The Top 10 Louisville Attractions List

#1 Churchill Downs
Louisville's Churchill Downs is best known as the home of the Kentucky Derby. The track was created in the late 1800s by Colonel M. Lewis Clark, though it was not officially incorporated as Churchill Downs until 1937. The first Kentucky Derby occurred at Churchill Downs in 1875. Close to 10,000 people watched as 15 thoroughbred horses ran what was then a 1.5 mile course. In 1876, the length of the race was changed to 1.25 miles.

Today, the Kentucky Derby is Louisville's biggest annual event. It is a 1.25 mile race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses that is held on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. The Kentucky Derby draws an average of 150,000 visitors each year, including residents, out-of-towners, celebrities, presidents, and even members of royal families. Churchill Downs has also held the Breeders' Cup more than a half-dozen times and will host it again in 2010.

Churchill Downs is open for a spring and fall meet each year. However, the Kentucky Derby Museum, adjacent to Churchill Downs, is open year-round. The Kentucky Derby Museum houses pieces that reflect the history of the Kentucky Derby as well as the history of thoroughbred racing. Visitors to the museum can watch a documentary about the Kentucky Derby called The Greatest Race in its 360 degree theater.

#2 The Belle of Louisville
The Belle of Louisville is the oldest river steamboat in continuous use. Today she takes passengers on cruises up and down the Ohio River and races in the Great Steamboat Race every year on the Wednesday before the Kentucky Derby, but she has lived many lives and gone by many different names.

The Belle of Louisville was originally called "the Idlewild" and used to transport passengers and cargo between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas. Her first trip to Louisville was as the Idlewild in 1931 where she ferried passengers from an amusement park in Downtown Louisville to a resort on Rose Island for a season.

In 1947, the Idlewild was sold and renamed "the Avalon." As the Avalon, she carried passengers and cargo up and down rivers all over the Midwest and South. By 1962, she had been run into the ground and was on her way to the scrap yard when a Kentucky official bid highest for her in an auction. She was brought home, repaired, and given her current name - "the Belle of Louisville."

Since 1963, the Belle has been cruising up and down the Ohio River along the Louisville border and racing in the annual Kentucky Derby Festival Great Steamboat Race. Today, she is one of Louisville's biggest attractions among visitors to the city as well as a favorite piece of local culture among Louisville residents.

#3 The Muhammad Ali Center
Muhammad Ali is most-widely known as a boxer whose fame began after winning a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, but he is more than just a sports hero. Muhammad Ali was a prominent leader in the civil rights movement, a Nation of Islam convert that refused to retain his "slave name" Cassius Clay. He has devoted much of his life to helping the less-fortunate across the world, and the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky was built to celebrate his admirable life and strength of character.

The Muhammad Ali Center is both a museum and a center for education and inspiration that was designed around the six values that have been most prominent in Ali's life: respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, and spirituality. The center is focused on presenting the life and values of Louisville-born Muhammad Ali, but, more fully, it is designed to show visitors how Muhammad Ali's life and values can be used to develop love for others, community, and compassion. Overall, the Muhammad Ali Center is about making the most out of ourselves and our lives in every way.

#4 The Louisville Science Center
The Louisville Science Center is an interactive learning center with more than 150 exhibits and a four-story IMAX Theater. Exhibits at the Louisville Science Center teach visitors about chemistry, physics, engineering, telecommunications, manufacturing, technology, health, and life sciences. The Louisville Science Center's Kid Zone caters to children under seven.

#5 The Louisville Slugger Museum
The Louisville Slugger Museum is a museum and factory where Louisville Slugger baseball bats are created and baseball's history is preserved. Visitors can tour the museum and watch as Louisville Slugger baseball bats are made. The Louisville Slugger Museum is easy to locate - it is marked by the World's Largest Baseball Bat that leans against the side of the building.

#6 Fourth Street Live
Fourth Street Live is an entertainment complex located on the section of 4th Street between Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Liberty Street. It was opened back in 2004 in an attempt to bring some of the city's nightlife scene back to the Downtown Louisville area. Though originally met with some skepticism as to its ability to draw a crowd downtown, Fourth Street Live is now one of the premier nightlife hotspots in the city among both locals and tourists alike.

Businesses located inside of Fourth Street Live include Hard Rock Café, The Improv Comedy Club, TGIFriday's, Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge, Borders Books and Music, Hotel Nightclub, and Saddle Ridge, among others. Fourth Street Live is also home to many local events and outdoor concerts, especially during the Kentucky Derby and the warmer months of the year.

#7 Waverly Hills Sanatorium
The Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville was built as a two-story hospital for people with Tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease, and those afflicted with it have to be quarantined from others in order to quell the spread of the disease. Because of this, many people who were diagnosed with TB in the early to mid 1900s were sent to live at the Waverly Hills TB Hospital.

It is now believed that more than 60,000 people died in the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Additionally, the patients at Waverly Hills were often mistreated or had unethical research experiments conducted on them. Because of the high number of deaths that were occurring in the hospital, hospital workers converted a supply tunnel into a death chute where bodies were sent down to the street for pickup so that patients would not recognize how many were dying.

By the 1960s, Tuberculosis was cured and Waverly Hills was no longer needed. It was quarantined for a year and then converted into a nursing home. The nursing home was closed by the state because of allegations of patient abuse in the 1980s. For two decades, Waverly Hills was just an abandoned building, visited only by kids looking for a good scare or something to vandalize. However, it was purchased by Charlie and Tina Mattingly in 2000, and they have been in the process of renovating it since. They hope to eventually convert Waverly Hills into a hotel.

Today, Waverly Hills Sanatorium is known as one of the most haunted places in the world. It has been featured on many local and national TV and radio programs, including the Sci-Fi series Ghost Hunters. It is the home of a haunted house every Halloween and open for tours, half-night stays, and full-night stays year round.

#8 The Louisville Parks System
One of the biggest local attractions is the Louisville parks system. There are more than 120 public parks in the metro area alone, many created by famed landscape architect . Olmstead was a nationally-renown landscape architect responsible for creating Central Park in New York.

Two of Louisville's most beloved parks, Cherokee Park and Iroquois Park, were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. With amenities like a 2.4 mile scenic loop, a fenced dog park, and a bird sanctuary, Cherokee Park entertains close to 500,000 visitors a year, making it one of the 50 most-visited parks in the United States. First planned as a "scenic reservation" by Frederick Law Olmstead, Iroquois Park is known for its panoramic views, its large open-air amphitheater, and its golf course.

Louisville's Waterfront Park was not designed by Olmstead. In fact, Waterfront Park did not exist until 1986 when it was developed as a means of reclaiming a viable green space on the river. At that time, Downtown Louisville was one of the most rundown areas of the city, and Waterfront Park was one of the first initiatives to bring city life back there.

Waterfront Park is now a favorite recreation area among Louisville residents of all ages. It is the top destination for major local events like as well as smaller events and concerts in the warmer months. The third and final phase of the development of Waterfront Park is the conversion of the Big Four railroad bridge to a walking bridge that will allow pedestrians to walk across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Indiana. This is scheduled for completion in 2011.
 

#9 Louisville Historic Homes
Louisville's long history can be found in its preserved historic homes that are located in some of the oldest city districts. Some of the city's most notable historic homes include the Thomas Edison House, the Farmington Carriage House, and Whitehall.

Thomas Edison is most well-known for inventing the light bulb, but the majority of his inventions over the course of his life were patented for the telegraph machine. At 19 years old, Edison moved to Louisville's Butchertown and found a job as a telegraph operator for Western Union. Today, Edison's Butchertown home is preserved as a museum with a collection of artifacts and inventions that represent his innovative life.

In the early half of the 1800s, Farmington was a 500-acre hemp plantation. The Farmington Carriage House and it surrounding buildings have undergone many renovations in the last 200 years, but today it is fully restored to reflect every minute detail of its days as a plantation home.

While Whitehall was first built around 1855, it was not transformed into the structure it is today until it was purchased in 1909 by John Middleton. Middleton transformed the original two-story brick house into the southern-style Greek-revival mansion that it is today. Whitehall was left to the Historic Homes Foundation in 1992. Today, this historic home is open for tours and is a popular place for weddings and other large events.

#10 St. James Court St.
St. James Court is a courtyard in Old Louisville surrounded by old, stately Victorian homes. It is the location of the annual St. James Art Fair, an event that draws more people to Louisville than the Kentucky Derby. The St. James Art Fair is an open-air art show and sale featuring more than 700 artists selling art in every medium imaginable. Proceeds of the St. James Art Fair go to preserving and restoring this historic Louisville neighborhood.

Also located within St. James Court is the Conrad-Caldwell House Museum. This historic Old Louisville home defines Richardsonian Romanesque architecture and has been preserved in its original splendor. It is now kept as a museum by the St. James Court Historic Foundation, and visitors to the area can tour the house for a small admission fee.