders, which was significantly lower than previous years. In 2008, Louisville recorded 79 murders.
The Louisville Metro Area's overall violent crime rate was 412.6 per 100,000 residents in 2005. The Elizabethtown, Kentucky Metro Area, which is part of Louisville's Combined Statistical Area, was the 17th safest Metro in the U.S. Kentucky has the 5th lowest violent crime rate out of the 50 states.
Violent crime is most concentrated west of downtown, especially in the Russell neighborhood. The West End, located north of Algonquin Parkway and West of 9th Street, had 32 of the city's 79 murders in 2007.
As of 2020, Louisville has is on the crime index as a 5/100, meaning it is in safer than 5 percent of cities in the US.
From the Courier Journal:
Around 11:30 p.m. on May 28, 2020, surrounded by Louisville police officers, journalists, street cameras, government buildings and hundreds of
people protesting the slaying of Breonna Taylor, a flurry of gunshots rang through the crowd.
Seconds later, seven people lay wounded, including William Clark, who was shot in the ankle.
Police took his clothes from the hospital as evidence, but they never said a word to him, he told The Courier Journal.
“Nobody even told me ‘sorry, we’ll try to find out what happened,’” Clark said. “I don’t know what I was shot with. I don’t even know who’s working the
case. I have no information.”
After a year of investigation into the mass shooting in a crowd of people on one of Louisville's busiest parks, police have little to show for their efforts.
The department issued a statement Friday saying it has not identified "the individual" responsible for the flurry of shots near Jefferson Square Park.
Several of those who there that night question how hard police have tried.
"I still feel lost. Like, what really happened?" Clark said. “I feel like they never cared.”
William Clark, who was hit with gunfire during the first night of protests in Louisville last year, says that the LMPD still has not investigated the
incident. He was on his front porch in New Albany, In. on May 4, 2021.
In the months following the shooting, neither the city nor police have publicly discussed the status of the investigation or released additional
information.
They have rebuffed The Courier Journal's requests for most records into the case, including video footage and interviews, saying their release could
tip off witnesses and suspects — even though they have no suspects and haven't talked to all the witnesses.
But on Friday, after repeated requests by media outlets, the department released a written statement saying police are "attempting to re-interview all
victims associated with this case" and urging witnesses to "come forward."
"The victims in this case deserve answers, and we remain committed to finding them," spokeswoman Beth Ruoff wrote, one year to the day after the
shooting occurred.
The primary law enforcement agencies are the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO). 911 emergency medical services are provided by the government as Louisville Metro EMS (LMEMS) which responds to over 120,000 calls for service annually. Louisville Metro Department of Corrections operates two facilities housing approximately 2,000 inmates.
Louisville has recently been featured on the television show First 48. The show follows LMPD's homicide unit while they try to solve murders. It has a 48 percent crime rate per 1,000 residents.
Cemeteries
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