Milestones: City of Louisville

Louisville has a rich, 133-year-old history.

The town – which would later become a city – was founded by Louis Nawatny in 1878. Nawatny, who named Louisville after himself, platted the town and recorded the plat with Boulder County.

Charles C. Welch started the first coal mine in the area a year earlier, in 1877, and Nawatny likely worked for Welch.

A long coal-mining strike began in 1910 that culminated with an eruption of violence and gunfire at the Hecla Mine in April 1914.

Coal mining was the main occupation for the men of Louisville from 1878 until the 1950s. From 1890 to 1928, the Acme Mine operated directly beneath the original town of Louisville. Worked on two levels, the Acme produced nearly 2 million tons of coal and was one of 30 mines located in and around Louisville. By the mid-1950s, though, the last of the coal mines had closed for good.

In the early 1960s, Louisville families were still adapting to the loss of mining jobs. Many residents went to work for Rocky Flats and these were considered to be good jobs. There also was work to be found in construction and in other businesses growing in Boulder County.

Louisville’s Italian restaurants were doing well at this time and attracted people from Denver.

Until around 1960, Louisville’s population stayed at or just above 2,000. It was in the late 1950s and early 1960s that the first modern subdivisions began to be added and the population began to increase.

The population in 1962, was about 2,500. (By comparison, today the city has a population of about 20,000).

In the early 1970s, Louisville Elementary was torn down. The site remained vacant for a number of years and then the city put in a park with a swimming pool. The park was called “mini park” for a few years before the name changed to Memory Square.

Storage Technology Corp., a data-storage firm, became a major player in Louisville in the 1970s. In 1978 Louisville celebrated its 100th birthday. Around this time, the city also created a coal miner statue that still stands in front of City Hall.

The statue was financed with private donations.

In the 1980s businesses began sprouting up and Louisville began to expand.

In 1986, 12 buildings in Louisville were listed on the national register of historic places.

In 2008, Conoco Phillips announced that it would build a campus on the former StorageTek site. Also in 2008, Louisville voters approved what may be the nation’s first sales tax dedicated to historic preservation. The fund is available to help property owners rehabilitate and preserve resources that contribute to the character of Historic Old Town Louisville.

In 2009, Money Magazine designated Louisville as the No. 1 best small town in which to live on its list of Best Places to Live.

One key person in Louisville’s history was Lawrence Enrietto, who came here in the coal mining days and worked to make the town more modern. He bridged old Louisville and new Louisville as a councilman and a person with a high level of involvement in the Louisville community.

Another person who played an important role in the Louisville’s history was mayor Frank Rizzi, who was instrumental in getting water rights for the city.

One of the oldest events in Louisville is the city’s annual Labor Day celebration/parade, now called the Fall Festival, which has been held for more than 75 years.

The city also has held the Taste of Louisville for 25 years. Held every June, the event features food, entertainment, informational booths and activities for kids.

Dave Ferguson, who was born in Louisville in 1928 and has spent the majority of his life in the city, recalls how different things were years ago. He remembers using a wood stove and having to bring in water. “There was no sewer system,” he said. “Everybody had an outhouse. Those weren’t any fun in the wintertime.”

There were only one or two doctors in Louisville, Ferguson recollects. There also wasn’t a dentist in the city, noting he had to go to Lafayette for dental work.

Ferguson recalls how people would swim in ditches and lakes because there wasn’t a pool., whereas now Louisville has a full range of amenities, including parks, a senior center and a golf course, he points out.

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