BELLE OF LOUISVILLE (steamer)

About this property

Belle of Louisville is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. The steamboat claims itself the "most widely traveled river steamboat in American history." Belle of Louisville's offices are aboard Mayor Andrew Broaddus, and also appears on the list of National Historic Landmarks. Originally named Idlewild, the Belle of Louisville was built by James Rees & Sons Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the West Memphis Packet Company in 1914. She initially operated as a passenger ferry between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. She also hauled cargo such as cotton, lumber, and grain. She then came to Louisville in 1931 and ran trips between the Fontaine Ferry amusement park near downtown Louisville and Rose Island, a resort about 14 miles (23 km) upriver from Louisville. From 1934 through World War II, Idlewild operated a regular excursion schedule. During this time she was outfitted with special equipment to push oil barges along the river. She also served as a floating USO nightclub for troops stationed at military bases along the Mississippi River. In 1947, Idlewild was sold to J. Herod Gorsage in Cincinnati and renamed Avalon, honoring the death-bed wish of her long-time captain, Master Ben Winters. Over the next few years, Avalon visited ports all along the Mississippi, Missouri, St. Croix, Illinois, Kanawha, Ohio, and Cumberland Rivers. Her many stops included Omaha, Nebraska; Stillwater, Minnesota; Montgomery, West Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee. While river technology played an integral role in Louisville during the early 19th century, that relationship declined as railways and roads began to dominate the riverfront. Avalon fell into disrepair. Then, in 1962 Jefferson County Judge Marlow Cook purchased the steamboat for $34,000 in hopes of reconnecting the city's people to the waterfront. Soon, the city re-christened her the Belle of Louisville. The steamboat's purchase played a crucial role in restoring Waterfront Park along with Louisville's relationship to the Ohio River. The restoration of the boat was supervised by marine architect Alan L. Bates (now Captain Bates), whose book, Str. Belle of Louisville, (1964) remains a primary source on the history of the boat and the crews who worked on her. Prior to the auction, the hull had been condemned as unfit by the U.S. Coast Guard: concrete patches had added much weight to the oft-damaged hull, as had generations of accumulated modifications to the decks and fittings within her superstructure. These were stripped and repaired in dry dock or removed by volunteers.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Jefferson County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Jefferson County.

More historic places in Kentucky

Browse all historic places in Kentucky.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Kentucky history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.