Jeffersontown

Where I grew up in the city of Louisville, Kentucky

Abraham Bruner who saw potential in the small area developed Jeffersontown Kentucky "J-town" back in 1797. The original name of the town was Brunerstown. Growth came slow for the little town, but when it developed, it would change greatly. By 1903, the Electric Railway established a route from the city of Louisville thru Jeffersontown public square, known today as Gaslight Square. Over the next 80 years the Taylorsville road had widened, I-64 developed adding exits to the Jeffersontown and Industrial Parkway. Jeffersontown is now Kentucky’s third largest employer according to Site Selection Magazine. Bluegrass Park is the second largest park in the world in employee growth terms, and Jeffersontown is the second largest city in Jefferson Country.

Growing up in the Jeffersontown “J-town" suburbs, living in the community all my life I have seen many changes over the years. Many new homes, office buildings, restaurants and streets, have been added. There are many new additions taking place right now to improve the city and attract people to the community.

Stony Brook Theater has replaced the Old Six-Mile Lane J-town shopping center, which was the home to the J-town 4 movie theater. The old Target is now a Save a Lot, H&R Block, and Curves. The old bowling alley is now the Louisville Athletic Club. And a new larger bowling alley is being built.

Gaslight Festival founded by Peg Weber is also a main feature of the J-town community. It was first held in 1970 with only a small sidewalk of town people and now attracts 250,000 people to Gaslight Square. It has become the fifth largest festival in the area. I remember marching in the Gaslight festival Parade with my Jeffersontown High School choir. I felt like I was making history. All the Jeffersontown schools march in the parade, along with the community little leagues. The festival takes place every September no matter rain or snow. The festival includes something for everyone from music of all kinds, art and crafts, games and, food. In the present years, security has been high at the festival with the Jeffersontown police in attendance. I’m sure back in 1972 the security wasn’t as high.

Carrithers Middle School located on Billtown road right in the heart of Jeffersontown Kentucky, was named after Virginia Carrithers who taught school in her one bedroom house till 1920. Carrithers in now a large building and educates 1,000 or more students daily. Along with Carrithers there are Jeffersontown Elementary, Roberta Tully Elementary and Jeffersontown Traditional High School which has expanded a technical program for those wishing to pursue engineering in higher education.

Sky View Park has changed over the years. Developed in 1940 by James A. Wilson; Wilson just wanted a place were black children could play baseball, because segregation was still alive. In 1994 the park was purchased by Jeffersontown and dedicated to Wilson and now children of all races can go play baseball and T ball there. The park had expanded to 26 acres.

In 1995, the city of Jeffersontown built a library/museum on Watterson trail. The previous site for the library was in the Jeffersontown shopping center, and before that the library was in the back yard of Betty Elswick with only 200 books in 1948. The library now is part of the Louisville Free Public Library and is home to over 30,000 books and features.

The population of the city in 2000 was 26,633. In 1995 the population was 21,138 which mean the city is growing in size. The education level in 2000 with some college was 6,041. The highest age bracket was 25-44 with 8,891. The highest race was white with 23,101. The highest sex was Female 13,813 than Males with 12,820.

Some the changes that have had affected me personally would be the new housing and office space being build daily. More people mean more traffic. Traffic