Cathedral Heritage Foundation
A Concise History of Louisville
from "Spirited City: Essays in Louisville History"
by Clyde F. Crews
V. Modern Mezzotropolis: 1945-1995
In post-war Louisville, vast centrifugal forces were at work, changing the urban landscape, and pulling the city outward from its old center: the ever-expanding suburbs, expressways, shopping centers, and General Electric's massive new Appliance Park. In this one generation alone, the number of automobiles in Louisville tripled. (Photo: Skyline, 1954)
Opportunities were not, however, universal. Old segregation patterns remained in place. The library system, for example, was not open to Louisville Blacks before 1948; nor the University until 1950. It would be the 1960's before legal restrictions in housing, accommodation and employment began to fall in the city. The Courier-Journal, under the editorship of Barry Bingham Sr., would be a leader in the fight for civil rights in the community, as were many religious organizations. As late as 1975, court-ordered school busing sought to redress the effects of segregation on education, only to touch off a long period of local unrest.
Nature played havoc with the city at times during these years; a flood in 1964; a devastating tornado in 1974; the hard, bitter winter of 1977-78; and the city's largest snowfall and coldest temperature on record in the winter of 1994. The economy of Louisville would take some body-blows as well. The city population and tax base began to shrink over against the county and metro region. Following national trends, the old industrial base of the city began to shrink as well. In 1963, 42% of jobs were industrial; in 1982, only 26%. Yet, total employment grew, as Louisville became increasingly a city of "service industries" which came to account for some 40% of area workers. Particularly in the area of medicine, Louisville became nationally noted. Meanwhile, some old Louisville landmarks vanished: Reynolds Metals, Fontaine Ferry Park, the Louisville Times, Stewart's historic downtown department store, Kentucky Baptist, St. Joseph and St. Anthony Hospitals.
A newly-merged Jefferson County school system (joining the old city and county units) steadily pushed toward greater achievement, while higher education became increasingly significant. The University of Louisville more than doubled in size and allied with the University of Kentucky. Bellarmine College was established in 1950, and would become the Commonwealth's largest private college. Jefferson Community College opened downtown, and later added a southwest campus. Spalding attained university status. An imaginative Metroversity consortium was established in 1971. Over a generation, the metro area had become a serious "college town" with over 40,000 students engaged in higher education.
Louisville found itself in the 1970's becoming increasingly aware of the value of its many distinctive neighborhoods. Ethnic festivals drew as many as 100,000 to downtown weekends. One of the largest preservation movements in American emerged in the city, and historical consciousness and publishing grew apace. On one particular point the city remained particularly traditional: by narrow margins in the 1980's, it twice defeated plans to merge city and county into metro government. Even so, an urban pact developed between the governments to increase cooperation and reduce duplication of services.
From the 1970's forward, Louisville grew in America's estimation as national publications, citing the city as a "thoroughbred" of the arts, drew attention to such local treasures as the Louisville Orchestra (which played Carnegie Hall in 1989), Kentucky Opera, Louisville Ballet, and the Bach Society. Special plaudits came forward for Actor's Theater of Louisville and its internationally acclaimed annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. (Photo: Kentucky Center for the Arts)
For excellence in achievement, arts, medical research and learning, Louisville is, in point of fact, a "world class" city. In 1993, Places Rated Almanac placed Louisville as the tenth best city (out of 300) in America for quality of life. The eminent historian Norman Cantor has commented that "the future cultural vanguard of the United States will be located in places like Minneapolis...Louisville or Seattle". Significantly, in the mid-1990's the President of the United States Conference of Mayors has been Louisville's Jerry Abramson.
In the post-war years Louisville came forward, too, as a national center of inter-faith co-operation. In the Louisville of the 1990's, it was not uncommon to find Buddhists, Christians, Jews and Muslims joined together in a place of worship. A city unique in having extremely large concentrations of both of American's largest religious groups, Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists, Louisville became the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in 1988.
The historic Cathedral of the Assumption which reopened after a stunning restoration in 1994, became a nationally recognized model for a church that remained true to its traditions, while becoming inner-city in its mission and inter-faith in its outreach. Meanwhile, as America began to reach out for a renewed spirituality and sense of purpose, Thomas Merton (1915-1968), a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville, became one of the nation's major spiritual figures.
Famous sports figures called metropolitan Louisville home in this era, among them: Muhammad Ali, Pat Day, Paul Hornung, Mary T. Meagher, Bobby Nichols, Pee Wee Reese, Phil Simms, Danny Sullivan and Fuzzy Zoeller to name only a few. The triple-A Louisville Redbirds brought professional baseball back to the city in 1982 and began a string of years of record-breaking attendance. The University of Louisville Cardinals twice in the 1980's won the NCAA basketball title. Additionally, nationally prominent people from other fields who had lived in the Louisville area for a time during the last two generations included: Ned Beatty, Tom Cruise, Sue Grafton, Marsha Norman, Hunter Thompson and Whitney Young, Jr.
The recent renaissance of Louisville's downtown has impressed itself mightily on citizens and visitors alike. New household words in this generation have center city addresses: Belvedere, Falls Fountain, Galleria, Humana Building, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Museum of Science, The Palace, Providian Tower, the downtown Trolley. The imaginative new waterfront now under construction between the downtown bridges and beyond holds immense promise for the city's future. Some 60-70 thousand people work daily in a rejuvenated downtown. Inevitably, perhaps, with gain there comes loss and pain. Killings at the Standard Gravure Company in 1989 took nine lives. The number of children in poverty in Jefferson County in the early 1990's had risen to over 20%. And the much-heralded move of the hospital giant Columbia HCA Corporation's headquarters to the city in 1994 resulted only in its quick departure to Nashville in early 1995.(Photo: Louisville Skyline, 1996)
Louisville remains a strategic regional city of America. One of its great assets, in addition to its pivotal location, is its size. With just under one million people in its metro area, it has well been termed a "mezzotropolis" , a medium-sized city in the same population league as some of its international sister cities: Mainz, Montpellier or Quito.
The city's ultimate strength remains that of its spirited people: a community of wit, imagination, toleration and compassion. Such qualities have sustained Louisville's population for nearly 220 years. Even with its faults and scars, Louisville remains pre-eminently a city to celebrate, a place that treasures both diversity and unity, an urban center of richly textured history and of significant future possibilities. (Photo: Louisville Galleria)
Photo credits:
- Skyline, 1954,University of Louisville.
- Kentucky Center for the Arts, 1996 Louisville Skyline and Galleria, Louisville & Jefferson County Convention & Visitors Bureau.
A presentation by: The Cathedral Heritage Foundation
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