351. Events along KY 864 - Church and Politics

Two events: Holy Family Church Summer Picnic and Yarmuth Campaign Office Grand Opening


Kentucky State Highway 864 is a state maintained highway in Jefferson County. It runs nearly the entire length of the county, beginning at the intersection of Thixton Lane (KY 2053) and Cedar Creek Road, just a few hundred yards north of the Jefferson-Bullitt County line. It follows Cedar Creek Road north past the "T" intersection, where Cedar Creek runs to the east, opposite the site of the old Lovvorn School House, where back in the 1970s, weekends in October meant touring the old school as part of a Haunted House outing. KY 864 continues from this point on Cooper Chapel Road, named for another old southern Jefferson County landmark, the Cooper Memorial Church, properly now called Cooper United Methodist Church, which is located on Preston Highway (KY 61), south of Okolona, but in the vicinity where once was the community known as Crossroads Precinct, roughly where the Lowe's is now at Preston and the Snyder Freeway (I-265/KY 841).

At another "T" intersection, where the now east-west running Cooper Chapel intersects with Beulah Church Road, yet another road named for another venerable old church, this one over in Fern Creek and now known as the Beulah Presbyterian Church, 864 turns north onto Beulah Church. The road continues up to the intersection of Beulah Church Road and Fegenbush Lane, and not far removed from Fegenbush's intersection with the Outer Loop (KY 1065) and South Watterson Trail. This intersection has been realigned twice in my lifetime and there are current Transportation Department plans to realign it yet again, perhaps with one of the British-style roundabouts.

It is at this point that KY 864 turns left onto Fegenbush, while Beulah Church turns right onto, well, Beulah Church (at this pont carrying KY 1065). Fegenbush Lane is named for the family which operated the old Fegenbush Orchards at Fegenbush Lane and Bardstown Road (US 31E/US 150) several miles north of this point. The last of the trees in the orchard are still standing in a small plot of land roughly opposite and a little to the south of the McDonald's at Bardstown Road and Fegenbush Lane. We visited the orchard as a Field Trip when I was a kindergartner at Okolona Christian Church in 1965.

Ky 864 follows Fegenbush northward to the newly completed intersection with Fern Valley Road (which was formerly KY 1631 but is now KY 1747) on the west and South Hurstbourne Parkway (which always has been KY 1747) on the east. There are a group of merchants who want to change the name of Fern Valley at this point to Hurstbourne, which they feel is more business-friendly, but thus far that move hasn't happened. Poplar Level Road used to intersect with Fegenbush here, but with the extension of Hurstbourne from Bardstown Road south to this point, it was more feasible to connect it with Fern Valley which much further west intersects with Interstate 65. The connecting parts of Fern Valley and Hurstbourne Lane have been slowly connecting to each other throughout my lifetime, and now form a loosely (and poorly) drawn circle from the Ford Motor Company in the south to the Summit Center along KY 22 and the Snyder Freeway in the northeast. But, I digress.

KY 864 is routed along Fern Valley for only a short distance, where it turns off onto Poplar Level Road. From this point, at the southern edge of Louisville's General Electric Appliance Park, KY 864 follows Poplar Level several miles, well into the old city limits, which before Merger was called the City of Louisville, but now is called the Louisville Urban Services District, a fancy name created by His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, to allow for a system of double-taxation to exist for some taxpayers in our new unified (but not uniform) government. But again, I digress.

It is on Poplar Level Road where the first event on today's calendar is located. Starting tonight about 5 and running through midnight and again tomorrow night during the same hours, my church, Holy Family Catholic Church, will be hosting its Annual Summer Picnic. The church is located about two blocks north of the Watterson Expressway (I-264). If you show up, and I happen to know you, it is likely you will hear a loud booming voice calling your name as if from the clouds, much as God did when he spoke to Abraham. Be not afraid, the voice isn't nearly so powerful as that of God's, it is only me. I am the emcee for the event, a role I have taken for several years. So, do come by and eat some food, spend some money, drink some sasparillas, spend some money, spin the wheels, spend some money, then spend the rest of your money. Then go to the ATM and come back tomorrow night for more of the same. You can park at the KMart across the street.

But, back to KY 864. From my church, the route continues north crossing Eastern Parkway (US60-Alternate) where the name becomes Goss Avenue, named for the Thomas Goss farm which formerly existed roughly where Saint Xavier High School now stands and a few blocks south of Saint Michael's Field. Ky 864 continues on Goss Avneue northward through the sub-community of Schnitzelberg, itself a part of Germantown, which is itself an older neighborhood of the old City of Louisville. Just after crossing the Norfolk Southern Railroad, Logan Street splits off one way north, carrying KY 864 with it. The southbound lanes in the part run along Shelby Street.

Just south of Broadway (US 150), 864 routes itself a half block east along Finzer Street, then north on Campbell. Prior to 1984, the routing continued with the northbound lanes of KY 864 running along Campbell while the southbound lanes ran along Shelby. Since that time, and the construction of the Chestnut Street Connector, 864 - both north and south, have followed this connector north to the intersection of Jefferson and Baxter (US 31E), where the Connector (at this point simply called Chestnut Street) becomes Baxter and Jefferson becomes, well, Baxter. KY 864 ends here, a few blocks south of Main Street (US 31E/US60) and about one mile south of the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606.

But, for the sake of this entry, we are returning to the old routing of KY 864 along Campbell Street, which crosses directly in front of where I live. As I have mentioned before, three blocks north of where I live, where Campbell Street intersects with Market Street (US 31E-US60), the Yarmuth for Congress Campaign has relocated itself into the building which most recently was occupied the Obama for President campaign, at 900 E. Market Street, and for many years housed the Hausman Jeep Company.

Between my Holy Family picnic hours tonight and tomorrow night is another event you shouldn't miss. Congressman Yarmuth will be in town (as he is most every weekend anyway) to open the new headquarters and you are invited. The Grand Opening will run from 10am to 2pm and there will be lots to do. So, please, come on down on Market Street and join the Congressman and his staff for this event, as we kick off what will end up being his re-election this fall to the 111th Congress. Keep in mind when John wins this fall, it will be the first time since 1992 that a Democrat has be re-elected to Congress from the Third Congressional District of Kentucky. Woohoo!