Patrick Flannery was a Covingtonian through and through.
Patrick and his wife Anne raised their five children on Riverside Drive in a bungalow that the family still owns. Flannery is described as being a flamboyant and larger-than-life personality who over the decades made numerous efforts to stop development in the neighborhood that would have resulted in the demolition of historic buildings along the Ohio and Licking riverbanks.
Patrick Flannery died in 2008 at the age of 79 and Anne Flannery died in February at the age of 87.
On Wednesday, the Historic Licking Riverside Civic Association will dedicate a plaque in Flannery’s memory as a neighborhood champion at George Rogers Clark Park.
“The neighborhood is very, very grateful to Pat because he led so many charges during those decades to preserve and protect the architecture and the neighborhood-flavor of that whole part of the city,” said Virginia Kerst, a member of the Association.
There was one community push led by Flannery that seems to stand out from the rest. In 1969, the Covington City Commission was intent on redeveloping the riverfront along the lines of the urban renewal architectural movement at the time.
“Urban renewal was a movement in that time period to get rid of everything that was old, knock it down, start over again and put in all new stuff,” Kerst said. “They were going to put in condominiums and a marina down there.”
A complete plan was in place and at the commission meeting, the measure was expected to pass, but Flannery discovered that the item had been put on the agenda at the last minute, and rallied his neighbors to put a stop to it.
“Pat got wind in the middle of the night that the city commission had slipped it onto the agenda and that it was awaiting their approval, and he put out a call to the neighbors and it was like Paul Revere’s ride at midnight down to City Hall with all of these neighbors in their pajamas and slippers that went down there. They created almost an alliance from stopping the city commission from doing this and at the very late minute, one vote was changed so that Riverside Drive was preserved,” Kerst said.
Then, in 1990, the neighborhood association that included Flannery re-established the rule that the riverbank was a commons to benefit all of the community rather than to be used as a private bargaining chip that benefited mostly commercial developers.
Flannery died in 2008 at the age of 79, but his passion for his neighborhood’s rich history and his efforts to preserve it will live on with his memory by the plaque dedicated to him for his love of the Covington riverbanks.
Wednesday’s ceremony at George Rogers Clark Park is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Written by Bryan Burke, associate editor
Photo via Allison & Rose Funeral Home
