Highlands Connection

History

HIGHLANDS CONNECTION

The recent evolution of the neighborhoods in the Highlands began in 1969:

1969: Cherokee Triangle Association organized as the first neighborhood
association.

1970: Highlands Community Ministries incorporated and set as one of its main
goals “Community Development.”

1972: 120 HCM church volunteers surveyed 5% of 17,000 households, asking each to identify neighborhood and its needs.

1973-76: HCM organized 10 new neighborhood associations and helped in
organizing the Highlands Commerce Guild. As of 2004 there are five
sixth-class cities and nine organized neighborhoods in the Highlands.

1974: HCM channeled 150 volunteers into the neighborhoods to patch roofs and cut up trees after April 3 tornado.

1975: In February for nine days the churches and neighborhoods boycotted Mid City Mall after a couple years’ trying to get the owner to clean up the mall. The result was foreclosure on the loan and new mall ownership.

1978-81: Neighborhoods, businesses, and HCM worked on Bardstown Road
Baxter Avenue strategic plan resulting in trust developed between businesses and neighborhood associations. This led to the incorporation of Bardstown Road Tomorrow, which in the 1990s became known as Highlands Connection. Today the Highlands Connection meets on the fourth Monday every other month at 7 p.m. at the Highlands Library (neighborhoods, businesses, metro Louisville, HCM and sixth class city
leaders), supporting one another on issues of concern in the Highlands.

1990: Bardstown Road Overlay District Committee set up to review new and renovated businesses along the Baxter/Bardstown Road strip from
Broadway to Taylorsville Road.

2001: Due to cooperation within Highlands Connection, the school board agreed to renovate Bloom School at the current location.