Portland Historic District | |
Location | Louisville, Kentucky |
---|---|
Website | portlandlouisville.com |
NRHP reference No. | 80001615 [1] |
Added to NRHP | February 21, 1980 |
Portland is a historic district, 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 National Wildlife Conservation Area, 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.
Gen. William Lytle II, the founder of Cincinnati, Ohio, owned a large amount of land just below the Falls of the Ohio and in 1811 laid out the settlement of Portland. He planned to sell the lots to finance his plan to build a canal around the Falls. Lytle authorized Joshua Barclay and Alexander Ralston to design the town, which featured a Northeast to Southwest street grid. The original settlement was between what is now 36th and 33rd Street along the Ohio River, which included a large wharf. The settlement quickly grew to the east in a Northwest to Southeast street grid, which noticeably contrasts to the east–west grid of adjacent areas of Louisville.
The advent of steamboats on the Mississippi occurred simultaneously with Portland's development, allowing the Ohio River to be used as a major freight shipping route in what was then the American Frontier. Portland was located just downstream from the only natural obstacle on the Ohio River, so all large boats traveling on the Ohio had to stop to move their freight by land around the Falls and reload them on another boat. With a captive audience and a need for freight hauling, Portland's Wharf flourished as numerous taverns, warehouses, and shipyards were built. By 1814 French immigrants from Alsace began populating the town. [2]
By 1817 the original street grid had run out of room and was expanded to 40th Street on the west and 13th Street on the east in 1817 to facilitate the additional growth. It quickly became a rival of Louisville and the nearer-by settlement of Shippingport. The three were first connected by road in 1818. This road, initially called the Louisville & Portland Turnpike, became Portland Avenue.
An important early home was the Squire Earick house (719 N. 34th Street), which was home of the first magistrate, and also used as the settlement's courthouse and jail. Another landmark was the Church of Our Lady now Good Shepherd Catholic Church, started in 1839 and the third building, built in 1873, still standing in 2010.
From 1826 to 1833, the Louisville and Portland Canal was built around the Falls, causing many of the warehouses and shipyards to close and shifting economic power on the Falls to nearby Louisville, although Portland would continue to grow as many French and Irish immigrants moved there. (The demonym "Hoosier" given to residents of Indiana since the early 1830s has been linked to the construction of the canal, allegedly because a contractor named Samuel Hoosier preferred Indiana workers over those from Kentucky, and they were therefore dubbed as "Hoosier's Men.") It was incorporated in 1834, but then annexed by Louisville in 1837 after a compromise by which the canal would be widened to handle larger ships but the new rail line going from Lexington to the Ohio River would go to Portland's wharf instead of Louisville's. However, after the new line collapsed into bankruptcy in 1840 having only reached as far as Louisville, Portlanders voted in 1842 to become independent again, although ten years later the area was annexed a second time.
Although now just a neighborhood of the much larger Louisville, Portland would continue to flourish as a working class community through the 1930s, with residents working in many of the nearby factories. The largest Ohio River flood in recorded history occurred in 1937 and inundated all of Portland, with areas closest to the river nearly being wiped out. Plans began immediately to protect the area with a flood wall, but World War II occupied the priority of the government's engineers. Just eight years later in 1945 the second largest flood in Louisville's history occurred. In its aftermath all areas of Portland nearest to the river were razed, including the Portland Wharf, and a gigantic flood wall was built to a height three feet above the level of the 1937 flood. Both floods had driven many middle-class families from the area. Despite the loss of many of area's oldest buildings, portions of the neighborhood away from the flood wall were largely untouched by urban renewal, and retain a great number of pre-Civil War buildings. Although many older mansions exist in Portland, the vast majority of homes built in the area were shotgun houses.
As of 2015, the estimated population of Portland is 11,810. Portland has historically been home to a diverse population, including one of the earliest settlements of free, property-holding black people who co-existed as 10–15% of Portland's resident population (according to Louisville historian Rick Bell). Archives of this community are part of the collection at Portland Museum, (2308 Portland Ave), though the museum is undergoing a massive effort to make these resources readily available to the public. Changes over time in the neighborhood are largely attributed to white flight and the devastating Ohio River floods of 1937 and 1945.
In 2006, Portland was named by First Lady Laura Bush to be a Preserve America community. Communities designated through the program are allowed to use the Preserve America logo on signs and promotional materials and are eligible to apply for grants that will be administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
There are several futures plans to help revive parts of Portland, including the creation of a museum and arts district in the Portland Warehouse District (which sits just 2 blocks from Louisville's Museum Row), and opening several historic buildings to the public. There are also plans for the creation of several large parks along the Portland Waterfront. When complete, the Portland Wharf Park will bear a striking resemblance to Downtown Louisville's Waterfront Park. There are also plans to great a "Great Lawn West" just west of the 9th Street/I-64 interchange.
Portland is home to a large number of Louisville's most prominent historic landmarks and a large percent of the city's pre Civil War buildings. Although currently not open to the public, the United States Marine Hospital of Louisville is considered one of the most architecturally important historic sites in the US. Completed in 1847, it is widely considered the best remaining antebellum-era hospital in the US and is the only remaining of the seven original hospitals built in the mid-19th century by the Marine Hospital Service. After sitting abandoned for several decades, the building's exterior has been fully restored to match its appearance in 1899, with the inside still being restored.
There are many other 19th-century landmarks in Portland, including the Notre Dame du Port Church (1841) (now Good Shepherd Church), the Montgomery Street School (1852), and numerous privately owned mansion houses, many of which were built by steamboat captains. The entire Portland Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1996 Louisville's first bike trail was opened along Portland's waterfront. The seven mile long River Walk has since been extended 20 miles to the Farnsley Morman Landing near Valley Station and is going to be part of a 110 mi (180 km) long bike trail encircling Louisville. The River Walk also links Portland directly to Downtown Louisville and Shawnee Park. The Portland Library serves the neighborhood area.
In an attempt to revitalize the community, the Table, a pay-what-you-can restaurant, was started November 2015. The Table since then has exploded and was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show. The Table has provided gourmet, nourishing food for homeless people and encourages working instead of handouts.
As of 2000, the population of Portland was 11,811, [4] of which 71.7% are white, 24.5% are black, 3.1% are listed as other, and 0.8% are Hispanic. College graduates are 3.3%, people without a high school degree are 46.3%. Females are 51.9% of the population, males are 48.1%. Households making less than $15,000 a year are 38.7%.
Originally settled by French and Irish immigrants, since WWII most of the original immigrant families left for the South End of Louisville, and Portland is now mostly populated by displaced rural Kentuckians of British Isles heritage. In 2000 less than 1% of Portlanders claimed French ancestry and only 10% claimed Irish ancestry. Over 20% of Portlanders claimed 'American' ancestry, which is the most common ancestry in the rural South.
Portland has a lending library, a branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. [5]
Portland has been home to many notable people over the years:
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.
A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a square bow, a shallow draft, and typically have knees, which are large plates mounted to the bow for pushing barges of various heights. These boats usually operate on rivers and inland waterways. Multiple barges lashed together, or a boat and any barges lashed to it, are referred to as a "tow" and can have dozens of barges. Many of these vessels, especially the long distance, or long haul boats, include living quarters for the crew.
The Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area is a national, bi-state area on the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States, administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Federal status was awarded in 1981. The falls were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1966.
Old Louisville is a historic district and neighborhood in central Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is the third largest such district in the United States, and the largest preservation district featuring almost entirely Victorian architecture. It is also unique in that a majority of its structures are made of brick, and the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of residential homes with stained glass windows in the U.S. Many of the buildings are in the Victorian era styles of Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, or Italianate, and many blocks have had few or no buildings razed. There are also several 20th-century buildings from 15 to 20 stories.
The Greater Richmond, Virginia area has many neighborhoods and districts.
Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jacob Streets to the south, and 9th Street to the west. As of 2015, the population of downtown Louisville was 4,700, although this does not include directly surrounding areas such as Old Louisville, Butchertown, NuLu, and Phoenix Hill.
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 McAlpine Locks and Dam are a set of locks and a hydroelectric dam at the Falls of the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky. They are located at mile point 606.8, and control a 72.9 miles (117.3 km) long navigation pool. The locks and their associated canal were the first major engineering project on the Ohio River, completed in 1830 as the Louisville and Portland Canal, designed to allow shipping traffic to navigate through the Falls of the Ohio.
Clifton is a neighborhood east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky USA. Clifton was named because of its hilly location on the Ohio River valley escarpment. Clifton is bounded by I-64, N Ewing Ave, Brownsboro Road, and Mellwood Ave.
The Point was a thriving 19th century neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, east of Downtown Louisville and opposite Towhead Island along the Ohio River. It was also located north of the present day Butchertown area.
The Fourteenth Street Bridge, also known as the Ohio Falls Bridge, Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, Conrail Railroad Bridge or Louisville and Indiana (L&I) Bridge, is a truss drawbridge that spans the Ohio River, between Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana.
Shippingport, Kentucky is an industrial site and one of the six formerly independent settlements at the Falls of the Ohio in what is now Louisville, Kentucky. It was located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Ohio River, and incorporated without a name on October 10, 1785. It was later named Campbell Town after Revolutionary War soldier and settler John Campbell. He had been granted the land for his earlier service in the French & Indian War.
Mayor Andrew Broaddus is a lifesaving station built by the United States Life-Saving Service located in Louisville, Kentucky, off the corner of River Road and Fourth Street. She is named in honor of Andrew Broaddus (1900–1972), a former mayor of Louisville (1953–1957). Her historic purpose was to protect travelers on the Ohio River from the Falls of the Ohio, with rescue crews for those who fell victim to the rapids. Louisville was the first place where a lifesaving station was placed in western waters. The first lifestation in Louisville was in 1881, with Mayor Andrew Broaddus as the third. A National Historic Landmark, she is the only surviving floating lifesaving station of the US Life-Saving Service.
Louisville, Kentucky is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations, the most noteworthy being the Old Louisville neighborhood, the third largest historic preservation district in the United States. The city also boasts the postmodern Humana Building and an expanding Waterfront Park which has served to remove the former industrial appearance of the riverfront.
The Louisville and Portland Canal was a 2-mile (3.2 km) canal bypassing the Falls of the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky. The Falls form the only barrier to navigation between the origin of the Ohio at Pittsburgh and the port of New Orleans near the Gulf of Mexico; circumventing them was long a goal for Pennsylvanian and Cincinnatian merchants. The canal opened in 1830 as the private Louisville and Portland Canal Company but was gradually bought out during the 19th century by the federal government, which had invested heavily in its construction, maintenance, and improvement.
The influence of those of French ancestry on Louisville, Kentucky, USA and the surrounding area, especially New Albany, Indiana, began in the 18th century. The city was named for King Louis XVI of France. Before Louisville was established, the site was once home to a French outpost called La Belle.
The Squire Earick House is the oldest known wood-frame house in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, built in 1812 in the Portland area of the city, which was then a town all its own. It has had many owners and a complicated history.
The Indiana Canal Company was a corporation first established in 1805 for the purpose of building a canal around the Falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. After several attempts, and possible sabotage by a supporter of the Louisville and Portland Canal, the project was ended.
Many Neighborhoods of Toledo, Ohio are of historic interest.
James D. Porter, known as "Big Jim" Porter was an American tavern keeper and coach driver. in the mid-nineteenth century and internationally famous as the tallest man in the country. Porter stood 7 feet 8 inches tall, weighed 300 pounds, had hands 13 inches long from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger and feet that were 14 ½ inches long. Upon meeting him, Charles Dickens wrote in his 1842 travelogue American Notes and Pictures of Italy that Porter walked in a crowd as a lighthouse among lampposts.