Originally known as Gilman’s Point in the 1780’s, after local tavern owner Daniel Gilman, St. Matthews was an agriculture area, rich in potato farming. Many of the early settlers were of Swiss origin bearing names like Ochsner, Ehrler, and Zehnder. Ochsner’s Garage Auto Repair still operates on Shelbyville Road.  

Apparently as settlers flocked to the area, they didn’t like their community being known by a tavern, so they named the community after the recently completed St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, the area’s first. It became official in 1851 when the newly opened U.S. Post Office adopted the name. 

In the influx of German and Swiss immigrants continued to grow and their Catholic faith resulted in the construction of Holy Trinity in 1882, on of the oldest Catholic Churches in Louisville. Trinity High School was an outgrowth of the Holy Trinity church. 

Marth Elson wrote in her 2015 Courier-Journal article:

“James Noland, a WW I veteran who was in the bedding business, was the first mayor from 1950 to 1958. He led resistance to annexation by Louisville, and engineered a major annexation in 1953 that added about 5,000 residents and resulted in St. Matthews becoming a fourth-class city the following year.” 

Today, St. Matthews is comprised of many residential neighborhoods including: Norbourne Estates, Beechwood Village, Fairmeade, Maryhill Estates, Bellewood, Richlawn, Windy Hills and Druid Hills.