Earlier this year, the City of Covington, Kentucky, announced that a long-derelict industrial site would be making a comeback. The city, along with the Northern Kentucky Port Authority and Kenton County, announced plans for a former C&O Railroad roundhouse that had been used for more than half a century as a paper bag manufacturing plant. Hidden beneath the industrial patina are more than 150 years of industrial history.

First used in the mid-19th century as a railroad repair facility and offices, the site became a production facility for one of the nation’s biggest shopping bag manufacturers. It also became the setting for prolonged labor disputes before ending up an abandoned relic filled with stories and toxic substances accumulated throughout its history.

The Railroad Years

In the 1850s, Covington became the northern terminus for the Covington and Lexington Railroad. Ninety-nine miles of track connected Lexington to Covington by the time the route was completed in 1854.

Passengers and freight not remaining in the city crossed the Ohio River into Cincinnati — originally by ferry and after 1867, via John Roebling’s suspension bridge and later railroad bridges.

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