Zachary Taylor’s father, Colonel Richard Taylor, purchased a 400-acre farm on the Muddy Fork of Beargrass Creek in 1785, when Zachary was eight months old. They had originally lived in a log cabin on the property, and within five years Richard Taylor using slave labor built the house at the highest point on his property, naming it “Springfield”. By 1800 he had purchased an additional three hundred acres.

Springfield is a  2 1⁄2-story Georgia Colonial brick L-shaped house. The western section of the house was built around 1790. The eastern section was built between 1810 and 1830.

Major additions and changes include Victorian era porches, the altered staircase direction, and eaves with bracketed cornices.

The property was adjacent to Locust Grove, the farm where George Rogers Clark lived from 1809 until his death in 1818. Before he began his military career in 1808, Zachary Taylor lived in the house for twenty years.

The house was sold after Richard Taylor’s death in 1829. After his death in 1850, Zachary Taylor was buried in the family cemetery located on the property. This later became the original section of Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.

Much of the original 700 acre property remained together until the 1950s when it was subdivided. Today the property is 3/4 of an acre.

The house suffered major wind and water damage during the April 3, 1974 tornado, including the two porches and the roof being blown off.

Due to the proximity of the surrounding neighborhood buildings attempts to make the property a National Historic Site have failed.

The Taylor home is currently a private residence and not open to the public.

Kentucky Historical Society
National Park Service

A147-acre farm that Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. purchased for the Louisville Jockey Club and Driving Park Assoc. from the Churchill family to replace the old Oakland Race Course that had been established in 1832 on a 55-acre plot at the present day 7th St. and Magnolia Ave.

The original track entrance lodge, grandstand, clubhouse, and stables on the S.W. turn that were used for the first running of the Kentucky Derby in 1875 are all gone today.

The Louisville Jockey Club was renamed Churchill Downs in 1937 and the racetrack has undergone a myriad of changes over the years. By 1896 all of the original structures had been replaced. A brick and metal girder grandstand was built on the west side of the track that included the famous twin spires. Some of that grandstand still exists. The classical clubhouse built in 1902 stood until the major remodeling in 2004 created most of what we see today.

In the 1940s the grandstands were extended around the first curve, and in the 1960s VIP skyboxes were built where the old clubhouse had stood, giving the facade the appearance of a giant ship. The museum was added in 1985.

The major remodeling project of the early 2000s expanded the track’s capacity for spectators, which can now handle 165,000 fans for the Kentucky Derby.

The place rather than the buildings give Churchill Downs its National Historic Landmark status. Fans come to witness the story, the running of horses, and winning of bets on a race.

www.churchilldowns.com

First planned in the 1860s, the Water Tower is the oldest and most ornamental structure of its kind in the country. It merged “architectural beauty with industrial efficiency”.

Unknown to residents at the time, the lack of a safe water supply presented a significant health risk to the city. Louisville got the nickname “graveyard of the west” in the 1830-40s due to the polluted local water coming from tainted private wells, giving Louisville residents cholera and typhoid at epidemic levels.

After several devastating fires in the 1850s, Louisville voters approved the investment and the water company became a government-owned corporation.

The Greek temple themed tower was able to produce 12 million gallons of water a day that flowed through the city’s 26 miles of pipes. After the water project’s completion in 1866, Louisville was free of cholera.

A tornado in 1890 destroyed the tower, the original wood paneled tower was replaced with cast iron. Two of the original ten statues surrounding the tower were also destroyed. A new pumping station and reservoir opened in Crescent Hill after that, and the original water tower ceased pumping operations in 1909.

The water tower is a standpipe. When water is pumped to the top of the tower a gravity flow is created to fill a connected reservoir at an equal elevation without additional pumping.

The Louisville WaterWorks Museum opened in 2014. A portion of the facility is a museum that tells the story of Louisville’s water history.

Wed. – Fri. 1-5
Sat. – Sun. 10-3

$5, seniors $4, youths $3

3005 River Rd.

Louisville Water Tower Park

In 1837, Congress authorized the construction of the U.S. Marine Hospital in Louisville “for the benefit of sick seamen, boatmen, and other navigators on the western rivers and lakes.” In the parlance of the day, “western rivers and lakes” referred to the Ohio and Mississippi river systems and the Great Lakes.

In the 1840s, steamboats dominated river traffic and were the major factor in the growth and development of industry. Construction of the hospital began in 1845, but wasn’t completed until 1852.

The hospital’s site, midway between the Louisville and Portland wharves, was selected for the “beneficial effect of a view of the water, and the impressions and associations it would naturally awake in the minds of men whose occupation were so intimately connected with it.”

The boatmen served by the hospital worked difficult and dangerous jobs. Injuries due to engine or boiler explosions, wrecks, collisions with river snags, and freight handling, were common. Exposure to extremes of temperature, from the sub-tropic heat of the Mississippi delta to the frigid cold of the Great Lakes, claimed victims.

Diseases affecting the boatmen included yellow fever, cholera, smallpox and malaria. While docked in the rough port towns of the time, violence, alcoholism, and social diseases sent many boatmen to the marine hospitals.

All classifications of river workers, including pilots, captains, cooks, pursers, engineers, stevedores, roustabouts and deckhands, were eligible for treatment and care. An estimated one-third of the patients were African-Americans.

The Marine Hospital Service was the genesis of America’s modern health care system and is responsible for major improvements in research, hygiene and science-based medical treatment.

www.marinehospital.org