Happy Birthday, Belle of Louisville
Happy birthday to the Belle of Louisville. Baily Visual Life/Wikimedia Commons
Today marks the Belle of Louisville's 107th birthday.
The riverboat, which has gone by several different names over the course of its “life,” is a National Historic Landmark and is the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat in the world.
The riverboat, which became a permanent part of Louisville’s culture in the early 1960s, also got some love in my new book, This Used to be Louisville. Below is an excerpt from the book.
Meantime, the Belle of Louisville staff has put together a tribute video and is also accepting tax-deductible donations in order to keep her afloat for another 100 years.
River history in perpetual motion
The Belle of Louisville, circa 1970s. Postcard, photo by John V. Pontiere Jr.
Curveball incoming: One could make the argument that a boat is not technically a “place,” at least in the context of this book, but I want to make sure you’re paying attention. And in the case of the Belle of Louisville, the city’s own floating mascot of sorts and one of the oldest operating riverboats still in existence, there’s plenty to know, given that when the boat first left shore in 1914, she not only served a very different purpose than she does today but also had a different name, and she wasn’t even in Louisville. Today, she’s a river-centric entertainment centerpiece for Louisville, but when she first launched in Pittsburgh into the Allegheny River, she was destined to be a more utilitarian ferry boat that took people between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. Built by James Rees & Sons Company for the West Memphis Packet Company and named the Idlewild, she even moonlighted moving freight from place to place. In other words, no dinner, no show back in those days—it was all business.
She was first spotted in Louisville in 1931; Idlewild was chartered by the Rose Island Company, which operated one of the nearby amusement parks, ferrying people to and from Fontaine Ferry and Rose Island. The Idlewild must have enjoyed the stay, because she returned in 1934 and began offering cruises. In 1948, she was renamed Avalon following the death of her captain, Ben Winters, granting his dying wish. She then wound up in Cincinnati, having traveled pretty much all over the US In 1962, Avalon was sent to auction—and that’s when Louisville stepped in to reclaim and rename her.
The Belle has been with us ever since—her calliope serenading us, her paddle wheel fascinating us, and her cruises entertaining young and old alike—and she was finally named to the National Register of Historic Places. (See? She can be considered a place after all.) One blip on her time in Louisville happened August 24, 1997, when Brennan James Callan sabotaged the boat by opening a water valve in the engine room, flooding the hull. The boat was partially submerged before the open valve was discovered and closed. To no one’s surprise, the city rallied around her, the damage was repaired in a few weeks, and she continues her journeys today.
