Hopkinsville Celebrates Immigrant Heritage with Supper Club Feast

A 1930s newspaper series on local immigrant stories inspires a special community meal at the Pennyroyal Area Museum.

Apr. 13, 2026 at 2:05am

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A bold, colorful silkscreen-style illustration featuring a repeated pattern of a vintage fish market sign or iconic seafood item, rendered in a high-contrast, neon-tinged palette that captures the celebratory spirit of Hopkinsville's immigrant community.A vibrant celebration of Hopkinsville's diverse culinary heritage, as seen through the lens of a historic Italian immigrant's fish market.Hopkinsville Today

The Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville, Kentucky is hosting a Supper Club event featuring dishes inspired by a 1930s newspaper series that profiled local immigrant residents, including an Italian fish market owner named Frank DeGeorge. The museum collaborated with the local Human Rights Commission to bring together the community and share different cultures and experiences through food.

Why it matters

Hopkinsville's diverse immigrant history has helped shape the community's identity over the decades, but many of those stories have been forgotten. The Supper Club event aims to rediscover and celebrate that rich heritage, fostering greater understanding and appreciation for the city's multicultural roots.

The details

The Supper Club event was inspired by a series of 29 immigrant profiles written by journalist and former Hopkinsville mayor Charles Meacham in the 1930s. One of the profiles featured Frank DeGeorge, an Italian immigrant who ran a fish market across the street from the historic Hotel Latham. For the event, former chef Matthew Brown prepared several dishes unique to the countries represented in Meacham's series, including a Sicilian-inspired baked fish recipe in honor of DeGeorge's heritage.

  • The Supper Club event took place on Thursday, April 10, 2026.
  • Meacham's immigrant profile series was published nearly a century ago in the 1930s.

The players

Frank DeGeorge

An Italian immigrant who ran a fish market in Hopkinsville in the 1930s, across the street from the historic Hotel Latham.

Charles Meacham

A journalist and former mayor of Hopkinsville who wrote a series of 29 profiles on local immigrant residents in the 1930s.

Pennyroyal Area Museum

The museum in Hopkinsville that hosted the Supper Club event celebrating the city's immigrant heritage.

Human Rights Commission

The local organization that collaborated with the Pennyroyal Area Museum on the Supper Club event.

Matthew Brown

A former chef who prepared dishes for the Supper Club event inspired by the countries represented in Meacham's immigrant profile series.

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What they’re saying

“Historic buildings leave their fingerprints on a community's psyche. They quietly instill a sense of continuity, identity and place over the years. Every historic building is a unique accumulation of the stories that have played out in and around it.”

— Grace Abernethy

What’s next

The Pennyroyal Area Museum plans to continue the Supper Club series, exploring more of Hopkinsville's diverse cultural heritage through food and community events.

The takeaway

By rediscovering and celebrating Hopkinsville's rich immigrant history, the Supper Club event helps foster greater understanding and appreciation for the city's multicultural roots, which have been integral to shaping its identity over the decades.