Jeffersontown’s annual Gaslight Festival began 48 years ago as a small neighborhood street fair when Jack Durrett, a founding member of the Chamber and owner of the old J-town shopping center on Taylorsville Road, decided to put on a half-day community festival. He wanted to do it on Watterson Trail, but the city denied his request, so instead he held it in the parking lot of his shopping center. It was successful enough that the second year the city agreed to close a block of Watterson Trail for the event, which drew a mish-mash of local vendors.
