River Mile: 608

Population: 37,841

U.S. Census Profile

Three brothers from New York—Joel, Abner and Nathaniel Scribner—founded New Albany just downstream of the Falls of the Ohio in 1813, on land seized from the British claim by George Rogers Clark during the Revolutionary War. (The home of Joel and Mary Scribner stands to this day.) New Albany grew rapidly and was the largest and richest city in the state until it was overtaken by Indianapolis shortly before the Civil War. Steamboat building and ancillary industries enriched New Albany in the first half of the 19th century. The American Plate Glass Works was also a major economic engine.

The Town Clock Church, now the Second Baptist Church, was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The town’s stature dwindled as the steamboat industry died, with the final such vessel, the Robert E. Lee, built in 1870. Pork packing and locomotive repair helped fill some of the economic gap, but Louisville across the river grew more quickly. In the 20th century, the town became a center for plywood and veneer production. After the devastating 1937 flood, New Albany was the first city in the region to build a flood wall, which was used as a model by other river cities. Another claim to fame: New Albany High School operates the oldest continuously operating high school radio station in the U.S., WNAS-FM, founded in 1949.