Portland, Louisville

Portland is a neighborhood and former independent town northwest of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It is situated along a bend of the Ohio River just below the Falls of the Ohio, where the river curves to the north and then to the south, thus placing Portland at the northern tip of urban Louisville. In its early days it was the largest of the six major settlements at the falls, the others being Shippingport and Louisville in Kentucky and New Albany, Clarksville, and Jeffersonville on the Indiana side. Its modern boundaries are the Ohio River along the northwest, north, and northeast, 10th Street at the far east, Market Street on the south, and the Shawnee Golf Course at the far west.

Gen. William Lytle II, the founder of Cincinnati, Ohio, owned a large amount of land just below the Falls of the Ohio and in 1811 laid out the settlement of Portland. He planned to sell the lots to finance his plan to build a canal around the Falls. Lytle authorized Joshua Barclay and Alexander Ralston to design the town, which featured a Northeast to Southwest street grid. The original settlement was between what is now 36th and 33rd Street along the Ohio River, which included a large wharf. The settlement quickly grew to the east in a Northwest to Southeast street grid, which noticeably contrasts to the East-West grid of adjacent areas of Louisville.

The advent of steamboats on the Mississippi occurred simultaneously with Portland's development, allowing the Ohio River to be used as a major freight shipping route in what was then the American Frontier. Portland was located just downstream from the only natural obstacle on the Ohio River, so all large boats traveling on the Ohio had to stop to move their freight by land around the Falls and reload them on another boat. With a captive audience and a need for freight hauling, Portland's Wharf flourished as numerous taverns, warehouses, and shipyards were built. By 1814 French immigrants from Alsace began populating the town.

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