Happy Birthday Belle of Louisville

 TWIT would like to wish a very happy birthday to the pride of our city, the Belle of Louisville. The Belle celebrates its 100^th birthday on Saturday.  It was formerly called the Idlewild, and was launched on October 18, 1814 at Pittsburgh.  It started out as a ferry between Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR., and then moved on to the waterways from Canada to Mexico.  The Idlewild came to Louisville in 1934 and stayed through WWII. In the 40’s, the boat made cruises and was occasionally a USO nightspot on the Mississippi River.  In 1948, the Idlewild was renamed the Avalon, and moved on to Cincinnati where she became the most widely-traveled river steamboat in American history.  In 1962, the Avalon was put up for sale, and purchased by Jefferson County Judge Executive Marlow Cook for the low price of $34,000 and was renamed the Belle of Louisville.  Since then, she has graced the Ohio River in Louisville and remains the nation’s oldest and most authentic river steamboat.