Latonia

Latonia, a.k.a. Lettonia, started out as a salt lick, at the corner of Highland Ave. and the 3L Highway,in what is now in Fort Wright. It became a mineral resort, and by 1833 there was a 50 room hotel, with a 100 foot piazza and a ballroom.

Cincinnati Enquirer, June 13, 1850

Mineral water resorts went out of fashion after the Civil War, as people came to understand that their claims of better health were a lot of poppycock, and besides, the springs dried up around 1910.

The name of the town, Latonia, or Lettonia, derives from the name of the race course, which got its name from the resort the which took its name from a Latin word for a Greek God which was adapted by the resort’s first owner, a man named Letton.

(Latona, in Roman mythology was known as Leto in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of the Titan couple Coeus and Phoebe. She became the mistress of Jupiter and conceived two children by him, Diana and Apollo.)

But before there was Latonia, either the town or the race rack, the area now known as the town of Latonia evolved to be known as South Covington, and incorporated as such in 1867. But the name further evolved for whatever reason into Milldale. Did the name originate from an old Mill, as an item from the January 16, 1923 Kentucky Post asserts? Or maybe from the Latonia Distillery, earlier the Milldale Distillery, which was named after an owner named Mills? Can't say.

We know that there is an application (pdf) to the post office department in 1880 to name the post office Milldale, instead of Latonia, but in 1899 we get this:

Kentucky Post,  September 13, 1899

 

The Commercial Club got their wish, and the name was changed to Latonia. But by 1908, they decided maybe being annexed to Covington would be a better idea. So they did.

 

Kentucky Post,  November 4, 1908

So to be clear, there's been no such place, officially, as the community of Latonia since 1908, although the name, as we sure you are well aware, absolutely endures.