Louisville, KY: 1937 Ohio River Flood

(Satellite, this is the intersection in the image below.)

John Slimick posted

Feb. 1937 vs. 2023 

Lots of photos were taken to document the Ohio River Valley Flood of 1937. This one was taken at 4th & York looking east towards the main library.

The Unitarian Church is at right. In the top photo you can see the original roof. A fire gutted the interior of the church in 1985, so the roof is missing in the bottom photo.

James L Johnson: My understanding is most of the city was submerged, and it just depends on how much the house was underwater based off of what part of the city.

My great grandmother had only recently migrated from mississippi into great migration a few years ago around 1930. She remembered being at home and her little dog barking and waking her up. She was on the second floor of the house she was staying in and when she got out of bed to check on why thy dog was barking her feet were in water, and somebody came by in a boat to get her out or so I was told.

James L Johnson: The worst thing about the nineteen thirty seven flood is that it allowed louisville to fall behind further in this competition against cincinnati cincinnati was not as badly damaged and louisville took longer to rebuild because of the great depression. Cincinnati became a major city during that time period in louisville fell further in its national rankings and never recovered to what it was not to mention the wealth in the community left the flood plain valley and went into the eastern suburbs where it still resides.

I dropped the pin on the intersection of 4th and York. Look how far inland York Street is.

Satellite

This view confirms that I found the correct location.

Street View, Feb 2017

So not everything between the river and York Street was flooded.

LouisvilleMSD

I've seen 1937 flood photos from Pittsburgh to Cairo. This shows that the rainstorms really did dump on the full length of the Ohio river.

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weather_poster

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"Churchill Downs on January 27,1937"
[Talk about a muddy track.]

Talking about horses.

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"Dead horse lodged high in trees due to flood waters"

I'm not surprised that areas along the river had trouble.

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"The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Freight Depot is on the left, with Belknap Hardware on the right.  This was on First Street at the river."

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"Central Station on Seventh Street"

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"The K&I bridge linking Louisville and New Albany"
[Back when vehicles shared the bridge with the railroads.]

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[The approach to the K&I Bridge on the left, the NS/K&IT Youngtown Yard in the middle, the easy to see Pennsy (14th Street) Railroad Bridge and the hard to see George Rogers Clark Bridge.]