PASSIONIST NUNS
Hills. Lee’s home at the end of Emerson, built in an English Manorial style with slate imported from England, is still standing today. Park Hills features many diverse architectural styles in the homes constructed in the early years of the development. To ensure further the picturesque quality of Park Hills, Lee and Simmons limited the business district to a small tract of land opposite the city’s entrance to Dixie Highway. The developers intended for the area to house a grocery, a drug store, and a restaurant. Today, the area is occupied by a green grocer, a dentist, a beautician, an auto repair shop, several restaurants, and various offices. Park Hills proved to be a popu lar place to live. Many Covington residents moved to the developing subdivision to escape city pollution and congestion. Park Hills also offered a riding club, a tennis club, and an archery club to entice buyers. These features were made possible by arrangements with Devou Park. By 1927, 100 homes had been built, with more planned. In addition, a 1927 Lee & Simmons Development Company brochure indicates that the company had already invested $1.5 million in the development, with another $1 million planned. This rapid growth prompted citizens to hold a mass meeting to decide whether or not the city should join with Covington or incorporate as an independent city. The group voted in favor of incorporation, and the City of Park Hills was officially incorporated on June 28, 1927. A board of trustees was named to govern the city until an election could be held. The first members of the board were Stanley G. Disque, Joseph Hermes, William Middendorf, R. M. Rankin, and William Ruef. At the time of incorporation, Park Hills had 500 inhabitants and property valued at nearly $4 million. Park Hills became a fift h-class city in 1937. This status meant the city would administer its own affairs with a board of equalization, a city assessor, a tax collector, and a six-person council, presided over by an elected mayor. The first mayor was Lawrence Taylor. A mayor and a six-member council currently govern Park Hills. The first police chief of Park Hills was Melvin Crump, who received the meager salary of $75 a month. Crump did an excellent job, but it became apparent to city leadership that a second patrolman was needed, so Fred Hiltz was added to lighten the load. On the eve of World War II, an auxiliary police department was employed. These people received no salary and had to provide their own uniforms. The police department currently employs seven people, six of them full-time. Not until 1942 did Park Hills officially establish its own volunteer fire department. Previously, the city depended upon Covington’s fire services. Local newspaper columnist Jim Reis once noted that these ser vices may have cost Park Hills $50 per run. Park Hills also built a city building in 1942 at 1006 Amsterdam Rd. The first chief of the new fire department was Norbert Brahm. A volunteer rescue squad was added to the fire department. The first public school in Park Hills was built for $35,000 in 1928—one year after incorporation. Two prominent Catholic high schools, Covington Catholic High School and Notre Dame
Academy, were later moved from Covington to Park Hills. Covington Catholic was built on the site of the Kremer farm; Notre Dame was built on part of the St. Joseph Heights Convent’s property. Both schools are still active and growing. The former Park Hills Elementary School is now owned and occupied by the Gateway Community and Technical College. There are two churches within the city of Park Hills. The first, the Faith Christian Center (formerly Gloria Dei Lutheran), is located on Amsterdam Rd. directly across from the city building. The other, the Church of the Nazarene (see Nazarenes), is on Dixie Highway near Covington Catholic High School. The 1930s saw an economic boom along the Park Hills section of Dixie Highway. It became known as the Gourmet Strip, largely because of the excellent eateries inside Park Hills, which included the Blue Star Tavern and the White Horse. In 1933 Covington passed a resolution permitting a suit to be brought against Park Hills for using Covington sewers without authority from the city of Covington. The suit was designed to force Park Hills to pay for the construction and maintenance of the Amsterdam Pk. and Willow Run trunk sewers. Ultimately, in 1935, as part of a Works Progress Administration project, Park Hills built a sewer at the end of Audubon Rd. and on the west side of Altavia Rd. that was designed to empty into a sewage disposal plant. The project cost $25,912, of which the government paid $21,418. In 1937 the St. James sewer was constructed, and the city paid the entire costs of $4,014.03. In that same year, Park Hills annexed Mocking Bird Valley, located along Old State Rd. In 1938 a sewage disposal plant was built, at a cost of $20,000. The Park Hills Civic Association, responsible for many of the Park Hills signature events and city-beautification projects, was founded in 1934. Funds from the annual Civic Association fund drive are allocated, in part, to the Park Hills Police Department, the Park Hills Volunteer Fire Department, and the Park Hills Rescue Squad. The present boundaries of Park Hills were established largely by acquisitions in the 1940s of Cecilia Ave. (developed by William Dickman), Scenic Dr. (developed by the Newport Finance Company), the St. Joseph Ln. section, and the Mount Allen section, which included all of the Dickman properties, such as the sizable Dickman apartment complex. There has been little development of Park Hills in recent years, since nearly every usable lot was taken long ago. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report, the Park Hills population in 2000 was 2,997. By 2005 that figure had dropped to 2,803. In 2008, 600 houses in the city were added to the National Register of Historic Places. “Aged Recluse Is Evicted,” KP, March 25, 1924, 1. “City Fight with Park Hills on Sewers Pushed,” KP, November 16, 1933, 2. The City of Park Hills: Kentucky’s Most Beautiful City. Brochure. Covington, Ky.: Lee and Simmons Development Company, 1927.
701
Clark, Russell. “Development of Park Hills,” tape recording, 1985, fi les of the City of Park Hills. “Gift Wrap the China; This Is Park Hills’ 20th Anniversary,” Pride of Park Hills, 1947. Newsletter of the Park Hills Civic Association. Kenton Co. Deed Book 203, p. 521; Book 206, pp. 642–50; Book 209, pp. 519–20, Covington, Ky. “Light to Leave Covington,” KP, April 1, 1924, 4. “Park Hills Becomes City in Less than Five Years,” KP, December 30, 1928, 7. Park Hills Board of Trustees Minutes, June 30, 1927, Park Hills, Ky. Park Hills: The New City on the Hilltops. Brochure. Covington, Ky.: Lee and Simmons Development Company, 1927. “Park Hills to Begin Career as Fift h Class City at Meeting of Trustees on Monday,” KP, December 30, 1937, 1. Reis, Jim. “Park Hills was Model for Suburbia,” KP, October 1, 1984, 4K. “Sewage Plant for Park Hills,” KP, October 10, 1939, 1. Udry, Mrs. Richard J. “History of Park Hills Is Traced,” KP, August 8, 1940, 2. U.S. Census Bureau. “American Fact Finder. Data Set. Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF1) 100-Percent Data. Custom Table.” www.census.gov (accessed May 25, 2007).
Iris Spoor
PARKS, ELIZABETH (b. May 1888, New York; d. May 7, 1925, Washington, D.C). Singer Elizabeth Parks was the daughter of Dr. Robert and Elizabeth Parks, both of whom were English. Her father was a well-known veterinary surgeon in Covington, and her mother was active in the Covington Art Club. The family lived at 1444 Madison Ave. and later at 1113 Scott St. Elizabeth attended the Covington public schools. Well recognized for her fine voice, she was prominent in the musical circles of Covington and for a time the soloist at Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington. Around 1910 she moved to Canada, and later during World War I, she traveled overseas to sing for the Allied troops as part of an entertainment tour sponsored by the YMCA. It was during this time that she met and married her husband, Herbert Hutchinson. In 1921 she gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. She and her husband, who was a district secretary for the YMCA, resided in Ottawa, Canada. During a visit to Washington, D.C., in 1925 Elizabeth died; her husband and her young daughter survived her. She was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell, Ky. “Deaths,” KP, May 8, 1925, 12. Highland Cemetery Records, Fort Mitchell, Ky. “Singer Dies at Washington,” KTS, May 8, 1925, 1.
PASSIONIST NUNS. Shortly after his arrival in Covington in 1945, Bishop William T. Mulloy invited the Nuns of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (Passionists) to come to the Diocese of Covington (see Roman Catholics). The Passionist Nuns are a contemplative congregation of women religious who devote their lives to prayer and penance. As such, they live in an enclosed community (a cloister) and speak to guests only through a grille. In response to the bishop’s