Historic Middletown Inc. Middletown Museum

08/22/2026

We still have a couple of time slots available for staffing the booth outside as well as the museum inside. If you are interested in helping please let us know. Thanks!

08/16/2026

💚 Nicholas Finzer - a name I recently came across when I dove deep into the history of the Douglass Hills spring house. However, it wasn't a name that rang any bells for me, so I didn't dig into his history. I posted that he was the second owner of the Douglass Hills property and left it at that.
💛 A follower asked about Finzer's story because she knew there had been a Nicholas Finzer School in Louisville in the 1920s. Then, another follower - named Nick Finzer, a descendant - commented that Nicholas Finzer was one of the brothers of the J. Finzer & Brothers To***co Company AND his home on Hull Street in Louisville was still standing. I knew then that I needed to do research on owner #2.
🤎 In my first post, linked in the comments, you learned a little history of John Womack (owner #1) and Colonel J.J. Douglas (owner #3), and here is a little bit about Nicholas Finzer, owner #2.
💚 Nicholas Finzer (1848 - 1896) was born in Kappeln, Switzerland, to Benedict and Maria Weibel Finzer Sr. The Finzers and their eight children (5 sons and 3 daughters) came to America in 1853. They established their home in Louisville, where the Finzers' 9th child and 4th daughter was born.
💛 The Finzer Brothers (John, Benjamin, Frederick, Rudolph, and Nicholas) attended public schools in the area and worked in the to***co business. In 1866, the brothers established the J. Finzer & Bros. company and became proprietors of Five Brothers To***co Works. By the 1880s, Louisville's to***co market was one of the largest in the world.
🤎 When the oldest Finzer brother passed away, Nicholas took over the presidency of the company. Under his leadership, the company grew into one of the country's major plug to***co manufacturers, employing seven hundred workers. In 1900, the J. Finzer and Brothers Company had a a six and one-half story brick factory built at today's 419 Finzer Street. According to the National Register Nomination Form, the building functioned as a factory, storage, and distribution center, "with true heavy timber interior structure. Columns, beams, and floors are all heavy timber construction. The exterior brick walls are 18 inches thick at the first floor, with brick pilasters every 15 feet, located on the column lines." The building still stands today and was added to the National Register of Historic Places - NPS - in 2003.
💚 In addition to being the president of the to***co company, Nicholas Finzer was also the director of the German Insurance Bank, director of the Newsboys' Home, and the president of the Plug To***co Manufacturers' Association. On top of that, he served on the board of public schools. He was a major player in the establishment of night schools. He wanted his employees to have a chance to better themselves, so he made a donation to the Third Ward School, which allowed his workers to attend night school for free. (I'd say this was the reason a school was named for him in 1923. The school closed in 1966.)
💛 Nicholas seems to have had his home in the now Irish Hill neighborhood around 1869, as it appears in the City Directory in 1870. His mother and brother lived in the home with him until his marriage to Agnes Eugenia in 1872. His home at 1212 Hull Street is also on the National Register. It is a two-story Renaissance Revival-style brick home. (From the roof, you can see the city and the river!) The highlight of this home is the decorative cast iron work on the porch and the cellar and attic grates. On the inside, walnut woodwork in classical style, cast iron mantels, and interior shutters can be found. Nicholas, Agnes, and their five children lived in the home until 1885.
🤎 It seems that's when Finzer purchased the 300-acre property in Middletown and ran a stock farm. (According to Finzer's obituary, he was also the chief owner of Passtime Stables.) He lived on the estate until he died in 1896. He was one of the wealthiest men in Louisville at the time. His estate was said to be worth $500,000 at the time of his death.
💚 So, there you have it, my history-lovin' followers. You now know the history behind the three owners of the property that eventually became the Douglass Hills neighborhood, and all this research came from a photo of a spring house. THIS is the reason our historic structures must continue to stand! Without that spring house, I would never have followed this history trail, and these stories would vanish over time. Historic preservation is key! Let's hope some type of action is taken to save the spring house at Douglass Hills.

📷 property of Wikimedia Commons
📚 Text is intellectual property of Kentucky Historic Travels

***co

08/14/2026

The museum will be closed today. Please come see us tomorrow 1-4 pm.

08/14/2026

💚 Okay, y'all, I have fallen down another history rabbit hole because of another spring house in Jefferson County, KY. Whenever I post about spring houses in JC, someone always asks about the springhouse on the edge of the Douglass Hills neighborhood. I've looked at the history before, but never posted, because I didn't have a photo. It just so happens that traffic stopped me directly in front of the site today, so I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped a photo before cars started moving again.
💛 I thought this was going to be a quick search, a short history, and then move on to my next site because of what I had researched before. This time, however, I opened my "The Encyclopedia of Louisville" book I picked up a few weeks ago and looked up Douglass Hills. Boy, oh boy, was I surprised by more history than I had located during my first search several years ago. So, here you have it, another intertwining of Kentucky families. Check this out!!!
🤎 John Graves Womack (1781-1859) was born in Virginia to Jesse and Sarah Daniel Womack. By 1812, John was in Fayette County, KY. You see, on October 12, 1812, John married a 21-year-old young lady named Phebe Boone Bryan. Now, when I read that name, I had to stop reading and grab my computer. Of course, I knew the name Boone Bryan from my research on Waveland State Historic Site in Lexington, where these two were married. As history would have it, Phebe was the daughter of Daniel Boone Bryan, the builder of Waveland. If you read my second book, you might remember that Daniel Boone Bryan was the son of William and Mary Boone Bryan, and Mary Boone Bryan was the sister of ....... drum roll please ....... Daniel Boone. So, John Graves Womack married Daniel Boone's great-niece. How cool is that?
💚 You might be asking, what does that have to do with the springhouse at Douglass Hills? Well, by 1836, John and Phebe and their children were living in Middletown, KY, on the property we now know as the Douglass Hills neighborhood. John helped organize the Middletown Christian Church and was the first elder. He built an "elegant brick house at what was then the west end of Middletown." (Middletown Days and Deeds) I can promise you that in 1836, there was more than just an elegant brick house on the property. They would have needed a springhouse, a smokehouse, a barn, and several other outbuildings.
💛 I don't know if the springhouse that stands today was originally built in 1836 or if this was a rebuild later. I would say there's a really good chance this one could be from 1836. We have others in Jefferson County that have been standing far longer and the Womacks would have needed a spring house.
🤎 According to Family Search, the Womacks had 6 children together. (Those Womack children in Jefferson County were related to Daniel Boone! Cool, right?) When John Graves Womack died in 1859, he was buried on his property, and the family remained on the estate for several years. (The house was partly burned during the Civil War when the Perryville Prelude - one of the two largest Civil War skirmishes in Jefferson County - took place in the area.)
💚 The property changed hands at some point to a man named Nicholas Finzer, who established a stock farm on the property. (If you read my FB posts regularly, you'll remember I posted about Eden Farm, which was just down the road at what is now UofL's Shelby Campus. That was also a stock farm at the time. Raising horses became big money, and it seems eastern Jefferson County had several stock farms in the area at that time.) EDIT- I've written a second post covering the history of Mr. Finzer.
💛 When Nicholas Finzer passed away, his widow sold the then 300-acre property to Colonel James J. (also known as J.J. or Jim) Douglas (1846-1917).
🤎 Douglas, a Louisville native, quickly made a name for himself when he entered the whiskey business, founding the J.J. Douglas Co. in 1886. Becoming quite wealthy, he moved into horse racing. In 1895, he developed and owned a trotting horse track known as the Douglas Park Racetrack. (The track was located in the Beechmont neighborhood of South Louisville, and that area is still known as Douglas Park today.) It was then, in 1896, that Douglas purchased the property in Middletown and moved from Louisville. He lived in "elegant style," raising many "fine horses" on the estate he named Douglas Park. "It was during this period that Douglas was designated a “Kentucky Colonel” by the governor of the state." (Pre-Pro Whiskey Men blog)
💚 Douglas passed away at his home on January 2, 1917. (Fun fact - Louis and Otto Seelbach, founders of the Seelbach Hotel, were pallbearers at his funeral.) Since Jim and his wife never had any children, the property passed through several hands all the way through the 1970s. It was then that the house was demolished and the farmland was developed into a subdivision known as Douglass Hills. (While researching, I found J.J. Douglas's name to be spelled with one S, as well as two. Therefore, I believe that's why Douglass Hills is spelled with two, while Douglas Park is spelled with only one.)
💛 So, there you have it, my fellow history lovers: the long history of the Douglass Hills property that I thought would be short and sweet! 🤣 But then, I should have known better! I always have to chase the history as far back as I can. I should have known I'd find another connection!
🤎 Please make sure to check the comments - I've posted the image of the marriage document I found for John and Phebe, and a photo of J.J. Douglas I found in a Douglass Hills newsletter.
💚 Until next time, Happy Travels!

📸 and text property of Kentucky Historic Travels

08/14/2026

08/02/2026

A portrait of Professor Crosby donated to our museum. It needs some cleaning, but we have put it on display until we arrange for that to happen. For those that don't know of him this is the man that Crosby Park and Crosby Middle School is named for. He was the Principal at Middletown Elementary School for many years.

08/02/2026

Early map of Middletown estate prior to 1830. Look closely and you can see a street to Brunerstown, this is present day Watterson Trail. Main Street is labeled as Shelbyville Pike.