Five

COMMUNITY

Incorporated in 1948, the Fern Creek Community Club was established with the purpose of encouraging projects that would benefit the community. The community club founded the first post office in Fern Creek. Mrs. Martin Schmidt donated the property at the corner of Fern Creek Road and Bardstown Road for a community recreation house and firehouse, which became the Fern Creek Community Center and Fire Station No. 1 in 1955. The location was the former site of the Union Store, which burned in 1940. (Courtesy of St. Stephen Lutheran Church).

The first classroom in Fern Creek was in a house located at a stagecoach stop on Bardstown Road in the late 1800s. The first public schoolhouse was a frame building with two rooms, which began in the early 1900s and remained in operation until the new school was built in 1923. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Alumni Association).

Fern Creek High School was built next to the original school, which became Fern Creek Elementary. Over the years, the school has been extensively renovated and remodeled to make space for additional classrooms and a gym, a library, and a science lab. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Alumni Association.)

By 1941, Fern Creek School had outgrown its existing building, even though a second floor had been added to the original building and a gym and other classrooms had been constructed to accommodate the growing numbers. The school became so crowded in the 1960s, it offered double sessions, with the high school attending from 7:00 a.m. to 1:35 p.m. and junior high from 1:40 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. A new elementary school was built to accommodate the growth in the area. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Alumni Association.)

The Fern Creek High School Band was first organized in 1939 under the leadership of band director Vivian Taylor. In 1941, the band played at the Kentucky State Fair for the first time. In 1957, the band marched in the Mardi Gras parade and went on to march in the Cotton Carnival parade in Memphis in 1961. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Alumni Association.)

By 1947, in addition to numerous boys’ and girls’ sports, Fern Creek High School offered a variety of clubs and activities, such as future homemakers, glee club, Spanish club, band, senior play, F club, beta club, library club, home economics club, girls’ reserves, dramatic club, alpha club, 4-H club, Latin club, annual staff, and the Creeker newspaper staff. (Courtesy of Kathy Fraley.)

The number of buses parked in front of Fern Creek High School in this 1953 photograph indicate the growth in the area. Expansion into the suburbs was spurred by the construction of General Electric Appliance Park and Ford Motor Company. (Courtesy of Jefferson County Public Schools Archives and Records Center.)

The class of 1959 was so large, they barely fit on the steps of the auditorium of Fern Creek High School. (Courtesy of Jefferson County Public Schools Archives and Records Center.)

The first drill corps in the Jefferson County Public School System was established at Fern Creek High School in 1955. The drill corps performed during sports games and even marched in the 1960 derby parade. School clubs and organizations provided stability during an otherwise tumultuous time. (Courtesy of Kathy Fraley.)

By 1967, enrollment at Fern Creek High School had reached 2,320. A new wing was planned but not complete until 1974. Moore High School was built to accommodate the population growth, but construction was not finished until 1969. Despite the overcrowding, Fern Creek High School’s class of 1967 carried on, voting Donald Dorwart and Kathy Martin “most likely to succeed.” (Courtesy of Kathy Fraley.)

Kathy Martin and John Fraley attended Fern Creek High School in the 1960s at a time when the school experienced record growth. The school provided focus and contributed to the growth of Fern Creek as a community. (Courtesy of Kathy Fraley.)

The first fire truck for the Fern Creek Volunteer Fire Department came solely from contributions and donations. The City of Louisville contributed the body onto which the first pump, purchased from advances given by members of the original Fern Creek Community Club, was mounted. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

The crew of the Fern Creek Fire Department is pictured here in 1951 at the original Fern Creek Firehouse, built in 1946 at the corner of Fern Creek Road and Ferndale Road. The fire department incorporated in 1948. A high school firefighter program began in 1951 after a field fire near the high school. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

The feed store belonged to James Everett Farmer and Ed Stout. In 1946, they built a small building at the rear of this property, located at Fern Creek Road and Ferndale Road, which served as the first firehouse of the Fern Creek Volunteer Fire Department. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

The Fern Creek Fire Department experienced tremendous growth during the 1980s with the purchase of the property at Brush Run Road and Routt Road, construction and dedication of Fern Creek Fire Station No. 3, and the expansion of Fern Creek Fire Station No. 2 and establishment of the Jefferson County Fire Training Academy. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

Fern Creek Fire Station No. 3 is an energy efficient design, constructed of polystyrene foam walls reinforced with steel and covered in sprayed-on concrete. A 70,000-gallon cistern supplies water for rural firefighting tanker shuttle operations. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

Property in the 9400 block of Bardstown Road, between the old road and the new road, was purchased in 1988, and an agreement made with the state highway department in order to build Fern Creek Fire Station No. 3. The new station serves the residents of Glenmary subdivision and the surrounding neighborhoods that have developed since the completion of the Snyder Freeway. (Courtesy of Fern Creek Fire Department.)

Fern Creek Barber Shop was founded in 1959 by Earl Shepperson and is one of the few remaining businesses of its kind from that era still in operation today. Shepperson is pictured here at left with fellow barbers William R. Chelf (center) and Marvin Bradshaw around 1978. (Courtesy of Steve Roberts.)

General Electric Appliance Park was built in 1952 on 700 acres of land in Buechel, in southeastern Jefferson County, northwest of Fern Creek. (Courtesy of the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.)

The 1950s brought about many changes in rural Jefferson County. General Electric and Ford built manufacturing plants in the southeastern part of the county, and the Watterson Expressway was completed in 1958, setting the stage for shopping centers like Eastland Center (at 4680 Bardstown Road) and others that sprouted along busy thoroughfares like Bardstown Road. (Author’s collection.)

When the Brown Suburban Hotel opened on Bardstown Road near the Watterson Expressway in 1956, it opened the door for suburban motels such as Collier’s Court, located at 4812 Bardstown Road. (Author’s collection.)

Motel business in Louisville increased with the opening of a commercial airport at Standiford Field in the 1940s and the construction of the Watterson Expressway in the 1950s. (Author’s collection.)

The changes in the 1950s were not just evident in the landscape. For the first time, people had both money and time to spend on leisure as the shift occurred toward manufacturing and factory jobs away from agriculture. Bowling grew in popularity in the 1950s, and Fern Bowl (at 5518 Bardstown Road) offered people a way to spend their free time. (Author’s collection.)

As the suburbs expanded, more businesses opened along Bardstown Road. The Showcase Cinemas opened on Bardstown Road just south of the Watterson Expressway in 1965 and people continued to seek other forms of entertainment and recreation like miniature golf at Putt-Putt Fun Center at 5720 Bardstown Road. (Author’s collection.)