Officials with the Boys & Girls Club of Hopkinsville-Christian County used Wednesday to reveal their plans for the Walnut Street Stadium site expansion — necessary because of the tremendous growth experienced in the last decade.
Executive Director Terrence Davis said their current building has twice seen additions since 2017, once for the cafeteria and once for the teen center, and construction for another teen center addition will soon begin.
Davis noted these additions allow for increased programming and services for the youth, and called the historic Walnut Street Stadium a “logical space” for their footprint to grow.
Davis said he and his board are aware that Walnut Street Stadium has stood in the heart of Hopkinsville since 1937, but that the last few decades “have not been kind to it.” A slowly-crumbling structure, he added that the January 2021 tornado tore the roof off the press box, and that the property has become a safety hazard with “no long-term goal.”
That is, Davis added, until now.
At some point, the Boys & Girls Club of Hopkinsville-Christian County will build a new elementary school facility on the Walnut Street Stadium property — a place, Davis said, that will allow for the increase of served youth at the elementary level, as well as middle and high school, as older space becomes open.
Davis urged there are plans in place to memorialize and preserve the rich history of Hopkinsville High School and Bud Hudson Youth Football — two groups that, for decades, called Walnut Street Stadium home.
For the past 111 years, this city block has served youth in Hopkinsville. And that’s not changing with this new designation and purpose.
