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History

Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation’s board.
Hopkinsville sculptor created works for two memorials honoring soldiers who died in Gander crash
Jennifer P. Brown•
Steve Shields created dozens of works and became a highly regarded artist before his death in 1998.
Gander-sculptor
Newspaper’s move back to downtown planned before end of year
Jennifer P. Brown•
Twenty employees of the Kentucky New Era will work from the former J.C. Penney building that has been under renovation for about six months.
Kentucky New Era sign
Odd Fellows Building owes its survival to a major renovation completed nearly 20 years ago
Jennifer P. Brown•
The building constructed in 1902 has housed several businesses over its history, including four drug stores. The last one, Herb Brandt's Corner Drugs, closed in 1989
Odd Fellows Building in Hopkinsville
An early Christmas parade aimed to chase away some hard economic times
Jennifer P. Brown•
Prosperity had Depression on the run, at least in spirit, when the Chamber of Commerce organized Hopkinsville's first big Christmas parade.
2018-Hopkinsville-Christmas-parade-600x400
Bethel closed more than 50 years ago but one of its buildings is still prominent on downtown landscape
Jennifer P. Brown•
Baptist churches in the region established an organization to create the private girls school in 1854. The main campus was on West 15th Street between Main and Canton streets.
Bethal
Electrician, tinkerer created Hopkinsville’s first Christmas tree lights in color
Jennifer P. Brown•
Thomas Jefferson Baugh, who became an electrician after working for a phone company, put the colored lights on the city's tree at Peace Park.
Baugh
Kentucky’s 51st governor was a young lawyer from Hopkinsville
Jennifer P. Brown•
In the 1963 Democratic primary, Edward Thompson "Ned" Breathitt Jr. defeated a former governor, A.B. “Happy” Chandler, for his party’s nomination. Then he beat the Republican nominee by approximately 13,000 votes.
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Ted Poston’s short stories grew from regaling friends of life in Hopkinsville
Jennifer P. Brown•
The collection features fictionalized accounts of Poston's childhood, growing up in the 1910s in segregated Hopkinsville. The author and his buddies play the heroes, often outwitting the white community, but also their black elders.
Dark Side of Hopkinsville
3 Anvirdale streets on the National Register of Historic Places
Jennifer P. Brown•
The three streets that comprise most of the Anvirdale Historic District — Mooreland Drive, Latham Avenue and Alumni Avenue — are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mooreland Drive in Anvirdale Historic District
Faith led Hal and Bettye Thurmond to be civil rights leaders
Jennifer P. Brown•
An oral history tells the story of Hal and Bettye Thurmond and how the Catholic faith led them to be civil rights leaders in Hopkinsville.
Hal and Bettye Thurmond
History on Tap will serve up a Christian County feud story Sept. 19 at brewery
Jennifer P. Brown•
History teacher Brett Pritchett will relate the story of the feud between the Dukes and the Bones.
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Census will be focus of Constitution Day lecture Sept. 17 at HCC
Jennifer P. Brown•
Thomas Glover's talk is titled "The Constitution, the Census and Gerrymandering."
Hopkinsville_Community_College