You Probably Had No Idea That This Tiny Kentucky Park Is So Historically Significant
By Rachel Shulhafer|Published March 10, 2017
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Rachel Shulhafer
Author
I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. I have lived elsewhere twice, but keep coming back. I'm a video editor and freelance writer who enjoys watching people wearing University of Louisville uniforms excel at sports, scaling the faces of large rocks, and hanging out with my border collie/laborador/cattle dog mutt thingy that I have.
If you’re walking down Main Street in Louisville, it’s no doubt that you’ll spot several things that will catch your interest. There’s the cast iron facades, the world’s largest baseball bat casually leaning against a building, and a giant, golden replica of the David statue in front of a building that has red penguins on its roof. With all of this to investigate, it might be easy to pass up the most historically significant thing that exists on Main Street, and that’s a tiny little park on the corner of 7th and Main called Fort Nelson Park.
This pocket park is located on West Main Street, right on the corner of 7th Street in the heart of downtown Louisville.
But if you do happen to notice this oasis tucked away in a busy metropolitan downtown, you should definitely take the time to explore it, because it has some extreme historic significance.
The site where the park now stands was once a Revolutionary War fort, called Fort Nelson after Thomas Nelson, Jr., who was the governor of Virginia at the time. At this point in history, Kentucky was still a part of Virginia. The fort was completed in 1781 by Richard Chenoweth, and was said to cover an acre of land and had a menacing look to it.
Essentially, this spot is where the city of Louisville started. Everywhere inside the walls of the fort was considered to be Louisville. It protected the small handful of settlers from Native Americans and the threat of British attacks. Everything outside of the walled city was considered the western frontier.
A plaque outside of Fort Nelson Park today gives a brief introduction to this historic corner of the city. It reads: "To commemorate the establishment of the town of Louisville, 1780. On this site stood Fort Nelson, built 1782 under the direction of George Rogers Clark after the expedition which gave to the country the Great Northwest."
After the fort was no longer needed and fell into disrepair, the city of Louisville continued to expand. The site eventually was home to three buildings that were constructed in the mid-1800s. Like most of the other buildings that still stand along Main Street, they had cast-iron facades. The gateways into Fort Nelson Park are an ode to the architecture of this historic district, as well as the buildings that once stood there.
At the center of the park used to be a cast iron fountain that is nearly 150 years old. The fountain was removed in 2014 for repairs, but before it was the center piece at Fort Nelson Park, it stood in front of a mansion located in Old Louisville. This was the site of the Southern Exposition World's Fair in the 1880s. The area is now known as St. James Court.
