Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city, although by population density, it is the 265th most dense city. Louisville is the historical county seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
Newburg is a former census-designated place in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 20,636 at the 2000 census. On January 6, 2003, the area was annexed to the city of Louisville due to a merger between the city and Jefferson County's unincorporated communities. Newburg is now thought to be a neighborhood within the now merged city of Louisville.
Portland is a neighborhood and former independent town northwest of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It is situated along a bend of the Ohio River just below the Falls of the Ohio, where the river curves to the north and then to the south, thus placing Portland at the northern tip of urban Louisville. In its early days it was the largest of the six major settlements at the falls, the others being Shippingport and Louisville in Kentucky and New Albany, Clarksville, and Jeffersonville on the Indiana side. Its modern boundaries are the Ohio River along the northwest, north, and northeast, 10th Street at the far east, Market Street on the south, and the Shawnee Golf Course at the far west.
The history of Louisville, Kentucky spans nearly two-and-a-half centuries since its founding in the late 18th century. The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids midway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. The town of Louisville, Kentucky was chartered there in 1780. From its early days on the frontier, it quickly grew to be a major trading and distribution center in the mid-19th century and an important industrial city in the early 20th. The city declined in the mid-20th century, but by the late 20th, it was revitalized as a culturally-focused mid-sized American city.
The New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) is the public library of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Succeeding earlier libraries in the city, it opened in 1897. Three branches were added by 1908. Carnegie library branches were added in 1911 and 1915. By 2005 a dozen branches were open. The main library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hayfield-Dundee is a neighborhood in eastern Louisville, Kentucky. Its boundaries are Dundee Road, Emerson Avenue, Newburg Road, I-264, and Tremont Drive to the east. Prior to subdivision, much of the land had been part of the Hayfield Farm, owned by Dr. Charles Wilkens Short, a founding professor of the University of Louisville medical school.
The government of Louisville, Kentucky, headquartered at Louisville City Hall in Downtown Louisville, is organized under Chapter 67C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes as a First-Class city in the state of Kentucky. Created after the merger of the governments of Louisville, Kentucky and Jefferson County, Kentucky, the city/county government is organized under a mayor-council system. The Mayor is elected to four-year terms and is responsible for the administration of city government. The Louisville Metro Council is a unicameral body consisting of 26 members, each elected from a geographic district, normally for four-year terms. The Mayor is limited to a two consecutive term limit, while members of the Louisville Metro Council are not term limited.
The Crescent Hill Branch Library, constructed in 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky, was one of the first of nine Carnegie-endowed libraries built in Louisville, and is a branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. The building has a Beaux-Arts architecture style created by the Thomas & Bohne architect firm. The west side of the library was added in 1961 and the entire library was renovated in 1988. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 for its architectural significance and the educational impact on the community up to 1924.
Charles F. Grainger was mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1901 to 1905. He became president of Grainger & Company, his family's iron foundry.
Kaufman-Straus was a local department store that operated in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1879 to 1969. In 1879, local retail clerk Henry Kaufman opened the first store on Jefferson between 7th and 8th. Four years later, Benjamin Straus entered into partnership with Kaufman. In 1887, the Kaufman-Straus store moved to South 4th Street in space leased from the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky. The new flagship store opened in 1903, at 533-49 South 4th Street, designed by local architect Mason Maury. In 1924, Kaufman-Straus was acquired by City Stores Company and the following year the flagship store underwent extensive renovations. City Stores rebranded the company as Kaufman's in 1960. It operated two stores in suburban Louisville at The Mall and Dixie Manor. In 1969, Kaufman's was acquired by L. S. Ayres, and the downtown Louisville store was subsequently closed in 1971.
On August 4, 2009, a flash flood occurred and impacted Louisville and portions of the surrounding Kentuckiana region as a cold front and mesoscale convective system moved across the Midwestern United States. The National Weather Service estimated that between three and six inches of rain fell across the city in less than one hour, breaking all previous one-hour rainfall records in the area. Most of the downtown area was underwater, with the deluge reaching four feet (1.2 m) deep in places.
The Louisville Free Public Library's Western Branch or Western Library is a public library in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a Carnegie library and is the first public library built for African Americans staffed entirely by African Americans. Previously known as Louisville Free Public Library, Western Colored Branch, and registered as a historic site in that name, it is a branch of the Louisville Free Public Library system. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Rachel Davis Harris was an American librarian and activist. She was an influential female African American director and children's librarian of the Louisville Free Public Library, Western Colored Branch, one of the first segregated libraries built in the southern United States. She promoted library outreach to youths and equitable access to library services in the black community during the Jim Crow era.
From 1876 to 1913, the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky was an educational, cultural and scientific organization based in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The creation of the society was to serve as a funding source for the Public Library of Kentucky which had gone bankrupt. The society operated on Fourth Street, inside Library Hall, until 1901.
The Public Library of Kentucky was opened to the public on April 27, 1872, inside the Central Market building in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The library consisted of thousands of volumes of books, an art gallery and a museum. It was the dream of its founders to build a museum inside the library that would rival the British Museum of the United Kingdom. However, the dream was a con that brought upon a lottery scandal that shocked Louisville and the world.
Paul Allen Towne was an American educator, bibliophile, editor and librarian. He was the founder of the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky.
Thomas Fountain Blue was a minister, educator, and civic leader who led the Colored Branches of the Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL) and was an early trainer of African-American librarians. Blue was the first African-American to head a public library and his efforts led to the Louisville Free Public Library being nationally recognized as a leader in segregated library administration and education for African Americans.
Marian M. Hadley was Nashville, Tennessee's first African American librarian, serving as the first librarian of the Nashville Negro Public Library, a branch of the Nashville Public Library for African American patrons. She went on to work at the Chicago Public Library for almost twenty years, building and promoting the library's collection of African American history and culture.
The Louisville Main Library is the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, which is a public library system serving the city of Louisville, Kentucky.
