A gnarled tree at 6th Street and Park Avenue in Old Louisville, said to have grown from the stump of a maple cut down for a May Day pole in 1890 — eleven months before the catastrophic March 27, 1890 tornado that killed roughly 100 people.
1330 South 6th Street, Louisville, KY 40208
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free — public sidewalk on residential corner.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Public sidewalk, residential corner lot
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1890 · St. James-Belgravia Historic District (Old Louisville) · Tied to the March 27, 1890 Louisville Tornado (~100 dead) · Folk-shrine site where visitors leave offerings
The Witches' Tree stands at the northwest corner of South 6th Street and Park Avenue in Old Louisville's St. James-Belgravia Historic District. Coverage by WDRB, WAVE3, and Spectrum News, along with Atlas Obscura, Louisville Historic Tours, and LEO Weekly, recounts a consistent legend: in the spring of 1889 a Louisville city committee selected a tall maple at this corner to be felled for a May pole to anchor the city's annual May Day celebration. Local lore holds that a coven of witches who met under the maple warned the committee against cutting it down.
The tree was cut anyway. Eleven months to the day later, on March 27, 1890, the Louisville Tornado — one of the most destructive in Kentucky's recorded history — cut a path across downtown Louisville. National Weather Service and historical reconstructions describe widespread destruction across more than half of downtown, including mansions, schools, bourbon and tobacco warehouses, churches, and Union Station; approximately 100 people died.
According to the legend reported by WDRB and Atlas Obscura, a bolt of lightning struck the surviving stump as the storm passed the corner. In place of the felled maple, a smaller, gnarled tree eventually grew from the stump. That tree — or its successor on the same root system — is the present-day Witches' Tree.
The tree sits within the St. James-Belgravia neighborhood, one of the largest preserved Victorian-era residential districts in the United States and the home of the annual St. James Court Art Show.
Sources
According to the legend recounted across Atlas Obscura, WDRB, Spectrum News, and Louisville Historic Tours, the witches who met under the original maple warned the city committee that cutting down their tree would bring catastrophe. When the maple was cut, the witches were said to have cursed Louisville. Eleven months later, the 1890 tornado leveled much of downtown.
LEO Weekly reported in 2024 that a man who stole offerings from the tree subsequently described a string of personal misfortunes that he attributed to the curse — a reported episode that, while anecdotal, has become a core part of the contemporary folklore around the site.
Visitors today routinely leave small offerings in the tree's gnarled branches: beads, charms, horseshoes, keys, and miniature trinkets. The tradition is documented across all major local-news coverage and the site functions as an active folk shrine in the St. James-Belgravia neighborhood.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk to the corner of 6th and Park in Old Louisville's St. James-Belgravia Historic District. Visitors traditionally leave small offerings — beads, charms, horseshoes, keys — in the branches.
Several tour operators include the Witches' Tree as a stop on Old Louisville walking tours.
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