South Main Street,  Leaving Falmouth	A residential section  of Falmouth, 1910

The big issue on the streets of Falmouth in 1877? Mud.

Lake View, Looking South	Lake View, Looking West [on Shelby], Falmouth, 1926
Lake View was a hotel, a bus stop, and the scene of many a dance. Tom Lovelace was the proprietor. It burned down in early spring of 1928. Ben Wolfe gives us some background on the image on the right: This photo is a 1920's era postcard of the Lake View area in Falmouth. This is Shelby Street. The original Lake View Inn building is the large white building on the left side of the street, where the far curve starts. At that time, at the Lake View Inn, the street made a hard right and headed to the covered bridge that was across the Licking River. That street is now [January, 2022] called Pike Street and is beside the tobacco store. Shelby Street now curves to the left and goes to Highway 27.

North End of the  County Bridge, Falmouth	Horse Shoe Curve, Oetzel Hill, Dixie Highway, 2 miles west of Falmouth, c. 1925	Licking Valley Looking South from View Point, Near Falmouth

 

Coming Into Falmouth

 

Dixie Highway, Oetzel Hill, West of Falmouth, 1926
“Miss Emma DeWalt, Tiffin, Ohio,  Dear Emma, This is the fifth shower we have been in, and
it's still raining.  We are staying in Falmouth tonight. Wouldn't want to live in this part of 
Kentucky.  Beulah.”

“We present here a picture of the Little Iron Bridge, over High Street at Shelby, which is the main entrance to “Egypt” and “Mt. Sinai.”  It is also a very popular place on mid-summer evenings for lovers to seek its recluse, and, in the soft, mellow moonlight, 'talk matters over.'” Falmouth Outlook, September 27, 1907

    A 1909 piece on the Little Iron Bridge, and a few rules from the workhouse, here.  (pdf)
(from the Pendleton County Historical and Genealogical Society)

County Bridge, at the end of Pike St., off West Shelby	Pike Street Bridge in Falmouth
	This picture, and many more outside the area covered by NKY Views, are from the Facebook page Kentucky's Covered Bridges-A Baker's Dozen
The US 27 Bridge replaced the Pike Street Bridge. Read about it here.

 

	.
Before and After Bridges on US 27 over the South Licking	Where the covered bridge was

Kentucky Legislature authorizes the building of a Licking Bridge in 1834.

The crossing at the main Licking has a long history. First there was a ferry, operated by a man named Oldham. Then came a suspension bridge. We know it was open by March of 1853, and was in use until 1868, when it fell in the river from disrepair. Most people preferred to ford the river than to risk using the bridge by that point anyway. It was succeeded by a covered bridge, of which there are numerous pictures below. It burned down on September 23, 1926. A free ferry was implemented until the new iron bridge could be put in place. The new bridge was dedicated on March 17, 1927. For a detailed history of this bridge, we'd direct you to a wonderful history of the bridge that the Outlook ran in it's 1928 Bridge edition, to celebrate the opening of the iron bridge. It's here (pdf). Also in the bridge edition, the Rev. J. H. Moore remembers the ferry and the old bridges, here.

 

This 1891 map shows Shoemaker's Mill, which is why that area is called Shoemaker town.

“The Suspension bridge over main Licking, at Falmouth, Pendleton county, has been so seriously damaged by the high water, as to render it wholly impassable. The abutments first sank and then burst open, displacing the floor of the bridge and rendering the whole structure useless. It cannot even be repaired. The bridge was built by private enterprise only two years ago, at a cost of about $60,000. ” From the Louisville Daily Courier, March 22, 1854

Panoramic View of Falmouth  You're looking at an aerial view of Falmouth, with the old L&N Covered Bridge featured. You can read a remarkably detailed description (pdf) of the scene in the Falmouth Outlook from March 23, 1928. The Outlook ran a special edition that day in honor of this bridge's replacement, so this pdf also includes a history of some of the politicians, and political shenanigans of the day. Good stuff.

There were speed limits on the bridge. In 1871.

An account of the burning of the covered bridge over the Licking is here. (pdf)
(from the Pendleton County Historical and Genealogical Society)

A couple got married on the bridge as part of the celebration of the new bridge opening. Their story is here.

In the week before the opening, there was a suicide, as one man jumped from the yet unopened bridge.

Falmouth advertises for a bridge builder, 1848.

The burning of the bridge - and access to the Ohio River - was such an inconvenience that the community supported a free ferry until the new bridge could be opened. These images are 1927-1928. Story of the free ferry is here, and a description of it, after its demise, is here.

 

New Iron and  Concrete Bridge, a.k.a. “The Blue Bridge”	Main Falmouth Bridge,  Falmouth, 1916

 

The State Highway Department published these pictures of the New Bridge in 1928.
Note the ferry in the “before” shot on the left.

“New” Bridge From a Facebook post by Greg Justice		The Bishops, 1945 Stop 'n Tell in the back, right, and River House on the left From a Facebook post by Greg Justice

   

Brian Gregg contributed these photo's of the 1964 flood in Falmouth on Hayes Station Road. This bridge crosses over the South Licking River. It has since been replaced. Pictures were taken by Brian's Grandpa Stanley Bishop. Thanks, Brian.

 

Lovers Lane, Falmouth, 1909 (“..Days perfect and  so are the people”)	The Covington - Falmouth  Road, somewhere in Pendleton County, c. 1927

Early roads were almost always toll roads, and they were unpopular.	The 1861 Falmouth bridge law.
In 1959, a concrete truck fell thru the Hays Station Bridge. The Falmouth Outlook ran a story on the event, here, and used the event to print a history of the bridge, here.	The 1915-1919 report on Pendleton County Roads, here.
Bridge for sale, in 1864. It was authorized in 1861	Railroad bridge opens in 1863.