Searching for little-known, obscure, interesting Louisville history

I have seen the sealed entrance to the catacombs beneath the old Ursuline campus near Gray Street. The tunnels have been sealed since before 1937 and I cannot imagine the mess that was created by the '37 flood. If you manage to get inside Ursuline, try to find a way to view the enormous murals on the ceiling, which are covered by ceiling tile. At St. Martin, you will find the skeletons of two saints, solid lead statues and bullet holes in the steeple, from 'Bloody Monday'.

But the Archdiocease of Louisville is unlikely to grant permission to open the catacombs.

If the Catholics were hoarding arms before the events of Bloody Monday, they will likely be sealed in the catacombs... The violence of Bloody Monday ended when an armed Protestant gang ordered the Louisville Police to search the ground for weapons and none were found.

Catholics in Louisville still shoulder a persecution complex... I was raised in the Catholic Church--

Capone's tunnel is sealed behing a tunnel in the Oak room. The tiny hallway leads to a hidden garage at the rear exit of the hotel.

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#### Fontaine Ferry Park:

Fontaine Ferry Park was an amusement park in Louisville, Kentucky from 1905 to 1969. Located on 64 acres in western Louisville at the Ohio River, it offered over 50 rides and attractions, as well as a swimming pool, skating rink and theatre. The most popular attraction were its wooden roller coasters, of which 4 were built over the years.

It was built on land originally part of Aaron Fontaine's estate and ferry landing, which he bought in 1814, and sold in 1887 to Thomas Landenwich, who built a hotel and other attractions there. The park opened to the public in May 1905. It was located at the western terminus of Market Street (originally Fontaine Ferry Road) at what is now South Western Parkway in Louisville's Shawnee neighborhood.

Until the 1940s, visitors could travel to the park by steamboat from Downtown Louisville.

^Interesting: ^Shawnee, ^Louisville ^| ^Timeline ^of ^Louisville, ^Kentucky ^| ^History ^of ^the ^French ^in ^Louisville ^| ^Trolley ^park

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100% agree, pretty mindblowing. Thanks for sharing.

Search for Bloody Monday or Election Day Riots. More than 100,000 Catholics moved to Louisville when cities like Boston and New York could not provide housing for the German and Irish immigrants. Anti-Catholic sentiment was high and an editorial writer named George Prentice (his statue is in front of the main library downtown) wrote a fictional account of the adventures of a Catholic sniper named Sue Mundy. There never was a Sue Mundy, but that didn't stop members of the Know-Nothing Party from executing every person who was suspected of being Sue Mundy.

The Know-Nothing Party was an anti-immigration, anti-Catholic political party, which allegedly started the violence on the Election Day riots/ Bloody Monday. The death toll was high for the Catholics and many German Catholics left Louisville for St. Louis and Cincinatti.

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This book covers it http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Flood-1937-Soaring/dp/1884532829 The author Rick Bell, a local historian is also the bartender/interpreter for the Speakeasy Tour at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. http://www.rickbellheritageservices.com