Viewing page 15 of 43

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

of automobiles, commercial printing, and the manufacture of farm implements and machinery, leather goods, plumber's supplies, sanitary equipment, reed organs, baseball bats, boxes, nicotine products, textiles, paints, varnishes, and automobile are all part of Louisville's contribution to modern living. Additional assets to the city's economy are the various military establishments in and around Louisville, such as Fort Knox where the United States gold reserve is stored; the U.S. Quartermaster depot at Jeffersonville, Indiana and the municipal and military airfield at Bowman Field.

Churches

There are some 200 churches, representing nearly all creeds in Louisville. The principal denominations are the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Christians, the Episcopalians, the Catholics, and the Lutherans but there are also Unitarians, Evangelists, Jews and those who call themselves, Non-sectarians, Scientists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Social Settlement, Spiritualism, Swedenborgians, United Brethren, and Theosophists. Some of the Houses of worship, like the Cathedral of Assumption, the Warren Memorial, the Third Avenue Baptist Church, and Fourth Street Christian are fine specimens of ecclesiastical architecture and capable of seating large congregations. 

Social Advancement

Many early planters who later became associated with the life of the city were large slave owners and the residents of Louisville kept house servants who, after the manner of the time, assumed the family name. This transplanted Negro stock is the foundation of the city's present Negro life and culture. Despite his background of decades of slavery in the Negro in Louisville, has adapted himself remarkably well to the environment of freedom. Illiteracy has dropped from about 96% in 1865 to a percentage well only slightly above the whites. Illiterates, white and negro, reported by the United States census reached a low 2.2. The first free public library for Negroes, with Negro attendants, was opened in 1905 as a branch of the city public library. Louisville is the only city in the State that has two Carnegie branch buildings for Negro readers. Local Negroes have a complete system of primary and secondary schools in addition to the Louisville Municipal College-part of the University of Louisville. The U.S. census recorded that 45.6% of all Negro families, are home owners in Louisville. Negro neighborhoods have their own stores, hotels, restaurants, newspaper publishing houses, and theaters. The voting power of the City's 47,354 Negro population is a huge factor in the progress of the race in Louisville.

Education

The University of Louisville is an accredited, co-educational institution. It is located on five separate campuses in Louisville and is under public control. The University is the oldest municipal school in America. Although it was chartered as the Louisville Collegiate Institute by an act of the city council in 1798, for a medical school, instruction did not begin until 1837. The University of Louisville, chartered in 1847, absorbed the college's academic department. Today, some scholarship help is available but more than half of the students earn part of their expenses. Residential facilities are extremely limited however and though there are fraternities and sororities on the campus, they do not provide living quarters for out-of-town students, who are dependent mainly on accommodations outside the college.

26


Parks

Louisville's parks ring the city in a loose half-circle and include Iroquois, Cherokee, Seneca, and Shawnee. Cherokee, is a beautiful new park built exclusively for Louisville's Negro residents and tourists. It is located on Kentucky Lake near Eggner's Ferry Bridge, the route by which U.S. 68 crosses the lake. Louisville's parks are individually typical of the Kentucky Bluegrass country, the Kentucky Knobs, and English meadowlands are all noted for their charm. Numerous smaller parks add to the City's recreational facilities which include golf courses, 84 tennis courts, 4 swimming pools, 34 baseball diamonds, 12 playgrounds with an organized time progress for all ages, and open-air theater for theatricals and pageants, numerous picnic areas and 48 miles of par drives and parkways and bridle paths. 

Monuments

There are a number of interesting monuments in and near Louisville. On Browsboro Road there are the tomb of monument to Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States. The Confederate monument is at 3rd and Shipp Streets. In front of the Courthouse is the Jefferson monument. There are Statues of Lincoln and George D Prentice in Library Place. A statue of Daniel Boone is in Cherokee Park and one of General John B. Castleman on Cherokee Parkway. In the Courthouse is a statue of Henry Clay. A granite monument at Seventh and Main streets marks the site of Fort Nelson.

The Kentucky Derby

The famous Blue grass of Kentucky derives its name from the bluish hue imparted to the landscape by the color of the seed vessels of the grass which lies like a soft, thick mat on the undulating surface of the hills and dales. This exceptionally luxuriant vegetation which marks the country-side nourishes the thoroughbred horses whose reputation for speed and beauty are world-wide.

Horses and Horse farms probably rank as the number one Tourist attraction because horse-racing is by all odds Louisville's most exciting sport. The spring and fall meets provide something to see and add an extra fillip to conversation during the 29 days of racing each year, but the Kentucky Derby is America's foremost horse-racing classic.

Colonel Lewis M. Clark, a prominent local sportsman went to England in 1872 and there, after viewing the Epsom Derby formulated the idea of inaugurating a race of like nature in Louisville. He possessed a strong inclination for entertaining and upon his return to America transformed his living quarters at Churchill Downs into a clubhouse. There, he elegantly displayed and celebrated hospitality of the South to his guests which through the ensuing generations still has a compelling appeal for all levels of American society.

The first Derby was run on the seventeenth of May 1875 and was the subject of much comment even from New York papers. They reported a crowd of 10,000 spectators and gave special emphasis to the "dazzling array of feminine loveliness." The Derby had its ups and downs, its trial and tribulations during succeeding years, but gradually through reorganization and good management under the direction of Colonel Matt Winn, it achieved recognition as one of the richest as well as the most romantic stake race in the world.

For days before the annual event all masculine talk in Louisville centers around the condition of the horses, the possibility of rain and the betting 

27

Transcription Notes:
I put the page numbers at the bottom in brackets because I was unsure if the page numbers were to be included or not and where. Also, the first page started with part of a word and that was included as well.