Wilmore, Kentucky history

The first church building erected in Wilmore was the Presbyterian Church in 1884, which still meets in the same location and structure.

In the summer of 1890, John Wesley Hughes came to Wilmore looking for a location to establish a religious school.

Glass Milling Company opened July 1, 1891, on a site which had been home to other milling operations since 1782.

By 1896, Wilmore’s public school system enrolled 75 students.

Also in this year W. G. Cram, Class of 1898, sailed as a missionary to Korea.

Enrollment had been declining since 1901, for reasons which cannot be fathomed now, but Hughes may have been blamed at the time.

Happily, the bulk of academic supervision fell to Ezra T. Franklin, a 1903 graduate, who attended several universities after graduation and returned now as Superintendent of the Literary Department, a kind of proto-dean.

Also in 1905, Bellevue College, having invested in several new buildings, went out of business.

On March 18, 1909, Asbury College’s buildings on Main Street were destroyed, resulting in the College moving to its current location.

In 1914 the milling operation was moved from Glass Mill Road into Wilmore to be near the railroad.

After the 1924 fire, the City purchased a fire truck and organized a fire department.

It also operated a “dynamo” which manufactured electrical power for Wilmore until 1925, at which time Kentucky Utilities began supplying electrical current to the community.

A photograph of the fire, showing the spectators standing with their backs to the buildings, still clearly on fire, smiling towards the camera, appeared in The Asburian Golden Jubilee Edition 1940.

Wilmore High School ceased when the county consolidated high schools in 1957 but the elementary school continued.

The 1990’s brought two major developments to Wilmore: The Thomson-Hood Veterans Center and Wesley Village.

The Center, a 285-bed long-term care facility, opened August 25, 1991, the largest facility operated by the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs.

In June 1995, Wesley Village opened as the first senior living facility in Central Kentucky.

In 2000 a new school was built on land acquired from the old campground site.