Crawfish Bottom : recovering a lost Kentucky community

237 Pages·2011·23.636 MB·English

by  Douglas A. Boyd

C B
RAWFISH OTTOM
KENTUCKY REMEMBERED: AN ORAL HISTORY SERIES
James C. Klotter,
Terry L. Birdwhistell,
and
Doug Boyd,
Series Editors
Conversations with Kentucky Writers
edited by L. Elisabeth Beattie
Conversations with Kentucky Writers II
edited by L. Elisabeth Beattie
Barry Bingham
Barry Bingham
Crawfi sh Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community
Douglas A. Boyd
This Is Home Now: Kentucky’s Holocaust Survivors Speak
Arwen Donahue and Rebecca Gayle Howell
Freedom on the Border: An Oral History of the
Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky
Catherine Fosl and Tracy E. K’Meyer
Bert Combs the Politician
George W. Robinson
Tobacco Culture: Farming Kentucky’s Burley Belt
John van Willigen and Susan C. Eastwood
Food and Everyday Life on Kentucky Family Farms, 1920–1950
John van Willigen and Anne van Willigen
Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers
Angene Wilson and Jack Wilson
C
RAWFISH
B
OTTOM
Recovering a
Lost Kentucky Community
D A. B
OUGLAS OYD
FOREWORD BY W. FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE
T U P K
HE NIVERSITY RESS OF ENTUCKY
Copyright © 2011 by The University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of
Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society,
Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State
University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern
Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky,
University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offi ces: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boyd, Douglas A., 1970–
Crawfi sh Bottom : recovering a lost Kentucky community / Douglas A.
Boyd ; foreword by W. Fitzhugh Brundage.
p. cm. — (Kentucky remembered : an oral history series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-3408-6 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-0-8131-3409-3 (ebook)
1. Crawfi sh Bottom (Frankfort, Ky.)—History. 2. Crawfi sh Bottom
(Frankfort, Ky.)—Social life and customs. 3. Community life—Kentucky—
Frankfort—History. 4. Crawfi sh Bottom (Frankfort, Ky.)—Biography.
5. Oral history—Kentucky—Frankfort. 6. Frankfort (Ky.)—History. 7.
Frankfort (Ky.)—Social life and customs. 8. Frankfort (Ky.)—Biography.
I. Title.
F459.F8B69 2011
976.9’432—dc23 2011017089
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the
American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library
Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Jennie,
Charlotte,
Kathleen,
and
Eleanor Boyd

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Series Editors’ Foreword xi
Foreword xiii
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: Reputation as History 1
1. The “Lower” Part of the City 15
2. Defi ning Craw 55
3. Contesting Public Memory 79
4. The Other Side of the Tracks 111
5. The King of Craw 145
Conclusion: Remembering Craw 183
Notes 189
Selected Bibliography 205
Index 213

Illustrations
View of the plaza on the former location of the neighborhood 3
View of the plaza fountain and the State Offi ce Tower 4
Map of Frankfort, 1796 16
Detail of the neighborhood from an 1818 map 17
Map of the neighborhood, 1854 18
Northwest Frankfort 19
View of Wilkinson Street, 1913 20
View of the neighborhood, 1913 20
Detail of map showing Fish Trap Island, 1818 21
View of the neighborhood, 1913 22
A few residents of the neighborhood, 1913 23
Two views of neighborhood during the 1883 fl ood 29
Loggers on the North Fork of the Kentucky River, 1900 31
Gaines’ Alley 36
Lottie Brown 40
Various views of the neighborhood, 1913 50–52
The neighborhood as depicted in an 1882 atlas 67
Neighborhood boundaries as defi ned by Gill, McCoy, and Sanders
70
Neighborhood boundaries as defi ned by Margaret Berry 71
Neighborhood boundaries as defi ned by John Calhoun 73
Neighborhood boundaries as defi ned by Mary Helen Berry 74
Neighborhood boundaries as defi ned by Barbara White 75
Mayo-Underwood School, 1930 93
American Legion building at 429 Washington Street, 1917 97
James “Squeezer” Brown 102
Flood scene near People’s Pharmacy 106
Blue Moon Saloon 118
Clinton and Washington, 1940 119
Ida Howard 139