Tourist information - Louisville
Louisville is a city in northern Kentucky and seat of Jefferson County. The city is a major port of entry on the southern bank of the Ohio River. Louisville is the economic focus of a large metropolitan area that stretches on the Ohio River into Indiana and also includes a great variety of industries. Manufactures consist of household appliances, farm machinery, trucks, motor-vehicle equipment, processed food; tobacco products, paint, and rubber to such Louisville specialties as bourbon whiskey, "Louisville Slugger" baseball bats, as well as books printed in Braille (see Braille System). United Parcel Service (UPS) has a regional headquarters within the city. Louisville, which includes extensive convention facilities, is served by Standiford Field Airport as well as by modern port installations.
Louisville is famous as the site of the Kentucky Derby, a Thoroughbred horse race held each May since 1875 at Churchill Downs racetrack. The Kentucky Derby Festival, a two-week event boasting a fireworks display along with balloon race, precedes the Derby. Louisville is as well home to the Kentucky State Fair, held each August. The city has many points of interest, among them the Louisville Falls Fountain, a floating water-and-light sculpture; the Belle of Louisville, a 1914 stern-wheeler still in operation; the Kentucky Art and also Craft Center, situated in among the city's five historic districts; and also the Cave Hill Cemetery, which includes a botanical garden.
Museums within the city are the J. B. Speed Art Museum, the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs, as well as the Louisville Slugger Museum. The city supports several performing arts groups, along with is the location of the Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Kentucky Center for the Arts, which houses the Kentucky Opera, the Louisville Ballet, the Louisville Orchestra, and also Stage One: The Louisville Children's Theatre.
Nearby city are the Louisville Zoo; the grave of President Zachary Taylor; Locust Grove, a Georgian-style mansion that was the residence of George Rogers Clark, founder of the original settlement; Farmington, a graceful Federal-style home constructed in 1810; along with Fort Knox, a military installation housing the nation's gold reserve. Institutions of higher education in Louisville include the University of Louisville (1798), Spalding University (1814), Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1853), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1858), Bellarmine College (1950), and also several junior colleges.
Located within an area once inhabited by the Shawnee people, the community was established in 1778 by George Rogers Clark as well as is the oldest settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains. Originally found on Corn Island at the Ohio River, the settlement was moved to its present site in 1779. It was named in 1780 for Louis XVI of France in gratitude for French assistance through the American Revolution (1775-1783). In 1828 it incorporated as a city.
At the 19th century Louisville was a primary commercial center for the developing South along with Midwest, prospering first being a transshipment point round the Falls of the Ohio, as well as later as a river port after a canal was constructed across the falls in 1830. The city became a rail center at the 1850s, as well as served being a Union stronghold throughout the American Civil War (1861-1865). Louisville was terribly destroyed by tornadoes in 1890 and 1974 and by a flood of the Ohio River in 1937. Its industrial base was broadened and also a number of new buildings were constructed within the 1960s along with 1970s. Louisville's population declined considerably at the 1970s and also 1980s, due to industry moving outside the city. The recession in the 1980s caused the loss of manufacturing jobs, but the population of its metropolitan area elevated.
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