Louisville (usually ; see
Pronunciation below) is the
largest city in the U.S.
state of Kentucky
, and the
county seat of Jefferson County
. Since 2003, the city's borders have been
coterminous with those of the
county because of a
city-county
merger.
The city's estimated population as of 2008
was 713,877 (consolidated; balance
total is 557,224), with a population of 1,244,696 in the Louisville metropolitan area
. An important internal shipping port in the
19th century, Louisville is today most well known for the
Kentucky Derby, the widely watched first
race of the
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred
Racing.
Louisville is situated on the
Ohio River
in north-central Kentucky at the
Falls of
the Ohio. Because it includes counties in
Southern Indiana, the Louisville
metropolitan area is often referred to as
Kentuckiana. The
river forms the border between Kentucky and Indiana. A resident of
Louisville is referred to as a
Louisvillian.
Although situated in a
Southern
state, Louisville is influenced by both
Southern and
Midwestern culture. It is sometimes
referred to as either the northernmost Southern city or the
southernmost Northern city in the United States.
The
settlement that became the City of
Louisville was founded in 1778 by
George Rogers Clark and is named after
King Louis XVI of France.
Nomenclature, population and ranking
As of the
2000 Census,
Louisville had a
population of 256,231.
On
November 7, 2000, voters in Louisville and Jefferson
County approved a referendum to
merge into a consolidated city-county government named
Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government
(official long form) and Louisville Metro
(official short form), which took effect January 6,
2003.
The 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimated population figures for
Louisville are 713,877 for the consolidated Louisville-Jefferson
County (17th largest in the nation); and 557,224 for the
Louisville-Jefferson
County balance (30th largest).
The "balance" is a designation created by
the Census Bureau to describe the portion of Louisville-Jefferson
County that does not include any of the semi-independent separately
incorporated places located within Louisville Metro (such as
Anchorage
, Middletown
or Jeffersontown
). Census methodology uses balance values in
comparing consolidated cities to other cities for ranking
purposes.
As of
2008, the Louisville metropolitan area (MSA) (not to be confused with Louisville
Metro), had an estimated population of 1,244,696 ranking
42nd nationally. The metro area includes
Louisville-Jefferson County and 12 surrounding
counties, eight in Kentucky and four
in
Southern Indiana (see
Geography below).
The
Louisville Combined Statistical Area, having an estimated
population of 1,380,591, includes the MSA, Hardin
County
and Larue
County in Kentucky, and Scott County, Indiana
.
Pronunciation
The Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau displays many of the
common pronunciations of the city's name on its logo.
Most natives of Louisville pronounce the city's name . The
pronunciation , however, is often used by political leaders and the
media. No matter how
Louisville is pronounced, the "s" is
silent because "Louis" derives from the French language.
The variability in local pronunciation of the city's name can
perhaps be laid at the feet of the city's location on the border
between the Northern and Southern
regions of the United
States. Louisville's diverse population has traditionally
represented elements of both Northern and Southern culture.
History
The history of Louisville spans hundreds of years, and has been
influenced by the area's
geography and
location. The rapids at the
Falls of
the Ohio created a barrier to river travel, and as a result,
settlements grew up at this stopping point.
The first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day
Louisville was on
Corn Island
in 1778 by Col.
George Rogers
Clark, credited as the founder of Louisville. Several landmarks
in the community are named after him.
Two years
later, in 1780, the Virginia General Assembly
approved the town charter of Louisville. The
city was named in honor of
King
Louis XVI of France, whose soldiers were then aiding Americans
in the
Revolutionary War.
Early residents lived in
forts to protect themselves from
Indian raids, but moved out by the late 1780s.
In 1803, explorers
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark organized their
expedition across America
in the original town of Clarksville, Indiana
at the present-day Falls of the Ohio in
Louisville.
View of Main Street Louisville in
1846
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 swelled to 7,000 and Louisville became
an incorporated city. The city grew rapidly in its formative
years.
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. It
was a major shipping port and slaves worked in a variety of
associated trades. The city was often a point of escape for slaves
to the north, as Ohio was a free state. The city's significant
black population and location on the Ohio River resulted in its
becoming a stop on the
Underground
Railroad.
During the Civil
War Louisville was a major stronghold of
Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the
Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting and
transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the
Western Theater.
By the end
of the war, Louisville 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.. He was 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,
where
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
Mid-Mississippi
Valley Tornado Outbreak of March 1890. An estimated 74 to 120
people were killed. The city quickly recovered and within a year
had rebuilt damaged areas.
In late January and February 1937, of rain fell during a month of
heavy rain. It caused the
"Great Flood of '37". The
flood submerged about 70% of the city, caused the loss
of power, and forced the evacuation of 175,000 residents. 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 saw 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
Corporation, 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.
Entrance to the Fourth Street Live!
entertainment complex in Louisville, featuring the marquee of the
Hard Rock Cafe
In 1974, a major (
F4) tornado hit
Louisville as part of the
Super
Outbreak of tornadoes that struck 13 states. It covered and
destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area. Only two
people died.
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 corridor
, Frankfort
Avenue, and the Old Louisville
neighborhoods. Downtown has had
significant residential and retail growth, including the tripling
of its population since 1990, the conversion of waterfront
industrial sites into Waterfront Park
, and the refurbishing of the former Galleria into
the bustling entertainment complex Fourth Street Live!
.
Geography
Hilly terrain blankets the Southwest
part of the city
Louisville is located at (38.228870, -85.749534) . According to the
U.S. Census Bureau, Louisville Metro
(in 2000 measurements for Jefferson County) has a total area of , of which, of it is land and
of it (3.38%) is water.
Louisville is located in the Bluegrass
region
. Its development has been influenced by its
location on the
Ohio River, which spurred
Louisville's growth from an isolated camp site into a major
shipping port. Much of the city is located on a very wide and flat
flood plain surrounded by hill country on
all sides. Much of the area was swampland that had to be drained as
the city grew. In the 1840s most creeks were rerouted or placed in
canals to prevent flooding and disease outbreaks.
New condominium construction along
East Main Street
Areas generally east of I-65 are above the flood plain, and are
composed of gently rolling hills.
The Southernmost parts of Jefferson
County are in the scenic and largely undeveloped Knobs region, which is home to Jefferson
Memorial Forest
.
The
Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 42nd largest in the
United States, includes the Kentucky county of Jefferson (coterminous with Louisville Metro),
plus twelve outlying counties—eight in Kentucky and four in
Southern Indiana.
Louisville's MSA is included in the
Louisville-Elizabethtown-Scottsburg, KY-IN Combined Statistical
Area (CSA), which also includes the Elizabethtown, KY
MSA as well as the Scottsburg, IN
Micropolitan Statistical
Area.
Climate
Graph constructed from data located on
the NOAA Website.
Louisville has a
humid
subtropical climate and experiences four seasons. Spring-like
conditions typically begin in mid to late March, summer from mid-
to late-May to late September, with fall in the October-November
period. Seasonal extremes in both temperature and precipitation are
not uncommon during early spring and late fall;
severe weather is not uncommon, with
occasional
tornado outbreaks in the region.
Winter typically brings a mix of rain, sleet, and snow, with
occasional heavy snowfall and icing. Louisville averages 87 days
with low temperatures below freezing. Summer is typically hazy,
hot, and humid with long periods of 90-100 degree temperatures and
drought conditions at times. Louisville averages 31 days a year
with high temperatures above 90 degrees. The mean annual
temperature is , with an average annual snowfall of
16.4
inches (41 cm) and an average
annual rainfall of .
The wettest seasons are spring and summer, although rainfall is
fairly constant year round. During the winter, particularly in
January and February, several days of
snow can
be expected. January is the coldest month on average highs of and
lows of 25 °F (5 to −4 °C). July is the average hottest month with
highs and lows of . The highest recorded temperature was on July
14, 1936, and the lowest recorded temperature was on January 19,
1994. Temperatures in commercial areas and in the industrialized
areas along interstates are often higher than in the suburbs, often
as much as five degrees Fahrenheit (3 °C) cooler.
Air pollution is trapped in
Louisville's
Ohio River Valley location.
The city is ranked by
Environmental Defense as America's
38th worst city for air quality. Louisville also often exemplifies
the
heat island effect.
Cityscape
The
downtown business district
of Louisville is located immediately
south of
the
Ohio River, and
southeast of the
Falls of
the Ohio. Major roads extend outwards from the downtown area in
all directions, like the spokes of a wheel.
The airport
is approximately south of the downtown area.
The
industrial sections of town are to the
south and west of the airport, while most of the
residential areas of the city are to the
southwest, south and east of downtown.
The Louisville
skyline is slated to be changed with the proposed 62-story Museum
Plaza
as well as a 22,000-seat waterfront
arena
. Twelve of the 15 buildings in Kentucky over
are located in
downtown
Louisville.
Another primary business and
industrial district is located in the
suburban area east of the city on Hurstbourne Parkway.
Louisville's late 19th and early 20th century development was
spurred by three large suburban parks built at the edges of the
city in 1890.
The city's
architecture contains a
blend of old and new.
The Old Louisville neighborhood is the largest historic preservation district solely
featuring Victorian homes and
buildings in the United States; it is also the third largest such
district overall. There are many modern skyscrapers
downtown, as well as older preserved structures.
The buildings of West
Main Street in downtown Louisville have the largest collection of
cast iron facades of anywhere outside of
New
York
's SoHo
district.
Since the mid-20th century, Louisville has in some ways been
divided up into three sides of town: the West End, the South End,
and the East End.
In 2003, Bill Dakan, a University
of Louisville
geography professor, said that the West End, west
of 7th Street and north of Algonquin Parkway, is "a euphemism for the African-American part of town"
although he points out that this belief is not entirely true, and
most African Americans no longer live in areas where more than 80%
of residents are black. Nevertheless, he says the perception
is still strong. The South End has long had a reputation as a
white,
working-class part of town,
while the East End has been seen as middle and
upper class.
According to the Greater Louisville Association of Realtors, the
area with the lowest median home sales price is west of Interstate
65, in the West and South Ends, the middle range of home sales
prices are between Interstates 64 and 65 in the South and East
Ends, and the highest median home sales price are north of
Interstate 64 in the East End. Immigrants from
Southeast Asia tend to settle in the South
End, while immigrants from
Eastern
Europe settle in the East End.
Government and politics
Louisville Metro is governed by an executive dubbed the
Metro Mayor and a
city legislature dubbed the
Metro Council. The first and
current Metro Mayor is
Jerry Abramson
(
D), who was also
the longest serving
Mayor in the former City
of Louisville's history, serving from 1985 to 1998. This has
earned him the nickname "Mayor for Life."
The Metro Council consists of 26 seats representing 26 districts
apportioned by population throughout the city and county. The
residents of the semi-independent municipalities within Louisville
Metro are apportioned to districts along with all other county
residents. Half (13) of the seats come up for reelection every two
years. The council is chaired by a
Council
President, currently David Tandy (D), who is elected by the
council members annually. Democrats currently have a 16 to 10 seat
majority on the council.
The Official Seal of the City of Louisville, no longer used
following the formation of a
consolidated city-county government
in 2003, reflected its history and heritage in the
fleur-de-lis representing French aid given
during the
Revolutionary
War, and the thirteen stars signifying the original colonies.
The new seal of the consolidated government retains the
fleur-de-lis, but has only two stars, one representing the city and
the other the county.
Kentucky's
3rd congressional district
is roughly coterminous with Louisville Metro,
which is represented by Rep. John Yarmuth (D), though some of the southern
and southwestern areas of the community are in the
2nd congressional
district, which is represented by
Brett Guthrie (
R).
Public safety and crime
Louisville is has been ranked among the top 10 safest large cities
by
Morgan Quitno in the past four
years. In the 2005 Morgan Quitno survey, the city was ranked as the
seventh safest large city in the United States. The 2006 edition of
the survey ranked Louisville eighth.
In 2006, Louisville-Jefferson County recorded 50 murders.
Louisville's total
crime rate was less
than half that of most surrounding cities. 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.
The primary law enforcement agencies are the
Louisville Metro Police
Department and
Jefferson County
Sheriff's Office.
Emergency medical services are
provided by publicly funded
Louisville Metro EMS, along with a
handful of smaller, quasi-independent services with more
area-focused responsibility.
Fire protection, which is not solely a Metro government function,
is provided by 20 independent fire departments (most of which are
autonomous taxing districts) working in concert through
mutual aid agreements. The only fire department
operated by metro government is the
Louisville Division of Fire
(formerly Louisville Fire & Rescue, before city merger in
2003).
The independent City of Shively
in western Jefferson County is a city-run
department. The other 18 fire departments in Louisville
Metro are known collectively as the
Jefferson County Fire
Service.
Demographics
- Note: All demographics, unless
otherwise stated, are the same as that of Jefferson
County, Kentucky, which merged with the former City of Louisville on
January 6, 2003.
The L and N Building on West
Broadway
The 2005-2007 population estimate was 74.8% White (71.7%
non-Hispanic White alone), 22.9% Black or African American, 0.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.0% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian
and Other Pacific Islander, 1.4% from some other race and 1.6% from
two or more races. 2.9% of the total population were Hispanic or
Latino (of any race).
As of the
census of 2000, there were 693,604
people, 287,012 households, and 183,113 families residing in the
city/county. The
population
density was 1,801 people per square mile (695/km
2).
There were 305,835 housing units at an average density of
794/sq mi (307/km
2). The
racial makeup
of the city/county is 77.38%
White,
18.88% Black or
African American,
0.22%
Native
American, 1.39%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander, 0.68%
from
other races,
and 1.42% from two or more races. 1.78% of the population was
Hispanic or Latino of
any race.
As of 2007, the area lying within pre-merger Louisville (i.e., the
area known as the City of Louisville before the 2003 consolidation)
had 245,315 people and 3,995 people per square mile. The racial
makeup of pre-merger Louisville is 60.05% white, 35.22% black,
1.86% Asian, 0.24% Native American, and 2.95% 'Other'. 2.42% of the
people in pre-merger Louisville claim Hispanic ethnicity (meaning
97.58% are non-Hispanic).
There were 287,012 households out of which 29.60% had children
under the age of 18 living with them, 45.20% were
married couples living together, 14.70% had a
female householder with no husband present, and 36.20% were
non-families. 30.50% of all households were made up of individuals
and 10.30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or
older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family
size was 2.97.
The age distribution is 24.30% under the age of 18, 8.90% from 18
to 24, 30.40% from 25 to 44, 22.80% from 45 to 64, and 13.50% who
were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For
every 100 females there were 91.60 males. For every 100 females age
18 and over, there were 87.60 males.
The
median income for a
household is $39,457, and the median income for a family was
$49,161. Males had a median income of $36,484 versus $26,255 for
females. The
per capita income for
the county was $22,352. About 9.50% of families and 12.40% of the
population were below the
poverty
line, including 18.10% of those under age 18 and 8.80% of those
ages 65 or over.
17% of the state's population lives in Jefferson County and 25%
live in counties in the Louisville CSA. Over one-third of the
population growth in Kentucky is in Louisville's CSA
counties.
Religion
Louisville hosts religious institutions of various faiths. There
are 135,421
Catholic
Louisvillians who are part of the
Archdiocese of Louisville,
covering 24 counties in central Kentucky (consisting of 121
parishes and missions spread over 8,124 square miles).
The Cathedral
of the Assumption
in downtown Louisville is the seat of the Archdiocese of
Louisville. Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey
, the monastic home of Catholic writer Thomas Merton, is in nearby Bardstown,
Kentucky
and also in the archdiocese. Louisville is
also the home of
Our Lady's
Rosary Makers, the largest
Catholic
Rosary making group in the United States,
with 17,000 active members worldwide. Most of Louisville's Catholic
population is of German descent, the result of large-scale
19th-century immigration.
One in three Louisvillians is
Southern
Baptist, belonging to one of 147 local congregations.
This
denomination increased in number when large numbers of people moved
into Louisville in the early 20th century from rural Kentucky and
Tennessee
to work in the city's factories; some of these
migrants also formed Holiness and
Pentecostal churches and Churches of Christ.
German
immigrants in the 19th century brought not only a large
Catholic population, but also the
Lutheran
and
Evangelical
faiths, which are represented today in Louisville by the
Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, the
Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod, and the
United Church
of Christ, respectively.
Southeast
Christian Church
, a megachurch and one of
the largest Christian churches
in the United States, is located in Louisville.
The city
is home to several religious institutions: the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary
, Louisville Presbyterian Theological
Seminary
and the denominational headquarters of the Presbyterian Church
.
Louisville is home to the oldest African-American
Seventh-day Adventist
congregation, Magazine Street Church.
The
historic Christ Church Cathedral
is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky,
which covers the western part of the state.
Louisville has two
Eastern Orthodox
parishes: Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, and the Antiochian
parish, St. Michael the Archangel (with a Chapel, St.
George).
The
Louisville Kentucky
Temple, the 76th temple of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), is located in nearby Crestwood
.
There is a
Jewish population of around 8,500 in
the city served by five synagogues. Most Jewish families emigrated
from
Eastern Europe at the turn of
the 20th century; around 800
Soviet
Jews have moved to Louisville since 1991. Jewish immigrants
founded
Jewish Hospital,
which was once the center of the city's Jewish district. Jewish
Hospital recently merged with the Catholic
healthcare system CARITAS. On one corner
near Bowman field are located the one orthodox temple, Shalom
Towers, the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Family and
Vocational Service.
Kentucky's only
Hindu temple opened in
suburban Louisville in 1999, and had about 125 members and two
full-time priests in 2000. In 2001, there were an estimated four to
ten thousand practicing Muslims in Louisville attending six local
mosques.
Economy
Louisville's early economy first developed through the shipping and
cargo industries. Its strategic location at the
Falls of
the Ohio, as well as its unique position in the central United
States (within one day's road travel to 60% of the cities in the
continental U.S.) make it an ideal location for the transfer of
cargo along its route to other destinations.
The Louisville
and Portland Canal
and the Louisville and Nashville
Railroad were important links in water and rail
transportation. Louisville's importance to the shipping industry continues today with the presence
of the Worldport
global air hub for UPS
at Louisville International Airport.
Louisville's location at the crossroads of three major
Interstate highways (
I-64,
I-65 and
I-71) also contributes to its
modern-day strategic importance to the shipping and cargo industry.
As of 2003, Louisville ranks as the 7th largest
inland port in the United States.
Recently, Louisville has emerged as a major center for the
health care and
medical
sciences industries. Louisville has been central to
advancements in
heart and
hand surgery as well as
cancer treatment. Some of the earliest
artificial heart transplants were conducted
in Louisville. Louisville's thriving downtown medical research
campus includes a new $88 million
rehabilitation center,
and a
health sciences research and
commercialization park that, in partnership with the University of
Louisville, has lured nearly 70 top scientists and researchers.
Louisville is also home to
Humana, one of the
nation's largest
health insurance
companies.
Louisville is home to several major
corporations and organizations:
Louisville for a long time was also home to
Brown & Williamson, the third
largest company in the
tobacco
industry before merging with
R.
J. Reynolds in 2004 to form the
Reynolds American Company. Brown &
Williamson, one of the subjects of the tobacco industry
scandal of the 1990s, was the focus of
The Insider, a
1999 film shot around the Louisville area. Also
located in Louisville are two major
Ford plants, and a major
General Electric appliance factory.
Additionally, one-third of all of the
bourbon whiskey comes from Louisville. The
Brown-Forman Corporation is
one of the major makers of bourbon, which is headquartered in
Louisville.
Other major distilleries of bourbon can be
found both in the city of Louisville, and in neighboring cities in
Kentucky.
Louisville also prides itself in its large assortment of small,
independent businesses and restaurants, some of which have become
known for their ingenuity and creativity. In 1926 the
Brown Hotel became the home of the
Hot Brown "sandwich". A few blocks away, the
Seelbach Hotel, which
F. Scott
Fitzgerald references in
The
Great Gatsby, is also famous for a secret back room where
Al Capone would regularly meet with
associates during the
Prohibition era.
The drink
the Old Fashioned was invented in
Louisville's Pendennis
Club
.
Several major motion pictures have also been filmed in or near
Louisville, including
Goldfinger,
Stripes,
The Insider,
Lawn Dogs,
Nice Guys Sleep
Alone,
Keep Your Distance, and
Elizabethtown.
Culture
Annual festivals and other events
Louisville is home to a number of 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 the nation. The Kentucky
Derby Festival also features notable events such as the Pegasus
Parade, The Great Steamboat Race, Great
Balloon Race, a
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
the Park), held in July of every year and features free
Shakespeare plays in Central
Park
in Old
Louisville. June
sees the relatively new addition of Louisville Pride festivities,
including an annually growing and media-covered gay-pride parade
through the streets of downtown Louisville and picnic at the
Belvedere.
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 is the
Bluegrass
Balloon Festival, the fifth largest
hot air balloon festival in the nation. The
festival features early morning balloon races, as well as balloon
glows in the evening.
In September, in nearby Bardstown, is the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, which features some of the
finest bourbon in the world. The suburb of Jeffersontown is also the home of the annual Gaslight Festival, a
series of events spread over a week. Attendance is
approximately 200,000 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 is the second most-attended event next to the
Derby. Another art-related event that occurs every month is the
First Friday Trolley Hop. A
TARC trolley takes art
lovers to many downtown area art galleries on the first Friday of
every month.
Museums, galleries, and interpretive centers
The
West Main
District in
downtown
Louisville features what is locally known as "Museum Row".
In this
area, the Frazier International History
Museum
, which opened in 2004, features a collection of
arms, armor and related historical artifacts spanning 1,000 years,
concentrating on U.S. and UK arms. The building features
three stories of exhibits, two reenactment arenas, a 120-seat
auditorium, and a 48-seat
movie
theater.
Also nearby is the Louisville Science Center, which
is Kentucky's largest hands-on science center and features
interactive exhibits, IMAX films, educational
programs and technology networks. The Muhammad Ali
Center
opened November 2005 in "Museum Row" and features
Louisville native Muhammad Ali's
boxing memorabilia.
The
Speed Art
Museum
opened in 1927 and is the oldest and largest
art museum in the state of Kentucky. Located adjacent to the University
of Louisville, the museum features over 12,000 pieces of art in
its permanent collection and hosts regular temporary
exhibitions. Multiple art galleries are located in the city,
but they are especially concentrated in the
East Market District of
downtown. This row of galleries, plus others in the West Main
District, are prominently featured in the monthly First Friday
Trolley 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 the best remaining
antebellum hospital in the United States.
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 famous Speed family), Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen
Landing
, and the restored Union
Station
, which was opened in September 7, 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.
Media
Louisville's newspaper of record is The Courier-Journal, and the
alternative paper is the progressive alt-weekly Louisville Eccentric Observer
(commonly called 'LEO'), which was founded by 3rd
district U.S. Representative John Yarmuth (
D).
WAVE 3
, an
NBC affiliate, was Kentucky's first TV
station. Another prominent TV station is ABC affiliate WHAS 11
, formerly owned by the famous Bingham family (who also owned The
Courier-Journal), which hosts the regionally notable annual
fundraiser, the WHAS Crusade
for Children. WDRB-FOX41
/WMYO
and
CBS affiliate WLKY 32
round out the major television stations in the
city. The most popular radio station is 84 WHAS
840 AM, designated by the FCC as a clear-channel station. This
station was also formerly owned by the Binghams (now
Clear Channel Communications),
and is a
talk radio station which also
broadcasts regional sports.
Parks and outdoor attractions
Louisville Metro has 122 city
parks covering
more than .
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 feature free concerts and
other festivals. Cherokee Park
, one of the most visited parks in the nation,
features a mixed-use loop and many well-known landscaping
features. Other notable parks in the system include
Iroquois
Park
, Shawnee
Park
and Central Park.
Going a
bit further out from the downtown area is the Jefferson
Memorial Forest, which at 6,218 acres is the largest municipal
urban forest in the United
States. , The forest is designated as a National
Audubon Society
wildlife refuge, and
offers over of various hiking trails.
Otter Creek Park is another large
park nearby.
While actually in Brandenburg,
Kentucky
, Otter Creek Park is owned and operated by
Louisville Metro government. 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 popular
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
, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
and the Falls of
the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area.
In development is the
City of Parks, a
project to create a continuous paved pedestrian and biking trail
around Louisville Metro while also adding a large amount of park
land.
Current plans call for making basically the
entire Floyds Fork flood plain in eastern Jefferson
County into park space, expanding area in the Jefferson
Memorial Forest, and adding riverfront land and wharfs along the
Riverwalk Trail and Levee Trail.
Performing arts
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,
Music Theatre Louisville, Stage
One, 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 71 full-time 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.
Walden Theatre, the nation's
preeminent theatre conservatory for young people regularly presents
both modern and classics of American and British theatre at The
Kentucky Center's MEX Theatre, Cultural Center at the Frazier
International History Museum and Actors Theatre of Louisville. The
company also stages one of the few annual salutes to William
Shakespeare in the country. The theatre also devotes itself to
fostering new Playwright talent with the annual Young Playwrights
Festival in the early moths of the year.
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 very popular in
the Louisville area, especially
college basketball. The Louisville
Cardinals rank first nationally in percent to capacity attendance
annually, with Freedom Hall averaging better than 100% for 10
straight years. The Cardinals ranked 4th in actual attendance in
2007, although they will likely pass Syracuse and North Carolina in
attendance when the new 22,000 seat waterfront arena is completed
in 2010. 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 also play an annual game
in Freedom Hall, although attendance has declined steadily in
recent years, with only 10,163 fans attending the 2008 game, only
54% of Freedom Hall's capacity.
The
Louisville Cardinals
football team, which had produced talent like
Johnny Unitas,
Deion
Branch,
Sam Madison,
David Akers and
Ray
Buchanan, achieved national respect in the 1990s under coach
Howard Schnellenberger when
the team defeated Alabama in the 1991
Fiesta
Bowl. The program's stock continued to rise as it joined the
Big East Conference and won the
FedEx Orange Bowl in 2007 under
Bobby Petrino. The University of
Louisville baseball team advanced to the
College World Series in Omaha in 2007,
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 six occasions, most recently
in 2006.
Louisville is also the home of Valhalla
Golf Club
which hosted the 1996 and 2000 PGA Championships, the 2004 Senior PGA Championship, and the
2008 Ryder Cup. It is also home to
Louisville
Extreme Park
, open since 2002, and which skateboarder Tony Hawk has called one of his top five skate
parks.
Louisville has six professional and
semi-professional sports teams. The
Louisville Bats are a
baseball team playing in the
International League as the Class AAA
affiliate of the nearby
Cincinnati
Reds.
The team plays at Louisville
Slugger Field
at the edge of the city's downtown.
The city
of Louisville has made several unsuccessful bids in recent years to
draw major league
sports teams to the city, most notably when the Vancouver Grizzlies franchise was
considering a move several years ago, as well as the Charlotte Hornets franchise, which
ultimately ended up in New Orleans
.
High school sports are also popular. Louisville-area high schools
have been dominant in
football for
decades.
Schools such as Butler, St. Xavier
, Trinity
and Male
have won every state 4A football title except one
since 1992 and have been 13 of the 15 finalists since 1997.
Some fierce rivalries have developed over the years. The annual
game between St. Xavier and Trinity draws over 35,000 fans and is
the largest attended high school sporting event in the country. The
2002 Kentucky state 4A Football Championship between Male and
Trinity, a showdown between future UofL teammates
Brian Brohm (Trinity) and
Michael Bush (Male) that ended with a 59-56
Trinity win, is listed as one of the top 50 sporting events of all
time by many critics.
The "Old Rivalry" between Male and Manual
high schools is one of the nation's oldest, dating
back to 1893, and was played on Thanksgiving Day through 1980, with Manual
winning the final T-Day game by a score of 6-0 in
overtime.
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
- See also: Historical
professional sports teams in Louisville
Infrastructure
Education
Louisville is home to several institutions of higher learning.
There are
three four year universities, the University
of Louisville, Bellarmine University
, and Spalding
University, and several other business or technical schools
such as Sullivan University,
Spencerian College, ITT Technical Institute, Strayer University, and Louisville Technical
Institute. Indiana University Southeast
is located across the Ohio
River in New
Albany, Indiana.
The University of Louisville has notable achievements including the
discovery of the world's first cervical cancer vaccine, several
hand transplants, and the world's first wireless artificial heart
transplant. The school's Health Sciences Center in Downtown
Louisville is currently adding an expansive medical research market
on the city's old Haymarket site, which is projected to add 10,000
high paying jobs within 10 years.
According to the
U.S. Census, of Louisville's population over
twenty-five, 21.3% (the national average is 24%) hold a
bachelor's degree or higher, and 76.1%
(80% nationally) have a
high school
diploma or equivalent.
The public school system,
Jefferson County
Public Schools, consists of more than 98,000 students in 89
elementary schools, 24
middle schools, 22
high
schools and 22 other learning centers. Due to Louisville's
large
Catholic population, there are 27
Catholic schools in the city.
The
Kentucky
School for the Blind
for all of Kentucky's blind and visually impaired students is located in
Louisville.
Transportation
Louisville's main airport is the centrally
located Louisville International
Airport, whose IATA Airport
Code (SDF) reflects its former name of Standiford Field.
The
airport is also home to UPS's Worldport global air hub. UPS operates its largest
package-handling hub at Louisville International Airport and bases
its UPS Airlines division there. Over 3.5 million passengers and
over 3 billion pounds (1,400,000 t) of cargo pass through the
airport each year.
Louisville International
Airport is also the 4th busiest airport in the United
States in terms of cargo passage, and it is the 11th busiest in
cargo passage in the world. The historic but smaller Bowman
Field
is used mainly for general aviation.
The
McAlpine
Locks and Dam is located on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, near the downtown
area. The locks were constructed to allow shipping past the
Falls of
the Ohio. In 2001 over 55 million tons of commodities passed
through the locks. A new lock was constructed to replace two of the
auxiliary locks, with a projected completion date of 2008, but was
completed in early 2009.
Public transportation consists
mainly of buses run by the
Transit Authority of River
City (TARC).
The city buses serve all parts of downtown
Louisville and Jefferson County, as well as Kentucky suburbs in Oldham
County
, Bullitt County, and the Indiana suburbs of Jeffersonville, Clarksville and New Albany. A
light rail
system has been studied and proposed for the city, but no plan was
in development as of 2007.
Louisville has inner and outer interstate beltways,
I-264 and
I-265 respectively.
Interstate I-64,
I-65 pass
through Louisville, and
I-71 has its
southern terminus in Louisville.
Since all three of these highways
intersect at virtually the same location on the east side of
downtown, this spot has become known as "Spaghetti
Junction
". Two bridges carry I-64 and I-65 over the
Ohio River, and a third automobile bridge
carries non-interstate traffic. Plans for two more bridges to
connect Louisville to Indiana, along with a reconfiguration of
Spaghetti Junction, have been under consideration for years and
some exploratory construction began in 2007. One bridge would be
located downtown for relief of I-65 traffic. The other would
connect the Indiana and Kentucky I-265's (via KY-841). As with any
major project, there are detractors and possible alternatives; one
grassroots organization,
8664.org, has
proposed options for downtown revitalization improvements, and a
simpler and less expensive roadway design.
Louisville has historically been a major center for
railway traffic. The
Louisville and Nashville
Railroad was once headquartered here, before it was purchased
by
CSX Transportation. Today the
city is served by two major freight railroads,
CSX (with a major
classification yard in the southern part
of the metro area) and
Norfolk
Southern. Five major main lines connect Louisville to the rest
of the region. Two regional railroads, the
Paducah and Louisville
Railway and the
Louisville and Indiana
Railroad, also serve the city. With the discontinuance of the
short-lived
Kentucky Cardinal in 2003,
Amtrak passenger trains no
longer serve Louisville; it is thus the fifth-largest city in the
country with no passenger rail service.
Utilities
Electricity is provided to the
Louisville Metro area by
Louisville Gas & Electric,
a subsidiary of
E.ON US.
Water is provided by the Louisville Water Company, which
provides water to more than 800,000 residents in Louisville as well
as parts of Oldham and Bullitt counties. Additionally, they
provide wholesale water to the outlying counties of Shelby
, Spencer
and Nelson
.
The
Ohio River provides for most of the
city's source of
drinking water.
Water is drawn from the river at two points: the
raw water pump
station at Zorn and River Road, and the B.E. Payne Pump Station
northeast of Harrods Creek. Water is also obtained from a riverbank
infiltration well at the Payne Plant. There are also two
water treatment plants serving the
Louisville Metro area: The Crescent Hill Treatment Plant and the
B.E. Payne Treatment Plant. In June 2008, the Louisville Water
Company received the "Best of the Best" award from the American
Water Works Association, citing it the best-tasting drinking water
in the country.
Sister cities
Louisville has eight
sister
cities:
In addition, Leeds is considered a "friendship city".
The two cities have
engaged in many cultural exchange programs, particularly in the
fields of nursing and law, and cooperated in several private business
developments, including the Frazier
International History Museum.
On April
15, 2008, it was announced that Louisville would be twinned with
the town of Bushmills
in Northern Ireland
. The two places share a tradition for the
brewing of
whiskey.
The choice of
Louisville came after a search of U.S. cities, followed by an
online poll conducted for the public to
decide between three finalists, which also included Boston
and Portland, Maine
.
Notable people and events
Louisville has been home to a number of
well-known people, including inventor Thomas Edison, U.S.
Supreme
Court Justice Louis
Brandeis, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, famed primatologist Dian Fossey, newscaster Diane Sawyer, actor Tom
Cruise, the Speed family (including
U.S. Attorney General James Speed and
Abraham Lincoln's close friend
Joshua Fry Speed), the
Bingham family, industrialist/politician
James Guthrie,
U.S.
Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
and writers
Hunter S. Thompson and
Sue
Grafton.
Important events occurring in the city have included the
first public viewing place of Edison's
light bulb, the first
library open to
African Americans
in the South, and medical advances that include the first human
hand transplant, the first
self-contained
artificial heart
transplant, and the site of the development of the first
cervical cancer vaccine.
See also
References
- Yater, pp. 46–48
- Climate information from NOAA
- Maximum and minimum temperatures from Yahoo! Weather
- ref name="120606_CJ">Green, Marcus. "Museum Plaza plan
expands, cost grows", Courier-Journal [Louisville],
December 6, 2006. December 7, 2006 [1] .
- The Courier-Journal 2006–07 Kentuckiana
Guide
- " America's Safest (and Most Dangerous) Cities."
Morgan
Quitno Press. November 21, 2005. Retrieved on July 8,
2006.
- Data on Baptist Population from LRA website Long Run Baptist Association
- {{cite web|url=
http://www.louisvilleky.gov/News/WideNewsItem.htm?PostingGuid={C2B603F2-674F-4071-BAB9-C94AE3F9CA75}
|title= New Property Connects Sections of Jefferson Memorial Forest
-- Nov. 2009}}
- Data from Louisville Water
- Sister cities designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI) . Retrieved
June 1, 2006.
- " Friendship City Status." Sister Cities of
Louisville. 2006. Retrieved on June 1, 2006.
Further reading
External links
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