Danville, Kentucky

Within Kentucky, Danville is called the "City of Firsts":

• It housed the first courthouse in Kentucky.[10]
• The first Kentucky constitution was written and signed here.[10]
• It was the first capital of Kentucky.[10]
• It had the first U.S. post office west of the Allegheny Mountains.[10]
• It hosts the first state-supported school for the deaf.[11]
• Ephraim McDowell completed the first known successful laparotomy here in 1809, removing an ovarian tumor from a woman patient without anesthesia.[10]
• It is the home of Centre College, housing the oldest college administration building and campus west of the Allegheny Mountains.[10]

Boyle County Courthouse in Danville

Danville was part of the Great Settlement Area around Harrod's Fort (present-day Harrodsburg), which was first settled in 1774. The site was originally known as Crow's Station for settler John Crow, but the town was surveyed and platted by Walker Daniel, Kentucky's first district attorney, who bought 76 acres (31 ha) near the Wilderness Road from Crow in 1783. The city was named for Daniel.[12] The Virginia legislature officially established Danville on December 4, 1787.[11]

Between 1784 and 1792, ten conventions were held in Danville to petition for better governance and ultimately to secure independence from Virginia. In 1786 the Danville Political Club was organized. It met each Saturday night at Grayson's Tavern to discuss the political, economic, and social concerns of the day. After a state constitution was adopted and separation was confirmed in 1792, the town ceased to be of statewide importance. Its leading citizens moved elsewhere.[13]

Transylvania University was founded in Danville in 1783. It moved to Lexington in 1789. Centre College was founded in 1819. Danville Theological Seminary was founded in 1853; in 1901 it became part of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The Caldwell Institute for Young Ladies was founded in 1860. It became Caldwell Female College in 1876, Caldwell College in 1904, Kentucky College for Women in 1913, and merged into Centre College in 1926.[11]

In November 1806, Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, visited Danville while traveling the Wilderness Road to Washington, D.C., to report on the expedition, which had returned from the Pacific Coast. In December 1806, William Clark visited his nephews in school in Danville before following Lewis to Washington.[14]

The first school in Danville for African-American children was founded around 1840 by Willis Russell, an emancipated slave of Robert Craddock, a Revolutionary War veteran. Craddock deeded a log house in Danville to Russell. He moved to the town after Craddock's death and started a school for children. The house still stands on Walnut Street.[15]

In 1842, Boyle County was formed from southern Mercer County and northern Lincoln County. Danville became its county seat.[11]

In 1850, Danville and Boyle County backed construction of the Lexington and Danville Railroad. Money ran out when the railroad reached Nicholasville. John A. Roebling had already built towers for a railroad suspension bridge over the Kentucky River. (Roebling lived in Danville during the construction.) Despite the railroad not being completed to Danville, the county still owed the company $150,000. It completed payment on time in 1884.[13][16]

In 1860, a fire devastated the city, destroying 64 buildings and causing more than $300,000 in damages. Boyle County's courthouse was destroyed; its replacement was completed in 1862.[11]

After the Union Army won the Battle of Perryville in the Civil War on October 8, 1862, it appropriated many Danville buildings, including the courthouse, for use as hospitals. On October 11, a Union force drove Confederate forces from the county fairgrounds through Danville.[17]

In May 1864, the group of 250 – mostly enslaved males but including some freedmen – marched from Danville to nearby Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, where Colonel Andrew Clark allowed them to enlist In the Union Army after some initial hesitation. Arriving with wounds inflicted upon them in route, this group was the first to enlist at this site, where 10,000 United States Colored Troops trained. [18]

In 1775, Archibald McNeill planted Kentucky's first recorded hemp crop at Clark's Run Creek near Danville. By 1889 Boyle County was one of the ten Kentucky counties which together produced more than 90% of the US yield. It was the state's largest cash crop until 1915, when it lost its market to imported jute.[19]

From the turn of the 20th century through the 1960s, Danville was home to a thriving African-American business sector located on and around 2nd Street on the western edge of what is now Constitution Square Historic Site. The city demolished this business sector under urban renewal in the 1970s to provide for the expansion of Constitution Square Park.[20]

On October 5, 2000, Dick Cheney and Senator Joe Lieberman, candidates for Vice President of the United States, debated at Centre College during the 2000 presidential election.[21] On October 11, 2012, Centre College again hosted the Vice-Presidential debate, this time between Vice President Joe Biden and Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan.[9]

Danville is located in eastern Boyle County at 37°38′44″N 84°46′11″W.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.9 square miles (41.2 km²), of which 15.8 square miles (41.0 km²) is land and 0.077 square miles (0.2 km²), or 0.58%, is water.[22]

Danville, Kentucky Water Tower viewed from the north. Features the motto "Quite Simply the Nicest Town"

As of the census[28] of 2010, there were 16,218 people, 6,405 households, and 3,903 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,020.0/sq mi (393.8/km²). There were 7,180 housing units at an average density of 451.6/sq mi (174.4/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 83.2% White, 10.9% African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 1.8% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 3.9% of the population.

Of the 6,405 households, 25.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.8% were non-families. 33.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.83.

20.8% of the population was under the age of 18, 61.8% from 18 to 64, and 18.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.4 years. Females made up 54.4% and males made up 45.6% of the population aged 18 or older.

As of 2000, the median income for a household was US $32,938, and the median income for a family was $40,528. Males had a median income of $35,327 versus $24,542 for females. The per capita income was $18,906. About 9.4% of families and 12.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.6% of those under age 18 and 10.5% of those age 65 or over.

Centre College

Public schools

Danville Schools operates Mary G. Hogsett Primary School, Edna L. Toliver Intermediate School, John W. Bate Middle School, and Danville High School for the city of Danville. Boyle County Schools operates Woodlawn Elementary School, Junction City Elementary School, Perryville Elementary School, Boyle County Middle School, and Boyle County High School for portions of Danville and the remainder of Boyle County. Kentucky School for the Deaf provides education to Kentucky's deaf and hard-of-hearing children from elementary through high school.

Private schools

Two private schools operate in Danville:

• Danville Christian Academy[30]
• Danville Montessori School[31]

Colleges and universities

Centre College, a nationally recognized liberal arts college, is located in Danville. Danville also hosts a campus of Bluegrass Community and Technical College

Public library

Danville has a lending library, the Boyle County Public Library.[32]

On March 2, 2010, Danville voted to go "wet" (to permit sale of packaged alcohol and sale of alcohol by the drink without restriction by size of premises).[33]

The following are highly noted people from Danville. For a more complete list see List of people from Danville, Kentucky.

• James G. Birney Abolitionist
• John Boyle (1774–1834), U.S. federal judge and U.S. Representative; Boyle County, Kentucky, was named after him
• John C. Breckinridge (1821–1875), U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Kentucky, U.S. Vice President, U.S. presidential candidate, Confederate States Secretary of War
• Neal Brown, college football coach
• Speed S.Fry (1817-1892) lawyer, judge, officer United States Army during the American-Mexican War and Civil War
• Jordan Gay, National Football League player
• John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911), U.S. Supreme Court Justice; "The Great Dissenter"
• Larnelle Harris (1947-), Grammy and Dove Award-winning gospel singer and songwriter
• Robby Henson, screenwriter and director
• Ephraim McDowell (1771–1830), physician, first to successfully remove an ovarian tumor
• E. Belle Mitchell (1848-1942), daughter of former slaves, educator, abolitionist, and founder of Colored Orphans Industrial Home in Lexington, Kentucky
• John Michael Montgomery, country singer
• Theodore O'Hara (1820–1867), poet and soldier
• Hugh L. Scott (1853–1934), Superintendent of West Point, U.S. Army Chief of Staff in World War I
• Isaac Shelby (1750–1826), first and fifth Governor of Kentucky, soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War, and War of 1812
• Jacob Tamme, former National Football League player
• Frank X Walker (1961-), Kentucky's first African-American Poet Laureate

Major employers include:[55]

• Junction City, Kentucky, a nearby city originally known as Danville Junction and South Danville

• Fackler, Calvin Morgan (July 1939). "Walker Daniel, the Founder of Danville". Filson Club History Quarterly. 13 (3). Archived from the original on 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
• Price, William Jennings (October 1940). "Danville Was the First Post Office Established in Kentucky and in the Territory Beyond the Alleghenies". Filson Club History Quarterly. 14 (4). Archived from the original on 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2011-11-30.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Danville, Kentucky.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Danville, Kentucky.

• City of Danville official website
• Danville-Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Danville, Boyle County Chamber of Commerce
• Danville/Boyle County Economic Development Partnership
• Downtown Danville: The Heart of Danville Main Street Program