Long have I been intrigued by a tiny Jefferson County town, listed only on the most detailed Kentucky maps, known as Penile. Why on Earth is there a town called Penile? No one seems to know. As if it's not bad enough (or hilarious enough, depending on your point of view) to have a town whose name begs for puerile jokes, two intersections in the area have equally unfortunate names. The corner of Penile and Cummings is one, and then there's the corner of Penile and Manslick. I swear I'm not making this up.
For more on glorious downtown Penile, turn to page 182 in your copy of Weird Kentucky.
I live in Louisville, not far from Penile, and attended a wedding there at their wildly Conservative Baptist church. I thought the name odd, too, until I remembered another small church located in PRP at the corner of Greenroad Road and Greenbelt Highway, called "Peniel First Missionary Church." So I did some research, and apparently the word "Peniel" refers to a place where Jacob of Genesis fame (and not the band) wrestled with an angel, or literally, the face of God.
ReplyDeleteSo it's my guess that the town of Penile was perhaps supposed to be named Peniel, but some intrepid Kentucky soul who couldn't spell worth a good shit is probably to blame.
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ReplyDeleteI too live near Penile, and would like to add that penile goes through Beaver Run and ends up in Knob Creek.You can also go down Penile to get to Orrel.
ReplyDeleteSeptember 24, 2008 9:53 PM