Florence (Kentucky)

Florence is a home rule-class city in Boone County, Kentucky, United States. Florence is part of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky metropolitan area. The population was 29,951 at the 2010 census.HistoryThe Florence area was originally known as Crossroads, because of the convergence of several roads from Burlington and Union at Ridge Road (now U.S. 25). By 1821, the area was known as Maddentown for Thomas Madden, a Covington attorney who owned a farm on the Burlington Pike. When Madden moved away, the area became known as Connersville in 1828 for Jacob Conner, a settler who assumed responsibility for the growing town. The town was finally renamed to Florence because there was another Connersville in Harrison County. The name presumably is a for Florence, Italy, but the specific etymology is unclear. It was incorporated on January 27, 1830, and grew quickly after the completion of the Covington-Lexington Turnpike in 1836.GeographyFlorence is located in eastern Boone County at . U.S. Routes 25, 42, and 127 pass through the center of Florence, leading northeast in a concurrency to downtown Cincinnati. Interstates 75 and 71 pass through the western part of Florence, with access from exits 178 through 182.