Nortonville is a home rule-class city[3] in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in the United States.

[4] Nortonville owes its existence to the railroad industry and is named for Eckstein Norton, a Kentucky-born investment banker who started as a clerk in a country store in Russellville, Kentucky, in 1846.

Norton participated in the creation of the Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad in the late 1860s (east-west tracks).

The north–south railroad, named the Evansville, Henderson and Nashville, was completed through Nortonville in 1872.

[5] By 1886, Nortonville was one of only nine towns in the L&N system to have a steam hoist to unload and transfer freight.

A centralized sewage treatment system was built in the late 1970s, opening an opportunity for continued growth.

[6] The Nortonville City Hall occupies the well-maintained 1930s high school building, which was built by the WPA.

[7] U.S. Route 41 passes through the eastern and southern parts of the city, leading north 11 miles (18 km) to Madisonville, the county seat, and south 24 miles (39 km) to Hopkinsville.