Depression recovery halted by Great Flood of 1937 - State-Journal

Editor’s note: This is the 26th in a series of in-depth stories based on the findings of the City of Frankfort’s African American Historic Context Report, which was funded in part by the city and a grant from the Kentucky Heritage Council. This section of the African American Historic Context Report is an overview of Frankfort and the Black neighborhoods documented as part of the reconnaissance survey of African American resources and focuses on the built environment and architectural resources associated with the historic context.

Struggles of Great Depression: 1929-1941

Its role as both the capital and the seat of county government helped to stabilize Frankfort’s economy during the Great Depression and it got another jolt when prohibition was repealed in 1933.

Frankfort was a bit of an outlier during this time period. None of its banks failed and the city’s population ballooned to 11,626 — nearly 30% — from 1920 to 1930. More people led to the construction of new residential subdivisions and by January 1934, the city’s electric streetcars and interurbans shut down as the switch to buses was made.

Recovery from the Depression halted in January 1937 after the Great Flood submerged more than half of the city and caused catastrophic destruction.

Floodwater covers Washington Street in Craw in this 1937 photo. (Courtesy of Keef Jackson Collection)

Following weeks of heavy rain and snow, the Kentucky River crested at a then-record 47 feet. All of the downtown business district and riverside neighborhoods — including the Black neighborhoods in South Frankfort and Craw in North Frankfort — were inundated with floodwater. More than 2,000 residents were displaced and the Kentucky National Guard evacuated them to temporary refugee camps, churches, schools and the Capitol.

Freezing temperatures and snow combined with floodwaters reeked havoc on the city’s infrastructure — electricity, water, communications and transportation were soon lost. On the Singing Bridge, a gas main exploded. The American Red Cross aided with recovery efforts through June.

With more than six feet of frigid water engulfing the Kentucky Penitentiary, 2,906 inmates were trapped for three days and forced into the upper floors with little food or water. Riots and escape attempts ensued until the National Guard evacuated the male prisoners to “a hastily built 25-acre prison stockade camp” — which included 500 tents — adjacent to the Armory on the grounds of the Kentucky Institute for the Feeble-Minded. Some of the female inmates were lodged in the abandoned Clinton Street School, which was incorporated into the prison grounds when it shut down in 1930. Roughly 300 federal troops were called in to guard the temporary facilities before all prisoners were relocated to the then-new Kentucky Reformatory at La Grange in June 1937.

Several new academic buildings at Kentucky State University were funded through New Deal programs — including Atwood Hall, a three-story men’s dormitory named in honor of the K-State President Rufus B. Atwood; the E.E. Underwood Student Union; and the James A. Jordan Heating Plant. It is believed that the WPA likely funded the Mildred Chandler Hall.

The Colored Branch of the Frankfort Public Library, which was then located in the Letcher-Lindsay House at 200 Washington St., was also funded by the WPA from 1938 until financial support ended in 1943.

Florence C. Fort, a member of the library’s board of trustees, helped open a library branch in a leased three-room house at 306 Mero St. in Craw. The building, which previously served as the medical office of Dr. E.E. Underwood — who lived next door, was built around 1891 and operated by librarians, Alice Simpson and Anna M. Wolfe.

Frankfort’s largest New Deal project was the construction of the 11-story State Office Building at the site of the former Kentucky Penitentiary, which was closed by Gov. A.B. “Happy” Chandler in 1937 following the Great Flood. The stones from the 20-foot tall walls of the prison were salvaged and used as a flood retaining wall for the $1.25 million steel-frame office building.

The capital city’s first skyscraper and “it’s finest example of Art Deco-style architecture,” according to the report, the building was completed in 1941 and housed the highway and welfare departments, which had previously worked out of the Capitol or in rented downtown offices.

Several architecturally significant landmarks in Frankfort were outlined in the Historic American Buildings Survey, a New Deal program for unemployed architects, draftsmen and photographers. In 1934, a team of architects prepared 23 measured drawings of the Old Capitol and Theodore Webb photographed the inside and outside of Liberty Hall. Six years later, Lester Jones photographed the exterior of the Orlando Brown House and the former Good Shepherd Church. Their contributions created an archive of historic architecture and the survey played a vital role in the historic preservation movement.

State-funded projects

An armory at 208 Maryland Ave., near the KSU campus and the Kentucky Institute for the Feeble-Minded, was built by the Kentucky National Guard in 1931 and primarily used to store arms and house horses for the 123^rd Calvary. However, in the aftermath of the 1937 flood, it temporarily housed 800 male prisoners from the penitentiary until the prison stockade camp could be constructed.

The state funded a major Depression-era project in Frankfort — the War Mothers Memorial Bridge, a 705-foot long steel bridge that spans the Kentucky River and joins West Main Street with Capital Avenue. Completed in 1938, the three-lane, Art Deco-style bridge was sponsored by the American War Mothers of Kentucky as a memorial to WWI veterans and earned an Award of Merit from the American Institute of Steel Construction as the “Most Beautiful Steel Bridge” in Class B. It later became known as the Capital Avenue Bridge.

Recreational facilities

The city invested in several recreation facilities during this time period. In 1934, it built McChesney Stadium at Bellepoint High School. It included concrete grandstands and a two-story Gothic Revival-style clubhouse for Frankfort High School.

Local African-Americans that attended Mayo-Underwood High School in Craw played at the riverside sandbar and relied on donations from the community to support athletics. Mayo-Underwood students also used athletic facilities at segregated white schools like Good Shepherd Catholic School, which was then-located on Wapping Street.

K-State made improvements to its athletic field that was constructed on the south side of Versailles in 1909 to accommodate football, soccer and track. During the 1930s, KSU won three Negro College national championships in football.

Bell Gymnasium, a Colonial Revival-style brick building, was built in 1931 and named in honor of Dr. W.C. Bell, superintendent of education.

Kentucky State’s baseball team played at Glenwood Park and the Fairgrounds near Thorn Hill. The capital city also supported multiple Blue Grass Negro League baseball teams including the M.W.L. Giants and the Frankfort Royal Giants.

By 1940, the Great Depression and the Great Flood were all but memories. The city’s population was recorded as 11,492 — with 14.6% or 1,680 who were Black. During the prior decade, Frankfort saw its African-American population decrease by almost 24%, as many sought better opportunities in the north and Midwest.

With a growing white population, more residential subdivisions were constructed on the outskirts of the city limits. In 1939 alone, 150 new homes were built. Popular subdivisions during the era included Montrose Park, the Marshall Addition and Henry Park. In east Frankfort, new highly-sought, white neighborhoods included Crestwood and Poplar Dairy.

The capital city’s Black population mainly kept to urban neighborhoods in Craw and South Frankfort.

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Depression recovery halted by Great Flood of 1937 – State-Journal

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