Covington, Kentucky

City's changing face.

Time won't stand still

for evolving Covington.

Change can seem agonizingly slow - to people who have lived in a city all their lives.

But if a resident leaves for a few years and then returns, the evolution of buildings and neighborhoods suddenly becomes obvious.

No matter what your perspective, Covington indeed has evolved over the years. Illustrated through text and pictures, here's a look at changes as of the late 1930s to the mid-1950s.

• West 12th Street - Bavarian Brewery once dominated the block between 11th and 12th streets with its multi-storied brewery and tap room. The brewery apparently dates to the 1850s or 1860s and appears as the "Bavarian Brewery" in the 1869 city directory.

Bavarian closed during the Prohibition but reopened in the 1930s ad had returned to full production when this picture was taken on Aug. 6, 1938. The brewery closed in 1966.

• Madison Avenue - Madison Avenue long has been Covington's main business strip. The picture here was taken from atop the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in the 1940s.

The view points north along Madison Pike. In the picture, taken before construction of the Kenton County Building and Panorama Apartments, only Mother of God Church's twin towers stand out in the Covington skyline.

• Riverfront - Covington Landing and the Internal Revenue Service complex now dominate the section of Covington west of the Suspension Bridge and north of Fourth Street. In this picture taken in the 1950s, however, neither of those landmarks existed.

Factories were situated where Covington Landing and its parking lots now are located. Homes and apartment buildings stood where the IRS complex now is situated.

• Scott Boulevard - Not Scott "Street" as commonly known, Scott was designated as a boulevard to showcase growth and development. The road, however, never became the showplace city officials hope to create.

The picture shows the southeast corner of Scott and Fourth Street. Hogan's Café once was located in the building. It was later torn down, but the adjoining Boone Block office building remains. The old café building now is a parking lot for the liquor store next door.

Notice that cars are parked northbound. That was possible because two-way traffic was allowed. Now traffic is restricted to southbound.

• 600 block of Madison Avenue - One of the better-known blocks along Madison. The picture shows the Liberty Theater, Peoples Liberty Bank & Trust Co. and an advertisement for Coppin Department Store.

Liberty Theater opened in 1923 and was considered one of the area's finest movie theaters. It closed in 1970.

Peoples Liberty Bank was the successor of Liberty Bank - notice the name etched into the front of the building. Peoples Liberty is now Star Bank.

The Coppin Building now is the Covington City Building.

• Court Street - The entrance into Covington from the Suspension Bridge was recently transformed with the construction of a yoke intersection. This picture, taken about 1940 scans the same area.

Dominating the center of the picture was the Covington City Building, which was located at Third and Court streets. The city building was built in 1900 and torn down in 1970 after city offices moved for a while into what is now the Kenton County Building.

The study of Northern Kentucky history is an avocation of staff reporter Jim Reis, who covers suburban cities for The Kentucky Post. For this article, photographs came from the Kenton County Public Library.