Calvert City is a home rule-class city in Marshall County,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

, United States. The population was 2,566 at the 2010 census.

History

Calvert City was named for Potilla Willis Calvert. He built his home, Oak Hill, in 1860 and around a decade later gave a portion of his land to a new railroad, specifying that a station be built near his home.Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names'', p. 46. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed 24 July 2013. That station served as the starting point of the town, which was incorporated on March 18, 1871. The railroad station and post office long favored the shorter Calvert, but the Board on Geographic Names reversed its earlier decision in 1957 and switched to the longer form. By 1896, Calvert City was known as a

sundown town Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, are all-white municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States that practice a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminato ...

, where African Americans were not allowed to reside. By 1908, the rest of Marshall County had also expelled its African American residents. During the Ohio River flood of 1937, Calvert City's business district and much of the residential area was severely damaged by floodwaters. In the 1940s, the construction of nearby

Kentucky Dam Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Vall ...

by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...

brought plentiful electric power that led to many industrial plants, mostly chemical manufacturers, to locate between the city and the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names ...

. Merchant Luther Draffen was instrumental in attracting the dam and industrial plants.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy An economy is an area of th ...

, the city has a total area of 13.9 square miles (36.1 km), of which 13.9 square miles (35.9 km) is land and 0.1 square mile (0.1 km) (0.36%) is water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 2,701 people, 1,141 households, and 787 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,203 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 99.00%

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 0.26% Native American, 0.07% Asian, 0.04% from other races, and 0.63% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 0.37% of the population. There were 1,141 households, out of which 28.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 9.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.0% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.76. The age distribution was 21.0% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 26.3% from 45 to 64, and 20.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $41,107, and the median income for a family was $48,098. Males had a median income of $43,464 versus $23,403 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $22,473. About 4.5% of families and 6.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 7.1% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over.

Economy

Calvert City has 16 industrial plants that are a key source of employment for Western Kentucky. The majority are chemical manufacturers with some steel and metallurgical plants and industrial services firms.

Arts and culture

* Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park * Calvert Drive-In Theater Apple Valley Hillbilly Gardens And Toy Museum

Government

Calvert City has a mayor-council form of government, as allowed by its standing as a home rule-class city under Kentucky's system of local government classification. While Marshall county had been dry since 1938, on July 28, 2015 the county voted by a margin of 6431 to 6229 to permit the sale of both packaged liquor and drink sales. Currently, Calvert City is the only city in the county that also permits the sale of alcohol on Sunday.

Media

Newspaper

* The Lake News, a weekly newspaper is owned and operated by Loyd W. Ford. It was founded in 1984 and is the newspaper of record for the City of Calvert. The Lake News has a circulation of 2800 and is distributed in Marshall and Livingston Counties in Kentucky.

Radio

* WCCK-FM — 95.7

Education

Calvert City has a

lending library A lending library is a library from which books and other media are lent out. The major classifications are endowed libraries, institutional libraries (the most diverse), public libraries, and subscription libraries. It may also refer to a library ...

, a branch of the Marshall County Public Library.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Calvert City is a hub for surface transportation. The city is the northern terminus of the Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway, providing a link to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

. The city is skirted on the south by

Interstate 24 Interstate 24 (I-24) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from I-57, south of Marion, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at I-75. It travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennesse ...

, linking Calvert City to

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

and St. Louis, and, via I-69, and via the Western Kentucky Parkway as well, Louisville and Lexington. The city has rail access through the Paducah and Louisville Railway main line and is a commercial port on the

. There is no bus service or other mass transit.

References

* Historical marker, 26 Aspen St., Calvert City, Ky
Kentucky Historical Marker Database
*

External links

* {{authority control Cities in Kentucky Cities in Marshall County, Kentucky Kentucky populated places on the Tennessee River Sundown towns in Kentucky