Shawnee, Louisville

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Shawnee is a neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Its boundaries are I-264, West Broadway and Northwestern Parkway (Shawnee Park).

Shawnee Park was completed in 1892 and residential districts sprung up around it quickly. In 1895, Louisville annexed Shawnee and extended street car lines. The land between Shawnee and Louisville was subdivided and many wealthy whites moved in in the early 20th century.

The neighborhood became integrated in the 1960s and is now predominantly black. Many of the homes in Shawnee are examples of late-19th-century architecture. The grand homes are still in good to excellent condition. The size and quality of these homes rival those found in other areas of the city, particulairy Crescent Hill. As Western Louisville is economically depressed and lacks man amenities the housing cost are considerably lower than other areas of the city.

Fontaine Ferry Park, an early amusement park, was located at the end of Market Street from 1905 to 1969.

As a southern city many of Louisville's public facilities were segregated. The park system was no exception to this rule. Shawnee Park was unique in that it contained Fontaine Ferry Park, a popular amusement park. The amusement park was restricted to blacks, with the exception of negro days which was a common occurancefor opening segregated facilities limitedly to blacks in the south. However, during the early days of intergration there was a race riot at Fontaine Ferry. The riot resulted in the amusement park being closed. This left Louisville without an amusement park till the late 1980s when Kentucky Kingdom was built.

Today Shawnee Park is a community asset for the African American Community of Louisville. The park is used as an unofficial central gathering place for youths of Western Louisville. This is evident especially in the Summer when thousands of youth pack the park over the weekend, primarily on Saturdays. Several festivals are held at Shawnee year round which attracted attendant from across the nation. Shawnee's popularity is ironic and seen as bittersweet by some older African Americans in Louisville because of its segregated past.

Chickasaw park, less than two mile south of Shawnee on the banks of the Ohio was open to blacks during segregation. With the advent of intergration many residents prefer Shawnee, which is larger with more amenities than modest Chickasaw.

As of 2000, the population of Shawnee was 12,630 ^[1].