Fort Nelson Park

Fort Nelson Park. . , ( left plaque ) , Fort Nelson was the third pioneer settlement in Louisville and dates from 1782. The first was Corn Island (1778) and the second was Fort-On-Shore (1779) sited near 12th and Rowan Streets. Fort Nelson was named after the 3rd govenor of Virginia and cotained about one acre of ground stretching along Main Street from 6th to 8th Streets, Fort Nelson stood opposite the headquarters of General George Rogers Clark. , , “The fort was surrounded by a ditch 8 feet deep and 10 feet wide, intersected in the middle by a row of sharp pickets. This ditch was surmounted by a breast work of log pens filled with the earth obtained from the ditch, with pickets 10 feet high planted on top of the breast work …..” The Louisville Directory for the Year 1932 , , ( right plaque ) , North of this site stood several generations of passenger depots serving the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. A temporary wooden 1886 depot was replaced with a brick station designed by McDonald Brothers in 1889-90. Destroyed before total completion by the devastating 1890 tornado, it reopened in 1891. Originally called Union Depot, the name was changed to Central Station in 1919 to avoid confusion with Union Station on Broadway. , , The building’s design was drastically altered in 1943 by leveling off its top and was nicknames “flat top” in reference to a character in the popular Dick Tracy comic strip. The station stopped serving trains in 1962, but was home to Actor’s Theater of Louisville until demolished in 1968 for the Riverfront Expressway.