Every historic building has a story to tell
While sifting through historic images for a project in Louisville, Kentucky, this morning, I came across this fabulous mid-20th century photograph of the Arcade Barbershop on Taylor Boulevard. The caption for the image didn’t provide a street number, so I considered posting the image and letting the hive mind tell me if the brick building (read more)
Category: Louisville
Tags: #louisvilleky, archives
There’s a hill in the Clifton neighborhood in Louisville, a long slow climb up from Beargrass Creek in Butchertown – a fitting site for a splendid movie theater at the dawn of a new century. The Hilltop Theater, a two-story edifice clad in glazed white brick, with a dramatic recessed entrance, has delighted those (read more)
Category: Jefferson County
Tags: #historicmovietheater, #kentuckyarchitecture, #louisvilleky, #moviemagic
There’s nothing quite as striking as a historic, corner commercial building – one that catches the eye from multiple directions and enlivens its site with architectural detail and a balanced mass and scale. The Clifton Historic District is home to many outstanding historic buildings, but the E.P. Thomas Store and House, with its diagonal (read more)
January is usually a hard month, and the weather so far has not helped – Kentucky has been wet and cold, and then cold and wet. Thankfully, it is Whimsical Wednesday, so I shall lift my spirits (and hopefully yours?) with the fabulous J.N. Struck House. Built in 1893 by J.N. Struck, a contractor and (read more)
Categories: Jefferson County, Louisville
Tags: #highlandshistoricdistrict, #jnstruck, #kentuckyarchitecture, #louisvilleky
Historic preservation doesn’t have a very long history in our young country, and the modern preservation movement can be traced back to the mid-19th century and the fight to save the home of the first President, George Washington. Mount Vernon isn’t what one would describe as modest and humble. From that point on, preservation tended (read more)
Category: Jefferson County
Tags: #louisvilleky, #louisvillelandmarks, #shotgunhouse, #tinyhouse, #vernaculararchitecure
Louisville in the 1920s brimmed with energy and optimism. The horrors of the Great War were receding, and the economy, building projects, and the city boundaries all expanded. In 1922, nearly 12 square miles of suburban land to the east and south of Louisville (some 40,000 people) were added to the city’s tax rolls. Developers (read more)
Category: Louisville
Tags: #historicarchitecture, #historichouse, #kentuckyarchitecture, #louisvilleky, #oldhouses
Although houses from the Victorian period are popular with large numbers of people now, there was a time in America when styles like the Queen Anne were loathed. Noted architectural historian Clay Lancaster, with his slightly acerbic wit, noted that the architecture of the period and its “escape to exotic modes indicates unrest, and it (read more)
Category: Jefferson County
Tags: #louisvilleky, #queenannestyle, #virginiaavenue, #westviewbuildingcompany, Parkland
I am a big fan of the public library system in the United States (or, “li-berry” as I pronounced it as a child). Reading is integral to my existence, and wherever I’ve lived or visited, I seek out the local library. Andrew Carnegie – or rather, the Carnegie Foundation of New York – helped fund (read more)
The Kentucky State Fair began on August 15 of this year, with raucous Midway rides, eager 4-Hers, livestock, concerts, and politicians. This year marks the 115th “official” fair – the Kentucky legislature provided money for a state fair in 1902, hence the “official” tagline – but state fairs have been held in the Commonwealth since (read more)
Category: Kentucky history
Tags: #4H, #kentuckystatefair, #louisvilleky
I can’t say that I am a person who never forgets a face. It is rare, however, for my memory to lose hold on a historic building I’ve glimpsed – especially one that possesses some indefinable quality or architectural merit. If I am lucky, I tuck the image away in a folder (all electronic, of (read more)
Categories: Jefferson County, Louisville
Tags: #kentuckyarchitecture, #louisvilleky, #parklandneighborhood
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