Classical-revival Christian Science church in Old Louisville whose front-portico columns are said to be haunted by 'The Lady of the Stairs,' a young woman tied to the 1918 Camp Zachary Taylor flu epidemic.
1305 South 3rd Street, Louisville, KY 40208
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Active church. Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings are open to visitors at no charge; the columned exterior steps are visible from the public sidewalk.
Access
Limited Access
Front entrance accessed by stone steps between columns; no exterior ramp visible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1912 · Located in Old Louisville National Preservation District · Active congregation of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (Boston) · Adjacent to former site of Camp Zachary Taylor, largest WWI U.S. Army training cantonment
The First Church of Christ, Scientist occupies a classical-revival church building at 1305 South 3rd Street in Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood — the largest contiguous preservation district in the United States and one of the few American neighborhoods composed almost entirely of Victorian-era residences and institutions. The congregation is part of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (the Mother Church, headquartered in Boston), the worldwide Christian Science denomination founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879.
The building is most recognizable for its symmetrical columned portico on the S. 3rd Street facade, framed by twin brass torchieres at the top of the entry stairs. This portico, rather than the sanctuary interior, is the focal point of the church's enduring local folklore.
The church sits roughly two miles north of the former site of Camp Zachary Taylor, the U.S. Army's largest World War I training cantonment, which sprawled across 3,376 acres in eastern Louisville and trained more than 150,000 soldiers between 1917 and 1920. In the autumn of 1918, Camp Taylor became one of the deadliest U.S. flashpoints of the global influenza pandemic. Local Louisville newspapers reported on September 24, 1918 that more than 100 soldiers had fallen ill; the camp hospital was caring for more than 2,100 cases by month's end, and roughly 1,500 soldiers in Louisville and at Camp Taylor died of influenza and pneumonia before the wave subsided.
The congregation has continued to use the church for Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings into the twenty-first century, and the property is included on Old Louisville architectural and walking-tour itineraries because of its prominent S. 3rd Street facade.
Sources
The most enduring legend associated with First Church of Christ, Scientist is that of 'The Lady of the Stairs,' sometimes nicknamed 'Ms. G' after the Gathright family with whom Old Louisville oral history connects her. According to a WAVE 3 News feature on the legend and accounts compiled by Louisville Historic Tours and writer David Domine, witnesses passing the church at night have reported seeing a beautiful, statuesque young woman of about 18 or 19, dressed in early-twentieth-century clothing, pacing back and forth between the columns of the church's front portico.
As related on the WAVE 3 News segment, local tradition holds that the young woman was engaged to a soldier identified in tour accounts as Herbert Fullerton Dickson, stationed at Camp Zachary Taylor in the fall of 1918. The couple is said to have planned to elope from the church's front steps. The young man never arrived for the elopement: he had died of pneumonia, then sweeping through the camp during the influenza pandemic that killed roughly 1,500 people in Louisville and at Camp Taylor that autumn. Word never reached his fiancee in time, and the young woman, believing herself abandoned, returned home; soon afterward she also contracted the flu and died.
Louisville Historic Tours describe witness accounts of the figure pacing between the brass torchieres at the top of the church steps and fading from view when approached. The story is included as a regular stop on the Old Louisville Ghost Tour and is among the most-told Lady-in-White legends of the Millionaires Row corridor.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk past the columned front portico on S. 3rd Street, where witnesses say a young woman in early-1900s dress paces between the brass torchieres. The columned facade is best seen from the public sidewalk opposite the church.
The church is a regular stop on the Old Louisville Ghost Tour led by author David Domine and on independent walking tours of S. 3rd Street's Millionaires Row corridor.
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