About Louisville History

Louisville History supports the work of historic sites in the Louisville metropolitan area by serving as a networking base

What Is Our Mission?

The Kentuckiana Heritage Consortium supports the work of historic sites in the Louisville metropolitan area by serving as a networking base for community education and historic preservation. Most of the historic sites in the metropolitan area that are open to the public are members of the Consortium.

Who Are Our Members?

The Kentuckiana Heritage Consortium members represent sites where history has taken place in the Louisville metropolitan area. The sites are open for public tours that concentrate on the site’s history, provide educational programs for children and/or adults, and facilitate site-based historic preservation.

What Does Our Structure Look Like?

In existence since the early 1990s, the consortium’s organizational format is informal with leadership from within the group and the work of most projects is divided among members. Contact with other organizations concerned with community history is pursued as needed or desired.

Written materials are created as needed for public education. Grants and community contributions are solicited for materials requiring commercial printing and for exhibits and displays.

Chronological Time Line of Historic Sites
 The Building of a Community

Date of Origination – Current Historic Site

400 million years ago – Falls of the Ohio (Devonian fossil beds)

1778 – Louisville founded – Main Street Association

1791 – Locust Grove (Historic)

1816 – Farmington Historic Home

1837 – Riverside, the Farnsley-Moremen Landing

1850 – (c.) – Thomas Edison House

1852 – Historic home (Beech Grove) that is foundation of the Portland Museum

1852 – US Marine Hospital1855– Nunnlea

1855– (c.) – Whitehall Historic Home

1858 – American Printing House for the Blind

1860 – Jefferson County Courthouse
(now Metro Hall)

1860 – Louisville Water Company Water Tower and Pumping Station

1868 – Brennan Historic House
(now headquarters for Preservation Louisville, Inc.)

1869 – Culbertson Mansion

1870 – Little Loomhouse

1881 – Life Saving Station #10 (with Belle of Louisville); current vessel constructed in 1929

1891 – Leora Brown School

1894 – Howard Steamboat Museum

1895 – Conrad-Caldwell House Museum

1904 – Carnegie Center for Art and History (Carnegie Library)

1910 – Filson Historical Society
(Ferguson Mansion)

1914 – Belle of Louisville (steamboat)