History of the
University of Louisville
School of Medicine:
XIII: Bright Antebellum Days
Before Dark War Clouds Gathered
Gordon R. Tobin, MD
Louisville Thrives in Late Antebellum Times
In the late antebellum era, Louisville had grown from a rough, river port village to a center of
commerce with many elegant, urban features. It became the 10th largest city in the U.S., and
its medical reputation ranked in the top 2 or 3. Louisville’s growth, like its birth, came from
geography. The adjacent falls of the Ohio is the only natural barrier on the Mississippi-Ohio
river system, which made Louisville a key port and stop for portage (Fig. 1). In 1830, a bypass
canal was dug (employing a young Abraham Lincoln), but subsequent larger steamboats again
required portage.The Louisville-New Orleans steamboat route became the busiest for freight and
passengers of all western waterways. Between the summers of 1848 and 1849, sixty steamboats
made 213 roundtrips. The upstream Louisville-Cincinnati route was nearly as busy.
In the 1850s, improved railway technology caused a surge of railroad construction across the
nation. This further benefited Louisville, as it was a logical intersection between the two great
transportation modes. In 1850, a charter was given for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad,
which would make Louisville “the gateway to the South.” (Fig. 2) Ferries across the Ohio River
gave Louisville rail connections to all northern cities, with radial spokes to St. Louis, Chicago,
Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. In the early 1850s, the Louisville and Frankfort Line was built, with
the western terminal and roundhouse at Jefferson and Brook Streets. It was soon connected to
Lexington and on to eastern states. At that time, James Guthrie was Louisville’s leading statesman. His influence brought access for turnpike companies to build connecting land routes to
the city, and he assumed control of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1860. Louisville’s
rise as a transportation hub greatly enhanced UofL’s appeal to medical students across a broad,
multi-state region, as travel between home and school was much facilitated.
River and rail travelers supported 15 Louisville hotels. The hotel row along Main included the
famous Galt House at 2nd Street, the National Hotel at 4th Street, the Louisville Hotel at 6th Street,
and the United States Hotel at 8th Street (Fig. 3A, 3B). To serve both residents and travelers,
mule-drawn street cars were installed (Fig. 4A, 4B). Louisville became the first western U.S.
city to bring in gas by pipeline. Not only did this give lighted streets, but it improved lighting
for UofL’s nighttime anatomic dissections, a feature prominently cited in the school catalog.
(continued on page 36)
Fig. 1 Steamboats of the Louisville-New Orleans
route docked at the Portland Wharf in 1853.
Fig. 2 The Quigley, a L&N wood-fired passenger
locomotive. It was captured by Confederates in
1861 and returned to Louisville after the war.
Fig. 3A The original Galt House, built in 1835.
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