Middletown

One of Kentucky’s early settlements, chartered as a city in 1797 and lying on the Sinking Fork of Beargrass Creek where the main road to Louisville crossed. Referred to as Middle Station in records before 1787.

Named for being the mid-point between Louisville and Shelbyville on the old Louisville and Shelbyville Turnpike road. The first map of Middletown showed it to be two and one-half blocks long and two blocks wide.

An early trading center for the farms surrounding the city. Its location on the toll road made it a favorite stopover for early travelers traveling by horse. The Wetherby House (Davis Tavern) opened in the early 1840s as a hotel, stagecoach stop, and slave-trading post, along with the Middletown Inn, they both provided hospitality for visitors.

The city was occupied briefly by Confederate forces during the 1862 invasion of Kentucky.

An interurban rail line between Louisville and Shelbyville, established in 1910, made it possible for workers to commute to jobs in Louisville and the area changed from a farming to a suburban community. The interurban was discontinued in 1934 as an increasing number of workers used automobiles to drive to their jobs. The suburbanization continued to such an extent as to almost completely remove all traces of the former rural environment.

Several structures in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and there are two designated Historic Districts containing over 100 individual properties.

www.cityofmiddletownky.org