Louisville is Kentucky's largest city and is the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders are coterminous with those of the county due to merger. The city's estimated population as of 2007 is 709,264 (consolidated; balance total is 557,789) with a population of 1,233,735 in the Louisville metropolitan area. Louisville is most famous as the home of "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports": the Kentucky Derby, the widely watched first race of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.

Louisville is situated in north-central Kentucky on the Kentucky - Indiana border at the only natural obstacle in the Ohio River, the Falls of the Ohio. Because it includes counties in Southern Indiana, the Louisville metropolitan area is regularly referred to as Kentuckiana. A resident of Louisville is referred to as a Louisvillian. Although situated in a Southern state, Louisville is influenced by both Midwestern and Southern culture and is commonly 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.

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 settlements grew up at this pausing point.

Louisville has been the site of many important innovations through history. Notable residents have included inventor Thomas Edison, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, 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. Notable events occurring in the city include the first public viewing place of Edison's light bulb, the first library open to African Americans in the South and medical advances including the first human hand transplant, the first self-contained artificial heart transplant and the development site of the first cervical cancer vaccine.

The first European settlement made in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was on Corn Island in 1778 by Col. George Rogers Clark. Today, Clark is recognized as the founder of Louisville and several landmarks 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 at the time were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War. Early residents lived in forts due to Indian raids, but were moving out by the late 1780s. In 1803, explorers Meriwether Lewis and George Rogers Clark's younger brother William Clark organized their expedition across America at the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville.

The city attributes its early growth to 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. Louisville was the turning point for many enslaved blacks since Kentucky, although it was to be a border state in the Civil War, was nevertheless a slave state and crossing the Ohio River could lead to freedom in the North. Its significant black population and location on the Ohio River resulted in it 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 itself had not been attacked once, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville and Corydon, took place nearby. After 1865 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 to 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. 10,000 spectators were present at the first Derby to watch Aristides win the race.

On March 27, 1890 the city was devastated and downtown nearly destroyed when an F4 tornado tore through the city at 8:30pm 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 signs of the tornado were nearly totally absent within a year.

In late January and February 1937, a month of heavy rain in which 19" fell prompted what became remembered as the "Great Flood of '37". The flood submerged about 70% of the city, power was lost, and it forced the evacuation of 175,000 residents, and also led to fundamental changes in where residents bought houses. 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 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 people used newly built freeways and interstates to commute to work and moved into newer housing. Businesses found it cheaper, because of tax laws, to build new rather than renovate older buildings. Economic changes meant 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 Super Outbreak of tornadoes that struck 13 states. It covered 21 miles (34 km) and destroyed several hundred homes in the Louisville area. Only two people died.

Jefferson County had a population loss of 31,000 from 1970 to 1990, but has since gained 45,000. The population within the old city limits dropped by 134,000 from its peak in 1970, falling from 33rd nationally to 58th, although its population is now stabilizing.

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 neighborhood. Downtown has had significant 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

Louisville is located at 38°13′44″N & 85°44′58″W. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Louisville Metro (in 2000 measurements for Jefferson County) has a total area of 399 square miles (1,032 km²), of which, 385 square miles (997 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (35 km²) of it (3.38%) is water.

Louisville is located in the Bluegrass region. Its development has been more 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 and had to be drained as the city grew. In the 1840s most creeks were rerouted or placed in canals to prevent flooding and subsequent disease outbreaks.

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.

Between the 1990 Census and 2000 Census, the Louisville MSA's population outgrew Lexington's by 149,415 and Cincinnati's by 23,278. This 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. The Louisville CSA ranks 39th in the U.S. in population.

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 to all directions like the spokes of a wheel. The airport is located approximately 6.75 miles (10 km) south of the downtown area. The industrial sections of town are located to the south and west of the airport, while most of the residential areas of the city are located 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.

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 boast the largest collection of cast iron facades of anywhere outside of New York's SoHo district. All of the street name signs in Louisville have the fleur de lis image on them as a reminder of the French heritage of the city.

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 Africans 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.

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:

• Brown-Forman Corporation (Fortune 1000)
• Hillerich & Bradsby (known for Louisville Slugger baseball bats)
• Hilliard Lyons (investment firm)
• Humana (Fortune 100)
• Kindred Healthcare Incorporated (Fortune 500)
• Norton Healthcare
• Papa John's Pizza
• PharMerica (Fortune 1000)
• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Republic Bank & Trust Company
• SHPS (healthcare and human resources services company)
• Stock Yards Bank & Trust
• Yum! Brands (owners of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell)

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 scandals 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.

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 & 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 & 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, as well as information on the core themes that he has taken to heart: peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth.

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 ten thousand 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.

Parks and Outdoor Attractions

Louisville Metro has 122 city parks covering more than 14,000 acres (57 km²). 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 2.6-mile (4.2 km) 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 6,057 acres (24.52 km²), is the largest municipal urban forest in the United States. The forest is designated as a National Audubon Society wildlife refuge and offers over 30 miles (50 km) 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 1,600-acre (6 km) 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.

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 overwhelmingly 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 KY 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.