Southern Exposition

This is a postcard from 1883 of the Southern Exposition. This was when Louisville was trying to position itself as the "Gateway To The South". Rather than "Gateway To The South", Louisville should have been known as "The Only Southern City That Was Not Destroyed In The Civil War Because We Pretended To Be On The Side Of The North Even Though We Didn't Free Our Slaves And We Secretly Helped The South".

The big draw for the 1883 Exposition was that new-fangled invention, the Electric Light.

Each evening thousands would gather to watch light bulbs turn on. Really.

The Southern Exposition ran for four years, then it was all torn down and they built Old Louisville on top of it. Only it wasn't called Old Louisville then because it was new. But they didn't call it New Louisville either. They didn't really call it anything at all.