Is Louisville Southern or Midwestern? (Lexington, Owensboro: transplants, catholic schools, college)

[mrfgsn]

Thought I'd ask this because a whole bunch of people in the general u.s. forum are claiming Louisville has more in common with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh than Nashville or Memphis and is even more Northern than Cincinnati and Baltimore. This is contradictory to my experiences.

[EricOldTime]

Louisville is a southern border city that has some slight influences from the lower midwest but all in all I'd say it's character is generally southern, however the "upland or interior south" and not the "antibellum" or Gulf Coastal south....so it's different.

Now that I've said their will be approximately 540,000 future posts, many of which will agree and many of which will totally disagree so let the good times roll!

I DO think Louisville is in many ways similar to Nashville, however not Memphis though. Pittsburgh? No way, not even close......

[censusdata]

This has been discussed just a couple times lol. I'm from a very culturally Southern family (dad's side is from Harlan Co, mom's side is from Russell / Casey Cos) and spent my formative years (4 to 11) in South Central KY. I find Louisville to be a combination of both, though Southerness varies by region of the city and even individual to individual.

If you're raised a German / Irish Catholic and attend Catholic schools who grew up in St Matthews you'll have a pretty similar experience to a Midwesterner in Cincinnati, Indy, etc. If you're a protestant descended from the original Scots Irish pioneers living in Fairdale you'll have a similar experience to a lot of people in the Mid South. My work place is mostly natives and about 1/3 of them have a strong KY accent, 1/3 have a standard American accent with a bit of a twang, 1/3 have no Southern accent at all

I have trouble distinguishing lower rural Midwest culture from rural Mid South culture. They seem to blend in. Cincinnati is very different from rural KY but rural southern Indiana is not that different from rural KY, even the most Southern areas. Most southern parts of IL, IN, OH, MO, etc were originally settled by people from the South.

[mjlo]

One of my favorite things about Louisville since living here is it's transcendence. It doesn't fit any stereotype well and is quite refreshing to come to for the first time. You hear the south in the accents, and maybe a little in the culture and values. It's definitely influenced by both. I feel like it's economy and infrastructure is more Midwestern. It's freeways and bridges are older and not designed to handle the current volume like a northern city, where most southern cities have palacial freeway systems. Before it became coterminous with Jefferson County it had the population decline of a manufacturing center as well, the likes of which aren't seen in the Nashville's and Atlanta's.

I dunno maybe it's because I run into so many transplants who like me have that generic midwestern view of regions in general. Or the friends i've made that are native to Louisville who don't really seem to care about the south or the north. Whereas the friends I have in TN, GA, and AL all have very pronounced views of the north and a great deal of southern pride. It is one mans opinion, but after being around Louisville for years and now living here for the the last 6 months I just doesn't feel that southern.

[Dayton Sux]

I used to live in Louisville, but am a native of Chicago. It seemed pretty durn southern to me when I lived there! (SW Louisville..Valley Station area).

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

I used to live in Louisville, but am a native of Chicago. It seemed pretty durn southern to me when I lived there! (SW Louisville..Valley Station area).

That side of town is by far the most Southern culturally. It's mostly populated by first or second generation city folk who have roots in Western or Southern KY. The Northeast suburbs where I live feel more similar to Cincinnati.

[midwest1]

This map is interesting...in terms of NFL...it appears Louisville is more oriented towards the Bengals and Steelers?? something in the water perhaps.

//www.city-data.com/forum/membe...witter-map.png

[censusdata]

In my experience the Colts are by far the most popular team then you have Bengal and Steelers / Packers / Cowboys fans in similar numbers. As soon as you cross into Indiana it's all Colts with almost no Bengal fans (though the college sports allegiances don't change much), the eastern counties in the tv market towards Frankfort and Carrollton are mostly Bengals / Steelers, to the south of Etown you run into more Titans fans.

In 1995 I doubt the Colts were as popular but that is now a powerful franchise with 16+ years of great QBs

[EricOldTime]

Originally Posted by censusdata

This has been discussed just a couple times lol. I'm from a very culturally Southern family (dad's side is from Harlan Co, mom's side is from Russell / Casey Cos) and spent my formative years (4 to 11) in South Central KY. I find Louisville to be a combination of both, though Southerness varies by region of the city and even individual to individual.

If you're raised a German / Irish Catholic and attend Catholic schools who grew up in St Matthews you'll have a pretty similar experience to a Midwesterner in Cincinnati, Indy, etc. If you're a protestant descended from the original Scots Irish pioneers living in Fairdale you'll have a similar experience to a lot of people in the Mid South. My work place is mostly natives and about 1/3 of them have a strong KY accent, 1/3 have a standard American accent with a bit of a twang, 1/3 have no Southern accent at all

I have trouble distinguishing lower rural Midwest culture from rural Mid South culture. They seem to blend in. Cincinnati is very different from rural KY but rural southern Indiana is not that different from rural KY, even the most Southern areas. Most southern parts of IL, IN, OH, MO, etc were originally settled by people from the South.

You're like me and mine...

Go over around Perry County and Crawford county near Leavenworth Indiana, Paoli, Brownstown, Salem, Corydon, Loogootee.....you'll think you never left Kentucky!

However, my Kentucky family is "staunch" "Roman-Catholic" ( as you already know ) My family wouldn't consider themselves any less than "southern" and not midwestern, as do all of the Roman catholic families in and around the Owensboro area ( at least ) they cringe when even compared to a midwesterner or a "hoosier" lol. I asked my aunt while skyping yesterday if she was from the midwest and she game me an attitude and said don't compare me with one of those on "that" side of the river over there LOL!!

I also have a few music friends born and raised in Louisville who were catholic, ( although the father is from Shelby Co ) and they are the same way, they also have a bit of twang in their speech, not to mention my friends in Louisville from Carroll and Owen county in N Ky....same thing......so I dunno, I can't tell much difference between them and other Kentuckians.

I agree with what you mean about rural lower midestern and mid-southern culture and the like. This is because of their proximity to one another, and I think the lower midwest has more in common with the mid-south than it does with the upper midwest, for example....hence the comment from the gentlemen from Chicago who lived in Louisville.

My friend out in Colorado, he's from Indy and I remember this topic came up and him saying that Louisville is definately southern to him. Of course he considers anything south of Columbus Indiana to be the south LOL.

from what I've read, the NE suburbs of Louisville are pretty Cosmopolitan and have a higher percentage of folks who have alot of education that are from outside of Louisville or "Kentucky" proper, they seem to gravitate towards this part of the city. It would seem that older areas of Louisville or the SW and SE fringes of the city is where you have alot of the working class folks, many of which came to Louisville or are 1st generation "interior Kentucky" transplants to Louisville who came to the city for work, many of them getting jobs at the Ford Motor plant there. I think this is why these 2 parts of the city demographically "feel" alot different from one another.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by Dayton Sux

I used to live in Louisville, but am a native of Chicago. It seemed pretty durn southern to me when I lived there! (SW Louisville..Valley Station area).

Louisville is only southern in its south suburbs. Dixie Hwy is indeed the south, along with Iroquois, south of Beechmont, to Fairdale, and on in to Bullitt. I would say Nelson, Spencer, and Shelby counties are very southern, much like Lexington even though they are Louisville bedroom communities.

Inside the Watterson? No way. NE and East Jeffferson County? Oldham County? That is more like Cincinnati or St Louis than it is like Nashville. Trust me on this one. Throw in Louisville's Indiana suburbs and Oldham County and the area is a pretty 50/50 split.

You could probably further divide it for convenience: 1/3 southern, 1/3 southern/midwest hybrid, and 1/3 midwest. A lot of Louisville's southern flair has been brought on in the last 75 years as post WWII was really when rural KY families started to move to Louisville. Before that, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit were the big winners of rural Kentuckians going to the city. Also keep in mind Louisville's embrace of the south is good for its tourism, so it goes along with it. The bourbon and belles, the historic architecture and the horses and southern food....that is all part of the new "Southern Living" Louisville. And I am ok with that.

But keep in mind Louisville, the large urban city, was built on the shoulders of German and Irish Catholic immigrants who were not southern at all, and share more in common with their neighbors in Ohio and Indiana than in Tennessee or even less so, Alabama and the deep south.