Louisville, Kentucky and Kentuckiana?!

Visited May 10-16, 2022

By Janell

Oftentimes when we're visiting a city we're staying in an RV park on the outskirts of town, or even in a neighboring town; on at least a couple of occasions we've stayed in a neighboring state! That was the case with Louisville, KY. The nearest acceptable (by my standards) RV park was Charlestown State Park in Charlestown, Indiana, which was across the Ohio River. It was about a 25-minute drive from our park to downtown Louisville. We found out that they called this particular area "Kentuckiana". Seriously, we saw it on merchants' signs.

Even though we did mainly Kentucky "things" when we stayed in Kentuckiana, we still put the Indiana sticker on our USA map. We were there after all. We'll be back in more northern parts of Indiana in mid-August, and we'll do some actual Indiana "things" then. But for now . . . just the sticker. (We had cruised through Kentucky earlier in our journey, so that sticker was already stuck.)

Charlestown State Park was a very nice park. It's rare that we stay in a public park; many simply can't accommodate our nearly 40' length, and often they don't have full hook-ups (sewer/water/electricity). We were happy to find that Charlestown checked all of the above boxes and was well-rated to boot! As an added bonus, when we arrived we found that the Verizon signal in the park was quite good most of the time (in most public parks we cannot count on WiFi nor a cell signal worth a darn).

One afternoon we drove a few minutes from our campsite down to the river, just to see what we could see. This is taken from within Charlestown State Park in Indiana, but looking across the Ohio River you can see Kentucky. We arrived just in time to see two tugboats headed downriver, pushing a string of three barges loaded with what looked to be sand.

If you followed Marty's biking journal, you may recognize the buildings above from a similar photo he took three years ago. Marty pedaled his bike on this very road through Loretto, Kentucky. As he guessed in 2019, these large, imposing buildings belong to Maker's Mark Distillery. They are called "rickhouses", and this is just a small sample of the many rickhouses Maker's Mark has in the area. Inside the rickhouses are barrels and barrels of bourbon on racks that are called "ricks". Why they don't call them "racks" and "rackhouses" is beyond me.

The buildings are black because heat aids in the bourbon aging process. Each barrel spends three years in a top rack in one of these buildings before it is manually transferred to a lower, cooler rack, where it then spends another three or four years. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We took a tour of the Maker's Mark Distillery, and that's how I know all this useful (?) information. Well before the barrels and rickhouses are needed, the ingredients must ferment as in the above picture. When Marty and I first saw this bubbling vat, we both assumed it was bubbling because it was hot; but it's the chemical reaction of the ingredients that cause it to bubble.

The distillery tour included tastings -- of course it did! Our tour guide Taylor showed us what types of bourbon we'd be tasting. 

As I'm not a "bourbon drinker", Marty assumed he'd get most of my tasters in addition to his. As you can see above however, there was just a couple of swallows to each sample . . . so I didn't shirk my duty. Boy, was Marty surprised! However, although I gave it a good effort, I'm still not much of a bourbon fan.

You may already know that all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. (Does this make you think of squares and rectangles too?)

To be called Bourbon:

• Must contain a minimum of 51% corn.
• Must be aged in new oak-charred barrels.
• Must be distilled to no more than 160 proof and entered into the barrel at 125 proof.
• Must be bottled at no less than 80 proof.
• Must not contain any added flavoring, coloring or other additives.

Bourbon must be made in the United States (it's classified as a "distinctive product of the United States", protected by international trade agreements). It can be made anywhere in the U.S., but Kentucky makes 95% of the world's bourbon supply.

Why Kentucky? Because three key "ingredients" are plentiful in Kentucky. 

• Corn thrives in the hot Kentucky summers.
• Oak is plentiful in the area, making it easy to obtain the new oak barrels.
• Limestone filtered water is abundant in the area. More than 50% of the surface rocks in Kentucky are limestones, and Kentucky has more underground limestone mines than any other state.
• Limestone has a high pH, which promotes fermentation. It also filters out impurities like iron from the water, which would give the liquor a bad taste. There's no rule that states what type of water must be used to make bourbon, but all agree that limestone is an excellent filter. Many Kentucky distillers say that no matter what the law says, bourbon isn't bourbon unless it's made with limestone water. 

So, corn and oak, yes, but perhaps limestone water played the most integral role in launching the bourbon industry in Kentucky centuries ago.

The above photo shows everyone gazing up at the ceiling of a Maker's Mark warehouse. Pretty fancy for a warehouse, right? You'd be correct if you thought it looked like the work of Dale Chihuly. It's made up of 1,300 pieces and was installed in commemoration of their 60th anniversary.

Many of the buildings on the Maker's Mark property resemble this cute old-fashioned style above. Notice that the cut-out shape in each red shutter is that of a traditional Maker's Mark bottle.

In Louisville, we took a walking history and architecture tour which was primarily of the old Victorian neighborhood, known as Old Louisville. It was a great tour with lots of factual and fun info, and our tour guide showed us areas that we wouldn't have found on our own. 

The St. James Court Fountain stands in the heart of the St. James-Belgravia Historic District, within Old Louisville.

What is now the St. James-Belgravia neighborhood, was once the site of the Southern Exposition, a five-year series of world's fairs held from 1883-1887 on 40 acres of land at the outskirts of the city of Louisville. The Southern Exposition was originally planned to only be open for 100 days, but it was so wildly popular that they extended for four more runs.

On the Southern Exposition from Wikipedia:

One highlight of the show was the largest-to-date installation of incandescent light bulbs, having been recently invented by Thomas Edison (a resident of Louisville sixteen years before), to bring light to the exposition in the nighttime. The contract with the Louisville Board of Trade was for 5,000 incandescent lamps. 4,600 lamps for the exhibition hall and 400 for an art gallery, more than all the lamps installed in New York City at that time, were used.

After the close of the Exposition, the buildings were razed, and in 1889 a man by the name of William H. Slaughter purchased 52 lots. He advertised a detailed plan to build a new area of homes that would "result in the establishment of one of the most beautiful residence sites in this city of beautiful residences". Indeed, there are many gorgeous homes here!

There are a handful of "walking courts" in the area, some gated, however not locked and not private property. Our guide took us down a few of these, and they were really lovely neighborhoods, although the homes were a bit more modest here than those above. The two photos below show one such neighborhood. These are the fronts of the houses, accessible only by foot. (Access for cars is located at the back of the houses, on an alleyway.) 

This fountain is right in the middle of the walkway, so essentially a part of everyone's front yard.

Often when we're in a city or town, we fantasize what it would be like to live there. If we were ever to move to Louisville, I want to live in one of the houses in this little neighborhood above! It was so beautiful and so peaceful!

After our Old Louisville tour we visited the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum. Located right on St. James Court, this is one of the plots of land where the Southern Exposition once stood. The museum stands as a testament to the abundant lifestyle of the owners, two of Louisville's most prominent businessmen and entrepreneurs: Theophile Conrad and William E. Caldwell. 

Theophile Conrad, who had come from a wealthy family which emigrated from France in 1846, owned a tannery in Louisville. He and his wife Mary, purchased the land on St. James Court and in 1895 built a "castle" reminiscent of his childhood home in France, which was encircled by a moat! Seriously!! There was no moat built around the St. James Court home, but to look at it, one can easily understand how the home came to be called "Conrad's Castle".

"Conrad's Castle" featured all the latest innovations of its day, including interior plumbing and electric lighting. Known for its beautiful woodwork and parquet floors, this massive Bedford limestone home, covered in gargoyles, beautiful archways, and elaborate stone designs, incorporated seven types of hardwoods and magnificent stained glass windows in the interior design, making it one of the most stunning homes in Old Louisville.

In 1905, Theophile died of a heart attack at the age of 73. Then in 1908, Mary Conrad sold their castle to family friends, William and Elaine Caldwell.

William Caldwell, like Theophile Conrad, had become one of Louisville's wealthiest residents by the time the Caldwell's bought the Conrad home. William had earned his fortune by starting a company building water tanks and the elevated towers to support the tanks. He patented a process of making the tanks in unusual shapes. Today the company's name is Caldwell Tanks, Inc., and they've created unique designs such as the Slugger Bat at the Louisville Slugger Museum, the bourbon bottle atop the Brown-Forman Distillery, and the Mickey Mouse Ears at Disney World. 

Visiting the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum was a fun and fascinating glimpse into Louisville's past.

This mural is just across the street from the Muhammad Ali Center, which we visited. Ali, (formerly Cassius Clay) was born and raised in Louisville.

In 1980, Marty was working the night audit shift at the front desk at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Caesars had built a 25,000-seat temporary arena in the parking lot for the Holmes v Ali fight, and Marty was asked to work as an usher for the special event.

Ali's gravesite is here in Louisville at Cave Hill Cemetery.

Also located at Cave Hill Cemetery is the gravesite of Col. Harland Sanders (of KFC fame). These two gravesites are so popular with tourists that the cemetery kindly painted lines on the roadway directing the way to the gravesites (yellow for Col. Sanders, and green for Ali); apparently they were tired of people driving around and around helplessly. 

Although Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana, he lived many years of his life in Kentucky and died in 1980 in Louisville at the age of 90. The bust that marks his grave was created by his daughter, Margaret.

You may remember that Col. Sanders, more accurately KFC, played a big role in the direction of my life. I don't want to repeat old news, but if you missed it or want a refresher, check out Marty's blog post of Biloxi, Mississippi from December 2020.

We took a sunset riverboat cruise aboard the Belle of Louisville (a 1914 riverboat). We didn't get to see a sunset however because it was a gray and drizzly day. Fortunately most of the drizzle was done by the time we boarded the boat, and we were left with just the gray skies.

Even though we don't have any sunset photos to share with you, I do like these two shots Marty got of the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Above is the Louisville Water Tower Park -- at the time, we didn't even know what it was. Apparently, it's "a historic landmark, an ideal event location, and a great place to learn about Louisville's award-winning tap water". Well, even with that alluring advertisement from their website, we opted to skip seeing it up close and settle for just a photo.

Looking at the Louisville skyline through the Big Four Bridge

We caught a ballgame at Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats, who are the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They played the Toledo Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. (In case there's any confusion regarding the identity of the Louisville Bats -- they are the nocturnal winged critters, not a baseball bat. Although it is a clever double entendre.) As you can see, it was a lovely evening to watch a game!

Speaking of bats . . .

The "Big Bat", as it's appropriately referred to, stands at the entrance to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory where it was installed in 1995. It was built locally by Caldwell Tanks (the Caldwell of the Conrad-Caldwell house) and is made of carbon steel but hand painted to look like wood. It weighs 68,000 pounds and towers 120 feet! It's hollow and could hold 30,000 gallons of water, however it is empty. It's an exact replica of Babe Ruth's 34" Louisville Slugger bat. The signature is that of Bud Hillerich who made the first Louisville Slugger bat in 1884.

Here's an abbreviated version of the history of the Louisville Slugger from the museum's website:

In 1842, J. Frederick Hillerich emigrated with his family from Germany to Baltimore, Maryland. They moved to Louisville in 1856, where J. Fred started a woodworking shop. By 1864 "J.F. Hillerich, Job Turning" was in business and filled orders for everything from spindles to shutters to steamboat interiors. The eldest son, John Andrew "Bud" Hillerich, was born in Louisville in 1866.

The business thrived, and by 1875 the little woodworking shop employed about 20 people. In 1880, Bud became an apprentice in his father's shop. Young Bud also played amateur baseball and made his own baseball bats, along with bats for several of his teammates.

Bud was passionate about adding baseball bats to the family business, but his father wanted no part of that product. He didn't like baseball, and he didn't think there was money to be made in baseball bats. J. Fred believed the future of the business was a very popular, patented, swinging butter churn.

Nonetheless, the Hillerich's baseball bat business grew. The name "Louisville Slugger" became their registered trademark in 1894, and Bud joined his father as a partner in 1897.

In 1911, Frank Bradsby, a successful salesman for one of the Hillerich's largest buyers, joined J.F. Hillerich and Son. The Hillerichs knew how to make great bats but lacked professional sales and marketing expertise. That's what Bradsby brought to the business. In 1916, he became a full partner, and the company name was changed for the last time to Hillerich & Bradsby Co.

If you like baseball and ever find yourself in Louisville, it's well worth a visit. If you want to read even more on how the Louisville Slugger came to be, check out the link below.

Louisville Slugger History

 

"Hey, batter, batter, batter, swing!"

Marty's trying out a bat that once belonged to Orlando Cepeda.

These are called "billets". They're grouped by types of wood and by quality. The pros each have their wood preference, and of course the best grade quality of billets are saved for their bats. The billets that don't make the pro cut get made into bats for the regular retail market. 

Much of the bat-making process these days is automated, however some things are still done by human hands. Here an employee dips each bat into a lacquer coating and hangs it to dry.

This is the Bat Vault -- not to be confused with the Bat Cave, something else entirely.

There are more than 3,000 original bat models in the vault, going back 100 years or so. Models for Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, and the like are here. In years past, players might request a specific model of bat from the vault; someone would physically walk into the bat vault and choose a Babe Ruth model, for instance. There are letters on the racks where the bats are resting; perhaps you can see a small "N", for example, on the upper right rack? Ruth's would be found under "R", which makes sense. Now however, computers have changed everything. Rather than having to pick up a Babe Ruth model and look at the actual bat, someone will look up the specifics in a database and go from there. 

This was the MLB standings on the day we visited, May 15, 2022.

As you've figured out by now, I'm always on the lookout for murals in any city we're visiting. I don't know that the above art would be called a mural, since it's 3-dimensional, but whatever category, isn't it cool?!

I love that cities are dressing up in this way. I love that local artist's are getting noticed. And I love that, for the most part, graffiti artists are leaving these works of art alone!

Usually we just stumble upon murals, and we have to stop for a photo. Occasionally, we'll actually be looking online to find a certain mural that we've read about. Sometimes when we're in a city, I remember to search online and see if they have a "postcard" mural, such as the one above from the GreetingsTour.com folks. They always do such a nice job of incorporating a city's personality into the letters!

"Going up?"

While looking online for the postcard mural, I came across this one above and knew we had to see if we could find it. This is right next to the Abell Elevator Company. 

Lastly, on the murals front: the race horses. Louisville is home to the Kentucky Derby, so this is not unexpected.

I'll bet you didn't know that the founder of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby was Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr., the grandson of William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06)!

We visited the Kentucky Derby Museum, and we took a tour of the barn and backside at Churchill Downs. We saw a turf race from the inside of the track. We were so close to them! 

The Kentucky Derby, held every year on the first Saturday in May, was just eight days before on May 7. Not having ever followed horse racing, we had no idea. We're glad to have missed that madness!

Here's our view as they raced past! We were that close!

After having seen the Kentucky Derby Museum and taken the Churchill Downs tour, we were feeling as though we should experience a mint julep (neither of us had ever had one), the traditional drink of the Derby and Churchill Downs. (Each year over 120,000 mint juleps are served at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby weekend.) The races were winding down for the day, but we'd hoped to find a concession bar that was still open; instead we found ourselves right next to the winners circle and the aftermath of the last race of the day!

This is Elle of the Ball, cooling down in the winners circle. She placed first in Race #9.

We left Churchill Downs and found a nice bar for our mint juleps. To be honest, I don't know what all the hullabaloo is about. It smelled like mint but tasted like bourbon.

We walked across the Big Four Bridge, from Kentucky to Indiana. (Ironically, we first had to drive from our RV park in Indiana across the Lewis and Clark Toll Bridge into Kentucky!)

The Abraham Lincoln Bridge (foreground), and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Toll Bridge (background) in front of downtown Louisville (as seen from the Big Four Bridge).

Inside The Brown Hotel, a Louisville landmark since 1923