Covington is a city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 43,370; it is the fifth-most-populous city in Kentucky. It is one of two county seats of Kenton County. Covington is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Licking Rivers. Covington is part of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky metropolitan area and is separated from Cincinnati by the Ohio River and from Newport by the Licking River. Covington is located within the Upland South region of the United States of America; it is also acknowledged as a Midwestern city.
History
The Beginning
In 1814, John Gano, Richard Gano, and Thomas Carneal purchased 150 acres (0.6 km 2 ) on the west side of the Licking River at its confluence with the Ohio River, referred to as "the Point," from Thomas Kennedy for $50,000. The men named their new riverfront enterprise the "Covington Company," in honor of their friend, General Leonard Covington, an American officer who once trained troops in the area and was killed in the War of 1812.
The investors prepared a plat for the new city that was approximately five blocks wide by five blocks deep. The platted streets lined up with the streets of Cincinnati across the Ohio River, symbolically tying the future of the fledging city to its larger neighbor to the north. The first five streets, running north to south, were named for Kentucky's first five governors: Shelby, Garrard, Greenup, Scott, and Madison.
In February 1815, the Kentucky General Assembly incorporated the land as the town of Covington. At the time of its incorporation, Covington and all of today's Kenton County was a part of Campbell County. Shortly after its incorporation, the investors began selling lots in the new city for $385 a lot. However, for the next 15 years, lot sales were slow and disappointing. By 1830, the young city had a population of only 715 and lot prices were selling for half their value in 1815.
Housing and Population Growth of the City
After 1830, in large part because of the influx of German immigrants, Covington's population began to grow significantly, creating a number of distinct and diverse neighborhoods within the city. This growth was recognized by the Kentucky legislature, which, in February 1834, incorporated the town as a city. By 1840, the population in the city increased to 2,026, which included eleven free blacks and 89 slaves.
Mutter Gottes and Mainstrasse
This population resided not only within the established boundaries of the city but outside, causing the city to undertake its first annexation, which extended the city to Main Street to the west and 12th Street to the south. This annexation brought the neighborhoods now known as Mutter Gottes and Mainstrasse.
Fueled in part by the European revolutions of the mid-1800s, many Europeans, particularly Germans, immigrated to Covington. At this time, the primary commercial district and gathering place was on Main Street near Sixth Street, the area now known as "Mainstrasse." Sixth Street was laid out with a wide width that allowed the city, in 1861, to establish a public market in the center of the street with traffic lanes on either side. The nearby Mutter Gottes Kirche (Mother of God Church), built in 1871, was the center of another German-speaking neighborhood.
Seminary Square and Westside
At the same time the western area of the city was growing, development began to stretch to the south. In the late 1830s, the Western Baptist Education Society purchased 370 acres (1.5 km 2 ), which would define the city's southern boundary in 1841. On this tract, the organization established a seminary and set aside 22 acres (89,000 m 2 ) for a cemetery, which in 1843 would become known as Linden Grove Cemetery. To raise money to build its campus, the Baptists entered into the real estate market, subdividing the land and selling lots around its campus and cemetery, an area now known as Old Seminary Square and the Westside. In 1843, the city annexed most of the Society's subdivisions, which expanded the city's boundaries to 15th Street.
Within two years of opening the Western Baptist Theological Institute on Russell Street in 1845, the trustees of the organization became embroiled over the slavery issue. This ultimately ended with the dissolution of the institute in 1853 and the division of the property between the opposing factions. At the same time, the tracks for the Covington and Lexington Railroad were laid in the area, bisecting the college campus. Fifteen years later, the original St. Elizabeth Hospital moved into one of the old college buildings, where it operated from 1868 to 1911.
Austinburg and Lewisburg
At the same time that the Society was developing its property, Seneca Austin and his wife purchased and started developing 80 acres (320,000 m 2 ) along the Licking River from approximately 16th Street to 20th Street, creating the neighborhood we now call Austinburg. In 1851, the city annexed all of the Austins' land to Wallace Avenue as well as the western neighborhood now known as Lewisburg. Both communities were settled by largely German contingents, who established churches and parishes as focal points in their communities: St. Benedict's Catholic Church and parish in Austinburg, and St. John's the Evangelist Catholic Church and parish in Lewisburg.
Wallace Woods and Levassor Park
Immediately south of Austinburg were three large estates owned Robert Wallace, Daniel Holmes, and Eugene Levassor, all of whom were successful merchants.
In 1867, on 17 acres (69,000 m 2 ) that he had acquired next to the Wallace and Levassor estates, Holmes constructed a 32-room redbrick English-Gothic "castle," which was called Holmesdale. After Holmes died and his wife and children had returned to their native New Orleans, the family sold the mansion and 13 acres (53,000 m 2 ) to the Covington Board of Education in 1915. The mansion served as the Covington High School until 1936, when the structure was razed and a new high school was constructed. This building and five others now occupy the former estate grounds as part of the Holmes High School campus.
In the 1890s, the Wallace and Levassor estates on either side of the Holmes estate were developed, creating upscale neighborhoods at the end of the streetcar line. Many stately homes were constructed on large lots in these neighborhoods.
Peaselburg
Just west of Wallace Woods and the railroad tracks, a German, working class neighborhood developed in the latter years of the 19th century. This community was known by its inhabitants as "Peaselburg." In 1880, the community incorporated as an independent municipality and changed its name to Central Covington. In 1894, the Wallace Woods heirs agreed to be annexed by far less wealthy Central Covington because its tax rates were substantially lower than those assessed by the City of Covington.
The next year, Covington attempted to annex Central Covington, but support for the effort did not materialize. However, a decade later, many Central Covington businesses and homes were flooded by the eruption of a major sewer line. Covington offered to help the smaller municipality but only if the residents agreed to annexation, which occurred in 1907. Thus, Central Covington (and indirectly Wallace Woods) became a part of Covington. Six years later, St. Augustine Catholic Church was constructed on 19th Street, serving as this neighborhood's focal point and community gathering place.
Latonia and Rosedale
In 1882, a group of investors formed the Latonia Agricultural and Stock Association to create a horseracing track south of Covington. Purchasing more than 100 acres (0.4 km 2 ) north of Banklick Creek in an area then known as Milldale, and using the name of the nearby resort of Latonia Springs, the investors re-named this area Latonia. The track opened in June 1883 but it wasn't until 1890 that Kenton County granted the Covington electric streetcar company the right to lay tracks from the Covington city boundary to this area of the county.
In 1896, a portion of this area was incorporated as the city of Latonia, with a starting population of about 1,500. Adjacent to Latonia to the south was a community known as Rosedale, which was actually a part of Latonia. In 1909, Covington annexed Latonia and Rosedale, in part to relieve Latonia of financial difficulties it was encountering.
Botany Hills (formerly West Covington)
The independent city of West Covington, formerly known as Economy and now known as Botany Hills, is located along the Ohio River on the hills west of downtown Covington. This city was platted in 1846 and St. Ann's Church was constructed in the area in 1862 and served this primarily German-Catholic community. After an unsuccessful attempt to annex this city in 1873, Covington annexed it in 1916, in part because of water problems in the area and a lack of a high school.
Smaller annexations in the mid 20th century
After the annexation of West Covington in 1916, the boundaries of Covington remained the same for the next 35 years while other municipalities were established in areas surrounding Covington, such as Park Hills, Fort Wright, and Lakeside Park, to name a few. In the 1950s and 1960s, the city annexed small tracts of land – 34 acres (140,000 m 2 ) i
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