Throwback Thursday: a look at Bowling Green 75 years ago in 1975

Seventy-five years ago, disco, platform shoes, and shopping malls were all the rage. The year was 1975, and Bowling Green had just gotten access on the new I-65 interstate, as the L&N railroad passenger service was disappearing. In this week’s Throwback Thursday, we revisit what was going on in the Bowling Green of 1975 all those years ago.

Bowling Green’s first shopping mall opened in 1968 at the intersection of Campbell Lane and Nashville Road. Many of the department stores in Downtown Bowling Green moved from Fountain Square to this shopping mall, which was so popular by 1975, that plans for a second mall were in the works. Greenwood Mall on Scottsville Road would open in just a few years in 1978.

The L&N railroad’s passenger train service had been operating in Bowling Green since the 1850s, but was on the decline by the 1970s as the automobile became more affordable and popular for family travel. In just two years, the final passenger service railcar would leave the L&N Depot in 1977. Bowling Green’s first I-65 interstate access was completed about ten years prior in the late 1960s, and much of the city’s growth was heading eastward, away from Downtown and L&N rail line.

Beech Bend Raceway had been a popular spot for racing cars and motorcycles since the late 1940s. The Harley Davidson drag events were gaining in popularity by the late 1970s, and the biggest motorcycle event the drag strip ever hosted was in 1978 when the Big Boogie brought nearly 40 thousand motorcycles to the city for a weekend full of chaos.

Sam Bush, the Bowling Green native who would reach international bluegrass fame as the Father of Newgrass music, performed regularly at The Caribou venue in Downtown Bowling Green with his New Grass Revival band. One of Bowling Green’s premier dance venues was the Holidome at the Holiday Inn, where the Kona Kai Disco Lounge would come to life. The Quonset Hut and Diddle Arena both attracted high quality entertainers from the disco, Motown, and rock n’ roll genres.

Look at us now, 75 years later in 2050. Wonder where we’ll be in another 75 years! Throwback Thursday is brought to you by the Kentucky Museum.

And for all of you in the real time 2025 watching right now, what would you like the future of Bowling Green to be? Share your voice. Take the online survey at WhatCouldBGBe.com now.