T.E. Bland

Bland Avenue was named for Dr. Thomas Eugene Bland, third Mayor of Shelbyville from 1906-1910. He was born near Bagdad, KY in 1864. He studied at Georgetown College and graduated from the UofL Medical School in 1892. So, what did this guy do that is important to us?

According to the Shelby County Medical Society upon Dr. Bland’s death in 1943, “We had a water system, but no purification equipment to make the water potable. The City was honey-combed with vaults and dry wells to take care of sewage. In wet seasons these would overflow in places and sometimes onto the street. There were seasons when our main street was ankle deep with mud mixed with animal and in places human excrement. So Doctor Bland took the matter up with many citizens and succeeded in getting a bond issued, sufficient to build our sewer system and did away with the vaults and dry wells, and then began in a street building and cleaning crusade. Prior to all this we had each year epidemics of typhoid fever and other enteric infections especially among children and several deaths occurred each year from these causes alone. We all know that since adequate sewer disposal, pure drinking water and more sanitary streets, we have for more than two decades had practically no deaths from this source. We have Doctor Bland to thank for starting this crusade and carrying into effect a great portion of it during his administration.”