1469 South Fourth Street (Rebecca Keith Culbertson)
Residence of Rebecca Keith Culbertson from 1900-1924
Rebecca Keith Spears was born in 1846 in Paris, Kentucky. After the death of her first husband Reverend Daniel P. Young, Keith, as she preferred to be known, she served as the lady principal and business manager of Bellewood Female Seminary, which had been organized in Anchorage, Kentucky by her brother-in-law Bennett Young. Through her work at Bellewood Seminary, Keith garnered a reputation throughout the state as a successful institutional manager.
In 1884, she married widower William S. Culbertson, a prominent capitalist of New Albany, Indiana, who was long identified with the leading business interest of that city. The New Albany Daily Ledger, in reporting their matrimonial status, noted Keith to be “a lady of worth and accomplishments, rarely gifted and of grace of person, liked in every respect to adorn any position in society in which she may be placed.” After her marriage to W.S. Culbertson, Keith helped her husband run and manage the Cornelia Memorial Orphan’s Home in New Albany.
After her husband’s passing in 1892, Keith moved Old Louisville to be closer to her stepson, Samuel, who lived on 3rd Street. Keith lived in a home on 3rd Street before construction was completed in May 1900 on her new residence on Fourth. While in Louisville, Keith invested much of her time and money into social betterment causes like suffrage, the YWCA, educational institutions, and children’s societies.
Keith also served on the advisory board for the Plymouth Social Settlement House, a three-story tenement house for black men and women which was devoted to practical training and recreation. Located on 17th and Chestnut Street the home included an auditorium, an assembly room, classrooms, a kitchen, as well as a 14-room dormitory and parlor for the young black women who lived on the third floor. The women who rented here had come to the city seeking employment. There was an employment service in the Settlement House that placed the women in homes as domestic helpers; the organization also offered instructional classes, a daycare, a Boy Scout program, and a community Sunday School.
Keith continued her philanthropic work throughout her life. She died July 28th, 1924 at the age of 78 leaving an estate of $221,000, a little over $3 million in today’s dollars.