Newport Shopping Center

The Newport Shopping Center was built by the developer Sandford Homes, Inc., of Cleveland, on land once owned, like all Newport property, by James Taylor.  From Taylor it passed to Col. Thomas Laurens Jones, who married Taylor’s daughter, and who together built Mt. Saint Martins (there’s more on this page).  The heirs later sold the property to Fred Schuerman, who is reputed to have had a dairy farm on the site.  St. Luke had considered the site for their hospital.   Groundbreaking was September 3, 1954; the grand opening was November 16, 1955, but not all of the stores were ready to open at that time.  A later, smaller ceremony was held on February 2, 1956 to mark the opening of the rest of the stores.  The merchants of Monmouth Street undertook projects to improve their stores, and York and Monmouth were converted to one-way streets to accommodate parking.  

The information above is from a Jim Reis column in the Kentucky Post.  We found the column as a clipping, and since the clipping wasn’t dated, so we can't point you to the original source.