Florence

Florence is the largest city in Boone County and the second-largest city in Northern Kentucky. Formed in 1830, the city was for much of its history a small community surrounded by farms. During World War II, what was to become the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati International Airport was constructed nearby. This, combined with the construction of Interstate 75 in the late 1950s, started the building boom that drastically changed the community and began the huge growth in population that still continues. To commemorate the community's 175th anniversary, this volume presents Florence from its early history to the 1960s. It depicts a Florence that is relatively unknown to the majority of those living here. The images herein are courtesy of longtime residents as well as local church and public archives, with many being published here for the first time. Photographs illustrate the site of a Civil War skirmish and, perhaps most notably, local author John Uri Lloyd, who saluted Florence of old in his book Stringtown on the Pike, which gave Florence its nickname.