The West End is the “Dayton” part of Louisville.  Ghetto.  White ghetto in Portland.  Black ghetto everywhere else.  It’s deteriorating and being slowly abandoned.  And it’s well nigh unknown to the "alternative"/hipster/yuppie/”creative class” Louisville since they have no reason to come here.  It’s not part of that “cool” funky Louisville we all know and love.  However, for an older generation the West End was a world unto itself, a place that even had its own dialect or accent, which one could still hear in former West Enders as late as the 1970s. It is also the heart of the Louisville black community.  It is echt Louisville, part of the DNA of the city.

 

Beng the hopeless city geek that I am I’ve been driving these streets and discovering how much is left of old Louisville, what’s left of the 19th century city and will post occasional drive-by snaps from these excursions.  These are from the vicinity of Market and Jefferson streets, mostly in the area around Saint Anthony of Padua, a parish founded by Germans in the 1860s, around the time of the Civil War, maybe just after.  The church seen here was built in 1884-1885, when this area was at the western edge of the built –up area of Louisville.  Today this area is at the boundary between the Portland and Russell neighborhoods, the white and black West End.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Son, youre goin’ to drive me to drinkin’/if you don’t stop drivin’ that hot. rod. Lincoln”

 

 

...I still say shotguns, camelback and regular, are what give old Louisville a different flavor than nearby cities.  Some say New Orleans but I think this is a local version that is a bit different than the NOLA style?  (never been to New Orleans so can’t say...leave that question to more well-traveled readers)

 

 

 

This is a local vernacular style that is superficially similar to a Dayton style, but a future post will show how the two vernaculars are somewhat different, different local takes on a similar houseform

 

 

More West End stuff coming up in the weeks and months ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks!

Cool.  A little bit of a Cincinnati vibe here?

...the "Italianate City?" . Yes there is a similar architectural exuberance going on in the details, even for humble buildings like those shotgun houses.  Cincy was built-out at a higher density, though, and seems to be "taller".