Eddyville, Kentucky Eddyville, Kentucky Kentucky State Penitentiary Kentucky State Penitentiary Location in Lyon County and the state of Kentucky.
Location in Lyon County and the state of Kentucky.
State Kentucky Eddyville is a home rule-class town/city in and the governmental center of county of Lyon County, Kentucky, United States. The populace was 2,554 at the 2010 census, up from 2,350 in 2000.
The Kentucky State Penitentiary is positioned at Eddyville.
Eddyville, the seat of Lyon County, was settled around 1798 and titled for the eddies in the close-by Cumberland River. It became the seat of Livingston County when it was formed in 1799; then the seat of Caldwell County upon its formation in 1809; and finally the seat of Lyon County upon its establishment in 1854.
Thus, it holds the distinct ion of being the only town/city in Kentucky to have served as the governmental center of county of three separate counties.
Throughout Kentucky, Eddyville is best known as a metonym for the Kentucky State Penitentiary, although the prison itself is actually 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the present town on the shore of Lake Barkley in Old Eddyville on KY 730.
Its electric chair has had a long history of use, dating to the reconstructionbefore 1936 when executions were still publicly conducted in Kentucky for some crimes (e.g., rape as in the case of Rainey Bethea) while electrocutions at Eddyville were strictly reserved for the rest (e.g., murder).
Jones was a native of Lyon County who had attended law school and settled in Louisville, where he had attained a reputation as one of the best "tax lawyers" and also had accumulated enough cash to be considered quite wealthy.
He came to the Eddyville City Council and presented his plan: each person owning territory in the suburbs (Eddyville and Kuttawa) to be flooded would receive a no-charge lot in the new Eddyville site.
Eddyville inhabitants accepted his offer and on August 13, 1959, the official plat for the new town was filed with the county court clerk.
During the time of building, Eddyville was "booming" and, with the impoundment of Lake Barkley in the 1960s, tourists began making their way into the region for the abundance of fish and boating.
December 1988 brought the ground breaking for the West Kentucky Outlet Mall.
Three brothers, Bob, Darrell and Ben Jent purchased a tract of territory in the town/city limits of Eddyville and started assembly of a mall, which opened the following fall with ten stores.
The opening of the mall brought a surge of progress to Eddyville, and all types of businesses began to move into the city.
It has been said the mall did more for the progress of Eddyville than any other endeavor since the establishment of the town in 1799, with the possible exception of the building of the Kentucky State Penitentiary.
The town was listed as the second quickest burgeoning area in Kentucky in 1997 based on tourism. Willis Benson Machen - Confederate States of America Congressman, United States Senator According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 7.8 square miles (20 km2), of which 6.7 square miles (17 km2) is territory and 1.1 square miles (2.8 km2) (13.68%) is water.
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,350 citizens , 733 homeholds, and 452 families residing in the city.
In the town/city the populace was spread out with 13.3% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 22.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median income for a homehold in the town/city was $28,472, and the median income for a family was $44,000.
Kentucky League of Cities.
Kentucky Place Names.
The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States.
"Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2015".
Municipalities and communities of Lyon County, Kentucky, United States County seats in Kentucky
Categories:
Cities in Lyon County, Kentucky - County seats in Kentucky - Populated places established in the 1790s - 1790s establishments in Kentucky - Cities in Kentucky
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