Historic Licking Riverside

On this spot stood the Shinkle Mansion which was built by one of Covington’s most successful businessman, Amos Shinkle (1818-1892).  He began his ascent to wealth in building steamboats and in steamboat trade/transportation.  During the Civil War, Amos Shinkle sold several of his steamboats to the US government for use by the Union troops.  His interests turned to banking, infrastructure, and real estate development in Covington.  In the 1856 he became the president of the Covington and Cincinnati Bridge Company and was the drive behind getting the Roebling Suspension Bridge built – he and others knew that such a bridge would change the development path of northern Kentucky.  He also was a leader in bringing gas, water, and phone utilities.  He also developed nearly 40 houses within a planned up-scale neighborhood he called Park Place (now roughly the boundaries of the Historic Licking Riverside District).  Upon Amos Shinkle’s death, his wife returned to their Garrard Street home, and the mansion was left to his son Bradford Shinkle.

The Shinkle Mansion was donated in 1909 by Mary Anne Hemingray Shinkle after the death of her husband Bradford Shinkle.  The mansion was donated to the Women’s Social Department of New York City, a branch of the Salvation Army.  The Salvation army converted the large mansion into a hospital and home for unwed mothers that operated until 1914 – when it was converted to Covington’s first Protestant hospital and renamed to the William Booth Hospital after William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army. Demands on the hospital quickly exceeded the capacity/functionality of the mansion.  There was a plan to keep the mansion and construct a hospital around the mansion, but it was not financially sound, so the Shinkle Mansion was torn down and new construction created with a hospital in mind in the early 1920s.  

The William Booth Hospital opened in October 1926 with 100 beds, two surgery rooms, an emergency room, maternity ward, and nursing school.  During the Great Depression, the hospital closed it doors from 1932 to 1937 – the same year as the record flood – where many homeless took refuge. 

In 1949, construction began on an expansion – a north wing.  The existing columns from the 1925 hospital (five story structure-set back from the street) were removed, placed in storage, and reset at the “new” entrance when the north projecting wing was completed.  Booth Hospital continued to operate in Covington until 1979, when a new Booth Hospital was opened in Florence, KY which was became the St. Luke Hospital in 1989.   

The Booth Hospital structure was converted to residential living when Governors Point Condominiums was dedicated on May 7, 1982.   

Sources:

• Covington at 200: Points of View © 2015 Batter Row Productions, Produced and Directed by Steve Oldfield & Sean Thomas.

• Gateway City: Covington, Kentucky 1815-2015 © 2015 Clerisy Press, Edited by Paul A. Tenkotte, PhD; James C. Claypool, PhD; & David E. Schroder. 

• Kenton County Public Library’s Local History and Genealogy Department.