The neighborhood's name apparently comes from the large number of (smoke-producing) kilns in the area during its early brick-making days.

9 of 20 brickyards in the city had Smoketown addresses according to an 1871 Caron's directory,[2] although none remained by 1880, as apparently the supply of clay from under the neighborhood had run out.

The abandoned, water-filled clay pits may have given rise to the name "Frogtown" for the neighborhood, which appeared in print in 1880.

Some residential development by whites of German ancestry began in the 1850s, but due to the arrival of thousands of freed slaves who moved there from various parts of rural Kentucky after the Civil War, it was solidly African American by 1870.

That will not only make the area a better place to live, but will set the table for the private businesses that settle into any healthy neighborhood.