Lost City

Creator

Steve Gaines

Preview

Creation Date

4-7-2001

Description

Jonesville once was a tight-knit black community in Bowling Green, but it disappeared when the state bought its land for Western Kentucky University in 1968.

Jonesville will have its place in history marked Tuesday when the state installs a historic marker where the community was established in 1881.

The community encompassed an area from where E.A. Diddle Arena now stands to the railroad overpass on Russellville Road.

Maxine Ray, a Western graduate student in folklore studies, grew up in Jonesville and has vivid memories of life there.

"There were 67 homes in Jonesville that just went out of existence," Ray said. "It was just a real close-knit community."

Jonesville was like a small Bowling Green she said.

"There were two churches - Mount Zion and Salters Chapel - two grocery stores, three beauty shops, an elementary school and several businesses in Jonesville," Ray said. "We had everything we needed right there."

But an urban renewal program condemned the property.

"When we wouldn't sell, the state came in and condemned the property," Ray said. "Urban Renewal sold the property to Western for its expansion plan."

Growing up in the segregated South, Ray and her friends were barred from many of Bowling Green's recreational areas, so they made do with what they had in Jonesville.

"Our parents made sure we had recreation," Ray said. "Because of segregation, you couldn't go many places."

Ray said she really didn't know what was on the other side of The Hill.

"We had everyhing we needed in the community," she said. "We were really protected and sheltered there."

Ray has worked for the past year and a half to get a historical marker for Jonesville. The ceremony dedicatign the marker will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday at University Boulevard and Big Red Way.