Quilt Sisters at the Flood Murals in Paducah

 So, I really wanted to come to Paducah and basically forced my car to do so as well.  It is what it is.  One of the sights I had read about is the flood walls and the beautiful murals painted there.  Yesterday was so yucky out that we are making up for lost time today and leaving the house oh so early so that we can check them out.  We haven't even had breakfast - yep, I'm a determined person.  Poor friends.

So, as soon as we get downtown, a parking spot is located and we set off on foot to explore along the river's edge.  Here are a few highlights, but you really should check these out for yourself if you get a chance.  The details is pretty cool.  Notice how the edge of the paintings is incorporated as if people are coming right out of the painting or sitting on the edge of it.  LOVE.

This first scene shows Broadway, Paducah's main street, in the 1940's when the downtown area was the center for the community's retail, business, and entertainment activities.  Such downtown landmarks as the Guthrie Building, 1937 Post Office, Palmer House Hotel, Citizens Bank Building and Columbia Theater are depicted.  Cast-iron storefronts, manufactured by local foundries, remain from the earlier Victorian era when downtown Paducah experienced enormous economic growth and prosperity.

In the early 1940's, Paducah-McCracken County was known as the strawberry capital of the world.  Schools excused students to pick berries.  Entire families were involved in this agricultural event.  Freight cars carrying thousands of crates of berries were shipped from this region across the country.  The climax of the season was the election of a Strawberry Queen and her royal court.  They were featured in a grand parade on Broadway.  Because of World War II, the final festival was celebrated in June 1941.

General William Clark, the founder of Paducah, designated the Second Street area as a location for public affairs.  The original name for Second Street was "Market," reflecting its use as a trading center.  The original Market House was built of logs in 1836.  A larger brick building was constructed on this site in 1850 and was used as a hospital during the Civil War.  The present 1905 Market House was converted to a cultural center in 1963, a project encouraged by the Paducah Civic Beautification Board.  The Market House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Today it remains the center of cultural activity in downtown Paducah.

Today

Union General U.S. Grant occupied Paducah on September 6, 1861, building a pontoon bridge across the Ohio River to the Illinois shore.  Fr. Anderson was built and named after Kentuckian and Ft. Sumter commander Major Robert Anderson.  Attacked March 25 and April 14, 1864, the fort was successfully defended by both white and black troops commanded by Col. Stephen G. Hicks of Illinois.  Show patrolling off Paducah in 1862 is the gunboat U.S.S. TYLER.  In the spring of 1864, African-Americans were recruited in Kentucky for federal service as U.S. Colored Volunteers.  The 8th Colored Artillery (Heavy) was raised almost exclusively in Paducah as were elements of five other black regiments.

Paducah architecture reflected the settlers' different religious faiths.  These institutions helped unite the early settlers of the community.  Broadway United Methodist Church is the oldest, founded in 1832 at 4th and Broadway.  It relocated to the southeast corner of 7th and Broadway in 1874 and again across the street to the present location in 1896.  The building pictured above, was destroyed by fire in 1929 and was rebuilt in 1930.  Other religious institutions established before 1865 are, clockwise from upper right:  First Christian, 1849; St. Francis de Sale Catholic, 1849; Grace Episcopal, 1848; First Baptist,  1840; First Presbyterian, 1842; St. Matthew Lutheran, 1856; Temple Israel, 1864; and Washington Street Baptist, 1855.

William Clark, 1770-1838, a soldier, explorer, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Governor of Missouri Territory, is best known for the Lewis and Clark voyage of discovery up the Missouri River in 1804.  William got title to the 37,000 acre site at Paducah on October 13, 1827, from the Kentucky courts.  Clark sent his agent, George Woolfolk, to displace squatters from the site of Paducah and to survey it.  Previously the contested site had been called Pekin.  The Clark plat of the town was entered into McCracken County records on June 18, 1830.  The Clark claim was not clear until 1844 when the Porterfield Script case was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The rival claim was based on a military warrant, which usually superseded treasury warrants; however, the Clark claim was upheld.  The first lots were sold in 1830.

I didn't clip this one down so that you can see the wall as it stands in Paducah.  The first County Seat - Braxton Small.  Established in 1827, Wilmington served as the first County Seat.  During the flood of February 1832, Braxton Small, serving as the first County Court Clerk for McCracken County (1825-1858), removed all records to Paducah from the original Courthouse in Wilmington.  He is shown loading the skiff boat, putting the records in a cracker barrel which he used as a filing cabinet, with the important papers under his Beegum hat to keep them dry.  He also served as a trustee of Paducah, selling the property to the County where the present Courthouse is located.  His marriage was the first recorded in Paducah, to Grace Walters, a beautiful woman who gave birth the first girl officially born in the county.  He was a founder in Paducah's first bank.  They are interred at the Oak Grove Cemetery.

Visitors coming to Paducah by boat in the early part of the twentieth-century would have been greeted by the hustle and bustle of a riverfront lined with hotels, warehouses, packet boat offices, lumber yards, supply houses, iron foundries, maritime industries and small businesses, all connected to the river.  One of the busiest places at the waterfront was the Paducah Wharf Boat, which was permanently moored at the foot of Broadway to allow the loading and unloading of cargo and passengers.  Large barrels of dark-fired tobacco, known ad hogsheads, lined the riverfront waiting to be shipped to ports in Central and South American, Europe and Africa.

Constructed in the 1840's, the two-story Greek Revival structure overlooking the Paducah riverfront was originally the location of the Branch Bank of Louisville, one of the community's first banks.  After the Civil War, the building was used for many years as a hotel before becoming the headquarters of the Henry A. Petter Supply Company in 1890.  This mill and boat supply company provided provisions to packet steamers tied up at the riverfront.  The Petter Supply Company remained at this site for over 100 years and remains one of Paducah's most important enterprises.  In the late 1990's, the building was restored as the River Heritage Museum which celebrates the maritime history of the four rivers region.

Paducah's riverfront was a critical break-in-bulk point on the nation's inland waterways system.  Cargo from deeper draft vessels, as well as passengers and mail, would be loaded and unloaded on to packet boats that ran regular routes on the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio rivers from Paducah.  The most famous locally owned packet boats belonged to the Fowler Brothers Company.  During the heyday of river packets from 1870 to 1915, the Fowler Brothers' boats were among the fastest and best known on the Ohio River.  The steamer Joe Fowler operated from 1881 to 1912 and ran from Paducah to Evansville, making the round-trip in 25 hours.

On July 2, 1996, the City of Paducah was visited by marine royalty.  All three of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company's boats dock simultaneously at the Port of Paducah.  The Delta Queen, Mississippi Queen and American Queen frequent this community where they are enthusiastically welcomed by the volunteer organization of men and women who represent Paducah and McCracken County - the Paducah Ambassadors.  The Red coats create an extravagant panorama of color on the waterfront for the landings and departures of the majestic queens.  The Ambassador program was inaugurated by Mayor Gerry B. Montgomery in January of 1988.

A break in the murals is where the flood wall closes off access to the river in case of high water and flooding.

Today, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant is the nation's only uranium enrichment facility.  Operated by USEC, Inc., the plant is a global supplier of enriched uranium for electricity production.  The Shawnee Steam Plant, on the bank of the Ohio River, now provides electricity to customers throughout the region, as does the Joppa Steam Plant.  Honeywell - Metropolis Works provides a variety of chemical products for customers around the world.  The U.S. Department of Energy, as owner of the plant, handles site environmental management and cleanup.  This mural commemorates the dedication of thousands who worked for better plants, a stronger community and a higher quality of life.

A Century of Library Service 1904-2004  This Carnegie Public Library opened at 826 Broadway in October 1904 with a grant of $35,000 from Andrew Carnegie.  The book collection contained 1,800 volumes.  The Library served at this location until a fire in 1964 forced it to move into temporary quarters at 707 Broadway.  The Library was reorganized as the Paducah Area Public Library in 1966 and in 1970 opened in new facilities at 555 Washington Street as the Paducah Public Library.  The Fiscal Court formed a Library District in 2000 changing the name to McCracken County Public Library.

And that's it for the highlights.  Loved this stop and would highly recommend it if you are a history buff like myself.  I had no idea of the importance Paducah played throughout the years.  Very cool info.