page_title: History of Covington, Kentucky
section_title: Madison and Pike Street commercial corridor
hierarchical_section_title: History of Covington, Kentucky / Economic growth / Madison and Pike Street commercial corridor
caption_attribution_description: English: Historic Odd Fellows Hall Restored Covington, KY
context_page_description: The history of Covington, Kentucky began in 1815, with the city's founding.
context_section_description: The other major development occurring during this time period was the construction of the Covington and Lexington Railroad in 1853. While the public square remained a hub for the "courthouse crowd," in large part because of the railroad, the area of Madison Avenue and Pike Street became the city's primary commercial center during the rest of 19th century and into the 20th century.
  With a train stop at Russell and Pike Streets, which was also near the terminus of the Covington and Lexington Turnpike, the area of the city soon became a beehive of commercial activity. Packing houses, groceries, dry goods stores, meat markets, printers, jewelers, saloons, lumber yards, machine shops, hardware stores, and more than 20 hotels cropped up in this area of the city.
  In the years following the Civil War, Covington largely prospered as a result of the city's access to the tobacco grown around the Bluegrass, with numerous cigar factories around the town. Its iron mills, distilleries, glassworks, and stove makers were also noteworthy. Birdsill Holly's innovative water supply network was introduced in 1871.
  As with Cincinnati, many immigrants to the area were German and many were Catholic. A parochial orphanage was established about 4 miles outside town, and the St Elizabeth Hospital and the Benedictine priory of St Joseph and nunnery of St Walburga were among the city's principal buildings.
  By the time of the First World War, Covington was serviced by the Chesapeake & Ohio and Louisville & Nashville railroads. It was the state's second-largest city and its second-largest municipal economy. It received a Catholic bishopric and a Gothic cathedral. Its factories at the time had grown to include textile mills, foundries, machine shops, and cordage makers.
caption: Restored, Odd Fellows Hall, on Madison Ave.
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