Cathedral Heritage Foundation
A Concise History of Louisville
from "Spirited City: Essays in Louisville History"
by Clyde F. Crews
IV. Progress And Adversity: 1900-1945
When the twentieth century began, Louisville's population had passed the 200,000 mark, a doubling in a single generation. In 1900, Louisville was still among the nation's twenty largest cities, twice as large as Los Angeles and Atlanta; and four times bigger than Dallas or Houston. Partly egged on by Watterson and others' insistence on becoming part of a new industrial South, the city had become increasingly a place of manufacture. But there were clouds in the urban sky. (Photo: General Plywood Plant, 1940)
Politically, Louisville and its Commonwealth were in near chaos. In 1900, William Goebel, Kentucky's governor, had died from an assassin's bullet. With him, some historians have noted, also died the movement for progressive politics in Kentucky for several generations. Additionally, in 1907, the Kentucky Court of Appeals declared that the Louisville elections of 1905 were so corrupt that everyone had to be sent packing out of office: mayor, alderman...the whole lot. Moving vans became part of the landscape at Sixth and Jefferson. Nor did the city any longer hold the economic trump card over southern markets as it once had done.
During the First World War, the city's fortune seemed for a time to reverse. The city landed Camp Taylor, one of fifteen major military training centers to be built in America. With the construction of this facility for 50,000 men, new economic life was pumped into the area. Yet the camp proved something of a Trojan-Horse gift to the city. For it was there that the terrible influenza of 1918 made one of its first major inroads into Louisville. Over 800 died on the post, and over 900 others in the city. This last figure represented three times the number of Louisville-area soldiers who had perished in the Great War. (Photo: Military Parade)
The years after the Treaty of Versailles saw Louisville representing a fairly typical American pattern. Growth and prosperity predominated in the Jazz-Age Twenties: Bowman Field opened and Charles Lindbergh piloted his Spirit of St. Louis there shortly after his epic Atlantic flight of 1927. The University of Louisville moved to its new Belknap campus. The J. B. Speed Art Museum became one of the first such institutions in the South.
Majestic movie palaces sprouted along Fourth Avenue, the city's main-line. Yet, the prohibition of the Twenties had hit one of Louisville's major industries, distilling, very hard.The Depression of the 1930's struck home very quickly with the failure of the huge, Louisville-based, Bank of Kentucky in 1930. Within three years, unemployment of the city's work force had reached a staggering 34%. But Louisville had a significant difference from the rest of the country because of its unique industrial base: cigarette smoking went up massively in America during the Depression, and the city was poised and ready to supply the need. (Photo: Fourth Street, 1929)
Despite the Depression, the amenities continued. Gershwin and Rachmaninoff performed in Louisville. Robert Frost arrived to read his poetry. The Louisville Orchestra was founded. Two Louisville residents became significant international figures: Republican Frederick Sackett served as Ambassador to Germany, until the arrival of Hitler; and Democrat Robert Worth Bingham, owner of the Courier-Journal, was Ambassador to Great Britain.
The year 1937 brought on the city an epochal Flood. Over 200,000 had to evacuate their homes; some 200 died. Thoroughfares became canals as heat, light and drinking water failed across the area. The city showed remarkable calm, courage and solidarity in those darkest of days, and recovery was achieved in record time. The next year, President Roosevelt stopped by the city to congratulate the people on their accomplishment (and to stump for Alben Barkley in his own epic struggle against Happy Chandler in the 1938 senatorial campaign.) (Photo: 1937 flood)
At the start of December, 1941, a young, vigorous Wilson Wyatt was inaugurated as the city's mayor. Wyatt would bring a new professionalism and planning-consciousness to city government. One week after entry into office, he would also have to cope with a strategic city in a nation gone to war. Major synthetic rubber and ammunition plants were constructed at a feverish pace in the area, and by 1944 some 80,000 war-related jobs were in place in greater Louisville.
Photo credits:
- General Plwood Plant,1940, University of Louisville.
- American Legion Convention Parade, 1929, University of Louisville.
- Fourth Street, 1929, University of Louisville.
- 1937 Flood.
A presentation by: The Cathedral Heritage Foundation
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