A quick, three post series on close-in inner city Louisville neighborhoods, or what’s left of them.  These are mostly urban wastelands of various sorts, but not due to urban renewal (except for one), but more to ongoing demolitions and commercial encroachment.

 

Three themes

a) urban no-mans land surrounding downtown

b) “Last Houses”, the last houses (and some commercial things)  surviving in this no mans land, which are also “first houses” as they represent some of the oldest building stock in the city.

c) Typology beyond the ‘shotgun’.  The iconic 19th century houseform in Louisville is the shotgun, which supposedly arrived after the Civil War, but these posts will look at other houseforms, as an inquiry into parallel and maybe holdover styles from the antebellum era.

 

Setting the stage, the growth of Louisville to 1873 (base map is 1873).  Early antebellum growth off the original plat was more to the east (“Preston's Addition”), plus the separate town of Portland.  Extensions to the 1850s outlined in red, and mostly built-up areas in 1855 outlined by the dotted line (but assume scattered development throughout the platted area)

 

 

The closer in neighborhoods named, and the yellow boxes are the “last houses” in this series.  Red shading is urban renewal, housing projects, freeways.  We will look at Limerick first

 

 

As the name indicates this was an Irish area, but also had a substantial number of Blacks. One parallel with New Orleans is that Louisville had a significant Irish immigration as well as Germans.  The Irish settled first west of downtown and Portland, but later here, to work in the L&N yards and shops.  The heart of Limerick is south of this area, but I think this was part of the neighborhood too, south of Broadway in this 1937 Flood pix.

 

 

And we see in this close-up the only surviving old thang on Broadway, which has lost its street wall and now looks like some desolate suburban boulevard of broken dreams (except for the L&N building in the distance). 

 

 

Built by 1876 as it appears on an 1876 atlas of the city.  Now some sort of girly joint.

 

(I cheat here and use those google street level images)

 

A close up of the northern part of Limerick.  I think most of this was built in the 1870s & 1880s.  The distant factory with the water tower is still there, but almost nothing else is.

 

 

Northern part of Limerick from the air, today.  Urban desolation via mostly parking & one story light industry.  Building pix are keyed to this map via the red numbers.  Red X is one that got away.  Captured on the aerial, but a vacant lot today.

 

 

Though the residential structures were mostly stripped from the neighborhood, corner store things survived.  This corner, in the mid 1970s, had all four corners occupied by empty corner store buildings (I know because I used to park here going to the nearby downtown library).  Only this one survives today.

 

(in the background is an old school. This was the first adaptive residential re-use downtown, and deserves its own post).

 

One of the first/last houses, an old camelback shotgun (camelback is the 2nd story part in the rear) from the 1870s at latest, surrounded by parking lots.  Skyscraper is The 800, the tallest building in the city between 1966 & 1971.

 

 

Further south is this interesting one, as it has a side entrance.  As we will see most Louisville houses have the front door on the front façade, which is different then Dayton.  The long shallow gable sloping roof , heavy cornice, and side windows reminds me of old Cincy houses.

 

 

A few doors to the south, this is, as we shall see, more typical of these close-in wastelands.  Three-bay façade, rectangular attic windows, and shallow gable (in fact the roof is minimized by the cornice).  The brick porch is a later addition, maybe 20th century. 

 

 

Across the street this gem.  Set back on its lot, has some of the same features but lacks the attic windows, so not as tall.  But still, those tall windows just accentuate height and there is the elaborate front door treatment (which is another consistent theme with these 1870s(?) houses.  All the houses we’ve seen were built by 1876.

 

(tree debris from that big ice storm they had a month  ago)

 

Heading a block west toward the railroad yards, the houses are newer. Cawthon & 7th, with “Club Cawthon” on the corner.  These were built between 1876 and 1884. 

 

 

Cawthon and 8th: this corner store dates after 1884, but is a good example of how the houses are gone but the old retail stuff survives, in this case as a storefront congregation.  The L&N building provides a nice background.

 

 

Cawthon & 9th:  Post 1884.  Interesting example of multi-family in excellent condition.  Note the art glass trim on the front doors and little gingerbread details.  But I am trying to figure out what’s going with those two front doors side by side in the center bay. 

 

 

…and I like that painted red carpet on the steps.

 

As one can see these houses are in pretty good shape considering they are surrounded by a light industrial/parking no-mans-land.  South of here there are more houses, blocks and streets of houses rather than singles or little clusters, as Limerick blends into “Old Louisville” .

 

just amazing how much is gone. its like one token reminder of each neighborhood is left.

 

what we did to our inner cities in the name of the almighty automobile is truly bizzare.

^

Yeah, but you can find this all over.  I think a good parallel study would be Columbus, and maybe Cleveland heading east of downtown. Columbus seems to be the best Ohio parallel.

 

To give you an idea of how extensive this is that this area is directly south of that "West of downtown urban renewal area" I posted on earlier. 

 

One thing interesting is that Dayton had houses like this too, based on some old photos online at the library site.  But urban renewal and downtown expansion wiped them out.  Yet the favored style here was different.  You can really see here with these survivors how Louisville was, architecturally, maybe more like Cincy (& St Louis?) vs Dayton. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yes indeed thats what i meant. you certainly can find it all over. unfortunately. parking next to the new office tower was so g-d all-important, wasn't it?

 

thankfully those days seem to have passed and downtown urban redevelopment infill is all the rage. i expect much more of that in earnest after the recession ends. fingers crossed we have come to our senses, even if kicking and screaming.

 

as for what louisville looked like before all that urban forest clear cutting, we know dayton & cincinnati well on uo, but now you made me curious to see even more of st. louis!

 

Oh no, not The 800!

What a shame.

Oh no, not The 800!

 

...aqua blue spandrel glass is very mcm retro.

 

 

So that's why there are only a few good urban neighborhoods in Louisville, the rest don't exist! It looks like Columbus doesn't fare as bad (except Downtown) since urban neighborhoods that have seen urban renewal have their residential sections intact (some more than others). Flytown was completely destroyed, however, and what wasn't knocked down for 670 was knocked down for suburban sprawl west and south of the Giant Eagle on Neil (hmm, gives me an idea for a thread). Whenever I bike by there I feel like I'm up around Bethel or Henderson way out northwest.

Thanks for reminding me I need to finish up this set.

 

 

Judging by my experience with similar buildings, the middle bay of the last building contains upstairs and downstairs flats.