The Odd Fellows Hall Main and Youell	The Old Florence School	Stringtown on the Pike, circa 1905	Florence Gents, 1916

 

The Toll House on Burlington Pike near Florence	Tollgate on what is now Dixie Highway, near what is now Goodridge Avenue	The Toll House on Tanners Lane in Florence

 

	There are four houses in Florence on the National Register of Historic Places. Applications here - all pdf's - contain histories, maps, and interior and exterior photography.
	Blankenbecker House	Rouse Office & Home	Delehunty House	Goodridge House

 

Florence  School, c. 1910	Florence School District #8, and Professor A. M. Yealey, Principal Courtesy Kentucky Historical Society. Visit history.ky.gov regarding rights and reproduction	Pleasant  Ridge School NW corner of US  42 & Hopeful Road	Old Stringtown School southwest corner of Main Street & Dortha

Prof. A. M. Yealey's history of Florence schools is here.  (pdf)

 

Florence VFD, organized in 1936
That's Julius Merle Allen on the truck.
From a Facebook post by the Boone County Local History Department

1937 Dedication of the fire station.	Florence's 1962 International American Fire Truck

 

Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, a popular magazine at the turn of the last century, ran
a feature on Lloyd's novel Stringtown on the Pike, and included these pics.  They're likely
Florence, and likely taken by Mrs. Lloyd.

Cincinnati Tribune ran a feature on Stringtown on the Pike

 

Mr. and Mrs. Roy Lutes			Looking down Main Street
A Shell and Texaco Station on the corner of Main and Dixie.			That was Florence Methodist in the background; now a Baptist Church

The building at the corner of Turfway and Main, as of this writing a post office, started life as a long gone greater Cincinnati grocery chain called Alber's. These four images are from the grand opening of Albers. Images are from a Facebook post by Aaron Gillum.

A history of the Florence post office is here.

The failed attempt in 1953 to get door-to-door delivery of mail.

 

Rector A. Jones, 1951, for whom R. A. Jones school is named

 

Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, October 18, 1923

“Peds” go from Florence to Walton

Florence Mall, est. 1976

Why does the water tower say “Mall” and not “Y'All?” And why was it changed? Because the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 put regulations on advertising done along highways, and, according to Diana Whalen, Florence Mayor, and daughter of Hop Ewing (a previous mayor, whose idea it was to paint the legs of the M and add an apostrophe), “You couldn't advertise a nonexistent entity.” The tower was up before the mall opened.

 

Florence High School, 1952

 

Boone County High School
Built in 1953, it cited 1220 students as of this postcard.
BCHS was formed from four county high schools: Burlington, Florence, Hebron, and New Haven.
The sports teams are named the Rebels because . . . explanation here.

The naming of the football field

 

Both believed to be the Highland Stock Farm, south of Florence on US 25, before you get to Industrial Road, c. 1930's. From a Facebook post by James Russell.

 

Highland Stock Farm Northeast corner of Richardson and US 25 More at this site.	Our guess is that this barn is the same as the one to the left.  Looking south on Dixie.  Maybe.

Walter Scott Farm on Price Pike
drawing by Caroline Williams

Farm and tavern - The Eight Mile House - for sale in Florence, in 1841.

 

The Kentucky Raceway was off of Evergreen Drive, where the Saddlebrook subdivision is as of this writing (2021). A flat track where they had harness racing, and later auto racing. See it at the bottom of this map). The Saddlebrook developers drained the lake. From a Facebook post by Ray Rice.

Read about the Kentucky Raceway here.

Florence YMCA, next to the Post Office From a Facebook post by Rick Phillips	Don Reeves Restaurant From a Facebook post by Daniel Donaldson

 

    Latonia Race Track, Florence Kentucky, 1962 (far right is c. 1980)
later named Turfway Park

 

 

Barry B. Good runs in the Autumn Stakes at Turfway, 1968.

 

Aerial of Florence (That's Rogers Lane in the lower right)	Aerial View, looking south, just south of Florence	Florence, 1883

Notice to apply for a Florence Tavern License, 1898. Full text, and background.
Thanks to Billy Tackett for this one.

“Cincinnati, Nov. 3 - The dry goods store of Tobie & Myers, at Florence, Ky., about eight miles back of Covington, was robbed of $2,000 worth of flannels, jeans, blankets, ribbons and other goods last night.  The thieves evidently used wagons to carry away their plunder.  There is very little clew at this hour.  The police authorities at Erlanger were notified, and also the chief of police at Cincinnati.  The firm has offered a liberal reward for the capture of the thieves and the return of the goods.  This is the biggest robbery that has taken place at Florence for some years.” from Maysville's Evening Bulletin, November 3, 1888

Fire! in Florence, 1870.  Read accounts of it, here.	“John E. Walton, Florence, Ky., a large land owner and the wealthiest man in Boone  County, is here, attending the fair here.”from Maysville's Evening Bulletin, October 3, 1891
In the 19th century, before mass communications, it was common to hold mass meetings for political candidates. These generally consisted of hour after hour of long speeches, and were widely attended. Thousands of people at one was common. Here's an example from Florence.
A description of Florence from 1913 is here.	Story of a Cincinnati man who was kidnapped in Newport and taken to Florence for flogging in 1917, here.
“Vice-President Breckenridge made a speech in Florence, Ky., the other day, in which he endorsed the whole Lacompton policy of the administration.” Tiffin Tribune, July 30, 1858. Links to Wikipedia.
Kentuckian, at the time, 1858, the Vice President of the US, and a presidential candidate, John C. Breckinridge comes to Florence, here. If you want to read the whole speech, we have that too.
Meeks / Clutterbeck shooting. Part 1; part 2.	Florence citizens meet in 1858. Pass resolution to retain slavery, annex Mexico, and buy Cuba.
The area where Gunpowder Road crosses US 42 used to be a neighborhood called Sugartit. A possible explanation for how the name came to be is offered in a Facebook post by Cynthia Aylor Houck, from a letter her grandfather Shelley Aylor, wrote to her in 1970.
Vice-President's remarks in Florence are challenged, here.	Florence mob nearly lynches Union soldier, here and here.
The Boone County Recorder visits Florence in 1877, and describes it thusly.	Florence lobbied for the streetcar to extend on from Erlanger.
6,000 attend Ku Klux Klan rally in Florence.	It's 1841, and this 156 acre farm in Florence is for sale
Florence man visits Cincinnati; finds himself in the calaboose.	Secessionist gangs in Florence?
Lucille W. Jones' History of Stringtown on the Pike is here.  (pdf)	The four oldest houses in Florence are identified here.
“Florence, Boone county, has a population of three hundred and forty souls.  Samuel Lindsey is the oldest inhabitant, having resided there since 1834.”  from Covington's The Ticket, 4-8-1876	“Florence - And now we are made happy by the presence of a new establishment in the shape of a tinshop, the proprietors of the same celebrating their advent by getting gloriously drunk.”from Covington's Daily Commonwealth, July 15, 1879

 

 

An older poetic tribute to Stringtown on the Pike.
Author unknown.  It's not complimentary.

“Military Arrests - Dr. John Delaney and Spencer Fish, citizens of Florence, Boone County, Ky., were arrested yesterday on the charge of disloyalty.  The latter subsequently escaped from those who had him in charge, and his wife was taken hostage for his return.”      from the Cincinnati Enquirer, August 9, 1864

Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, July 28, 1849

“Florence has taken another gigantic stride in her march toward fame, and can now be credited as the first place in Boone, and probably the first in the State, where a jury of "free Americans of African descent" had been organized ad an instrument of administering justice.  In Esquire Clutterback's court, last Monday, was where this unusual scene occurred, and it was occasioned by the trial of of a brace of Negro men, who, on Sunday, imbibed too freely of fighting whiskey which developed its fighting qualities near the church in Florence where a colored congregation was engaged in worship.  The jury convicted and fined one of the defendants $70 and the other $35.” The Boone County Recorder, June 12, 1879.

Florence was never actually named Stringtown -  that's  John Uri Lloyd's fictional name.  Before it was named Florence, various names used included Polecat, PowWow, Maddentown, Connersville.   It's been Florence since April  27, 1830.  You can read that it's named after Jacob Connor's wife, Florence, except his wife's name was Suzannah.   The desire was to name it Connersville, but the name had  already been taken by another town, elsewhere in Kentucky.  There is a real Stringtown in Boone County, see here.

We are so confused. . . Florence became an official town on April 27, 1830, when it changed it's name from Connorsville to Florence. It expanded it's boundaries on February 28, 1842. But in 1856, the town ceased being an official town. It became an official town again on February 17, 1860, and ceased being a town on March 1, 1860. On February 6, 1861, the 1860 authorization act was revived and amended, but on May 23, 1865, their authorization is again repealed.