Last week we told you about several historic 19th century row-buildings that suffered a roof collapse and are now slated for demolition.  Then, we suggested clearing out the damaged areas and leaving the facades standing in hopes of future redevelopment.  These are, after all, important though austere urban buildings in a part of town increasingly looking like Detroit.  While some may say it’s idealistic to suggest real investment in the Russell neighborhood, we suggest looking at its proximity to downtown: less than a mile.  You can walk there.  And there are millions of dollars being invested in the area from small renovation projects to the African American Heritage Center, to the Ouerbacker House.  That’s the neighborhood we’re talking about: historic, walkable to downtown, and cheap.  Many of its great historic buildings could be renovated fairly easily, too, for much cheaper than 

We’re getting a little off-subject.  The point is that this wouldn’t be the first facade-ectomy (it’s a real word) in the area.  Just down the street from the demolition candidates sit a couple of buildings that on first glance look like your typical boarded up variety.  Peaking through the dirty windows, though, reveals there isn’t actually a building back there.  Just grass and weeds.  (The tall building is missing its cornice, too).  These buildings are near the corner of West Market Street and 15th Street.  You can’t get much close to downtown without being downtown, yet you’d have no idea there were billions of dollars being invested in an area just 5 or 6 blocks away.  Many buildings are needless coming down in this area.  Keep what we have to we can redevelop more easily in the future.

• West Market Street (Google Maps / Street View)
• Demo Watch: West Market Street Buildings Partially Collapse, To Be Demolished (Broken Sidewalk)

A couple more photos of the West Market buildings after the click.

Three prominent row-buildings on West Main Street once part of a planned entertainment center are being placed on the market.  The buildings for sale include the Fort Nelson building on the corner of Main & 8th Streets and two double-wide row buildings at 811-813 Main and 815-817 Main.  Original plans called for selling the properties all at once, but owners Paul and Carolan Bariteau of Forte Development are now selling the buildings individually.  The three properties represent the last major buildings vacant on West Main Street without development plans.

The buildings were all originally tobacco warehouses are contain a combined 71,000 square feet, minus basements, which empty onto Washington Street.  No price has been set for the properties, but they will likely be listed for similar prices as recent sales in the neighborhood (The Fulton-Conway property went for around $1.5 million).  This stretch of West Main Street has been largely redeveloped with high-profile museums including the Louisville Slugger Museum, the Frazier International History Museum, and the Louisville Science Center (currently being expanded).  The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution plans another history museum and geneology library in the 2-story Fulton-Conway building sandwhiched between the for sale properties.  To seal the deal, the buildings are only one block from Museum Plaza to the north if the kunsthalle/museum and towers eventually get built.

The Fort Nelson Building, the turreted cast-iron and stone Romanesque-revival structure dating to the 1880s, was considered for conversion into a museum twice in recent memory.  John Conti Coffee Company had once planned a coffee museum at the site and later donated the property to the city in the mid-1990s.  A group of investors later took control of the building and made some repairs.  The building was then in poor shape and they are credited with saving the building from demolition.

Paul Bariteau bought the building several years later planning restaurants and a music museum for the site.  Plans for an entertainment center grew and Bariteau eventually purchased two additional buildings for what could have potentially been apartments, condos, restaurants, and clubs.  A large abstract mural depicting the city’s evolution and architecture was also proposed for the side of the building.  The Fulton-Conway building separated the properties from seamless redevelopment, so plans were eventually tabled.  The two story structure is now slated for renovation with a landscaped roof deck, so the opportunity for punching windows into the sides of the taller buildings for sale could aid in redevelopment attractiveness.

These properties are massive and solid and could help to finally turn West Main Street into a dense, walkable community while blending the Museum District with the emerging Glassworks District to the south.  While the coffee and music museum proposals sound intriguing, the buildings would be ideal for conversion into residential condos or apartments.  Too many museums in a small area could deaden the street, but more eyes and feet on the street could serve to liven it up into truly one of America’s best streets.

• History of the Fort Nelson Building (Louisville Guide / Google Books)
• Entertainment complex planned for Main Street (Business First)
• Fort Nelson building sold, new owners mull restaurant (Business First)
• Sons Of The American Revolution Raising Funds (Broken Sidewalk)
• American Revolution Headed For Main Street (Broken Sidewalk)
• Snapshot: Louisville Science Center Moving Debris (Broken Sidewalk)
• Louisville Science Center Expands (Broken Sidewalk)
• West Main Street Apparently Great (Broken Sidewalk)
• Remember When They Were Building Museum Plaza? (Broken Sidewalk)

Click through for more photos of the three West Main Street buildings.

Two historic commercial buildings at the corner of West Market Street and 20th Street are slated for emergency demolition after a portion of the back of the buildings recently collapsed.  The three story commercial buildings date to the 19th century and have been boarded up for years.  The owner of the buildings is currently in court over the matter and we’re told the buildings have been condemned for five years.

The damage occurred when the roof caved in on the back portion of the buildings, causing a portion of the sidewall to become structurally unsound.  You can’t see the destruction from Market Street but around the corner on the alley, Congress Street, the damage becomes evident.  While the roof has fallen in, the front portions of the buildings appear to be in okay shape.  In a perfect world, the facades could be stabilized and left standing, but let’s face it, these buildings are goners.

Who knows, perhaps the damage from the collapse could be reversed.  This isn’t the first time the city has wanted to tear down a structure in the Russell neighborhood after a partial collapse.  The Ouerbacher House, just 4 block away, was slated for demolition after a portion of its east wall collapsed this year.  The building has been repaired after a preservation struggle and is slated to be renovated.  Two block the other direction, a gigantic 5-story brick warehouse wasn’t so lucky.  The city ordered it demolished and now it’s down to two floors.  There are plenty of other buildings around West Market, too, that could be beautifully restored but will likely be demolished this year.

This wouldn’t be the first facade left standing on West Market, either.  A couple blocks to the east, two boarded up buildings are mere facades, grass is growing on the inside if you peak through the cracks.  The news for this block gets worse, though.  The two-story building directly on the corner may also be demolished along with the two damaged structures.  Why?  Because it’s easier.  The buildings share a party wall, so rather than delicately remove the two damaged buildings, just haphazardly bulldoze the block.

The front facades were painted blue and red sometime in the last year.  Prior, they were a boarded up with decrepit white plywood that looked much worse.  Both buildings feature carved limestone columns on the first floor and the taller structure has intricately carved stone details above.  The stretch of commercial buildings here adds a distinct urban edge to West Market Street.  While everyone knows the area is just a few blocks too far west of downtown for redevelopment potential, Louisville better get its act together before its historic neighborhoods look like Detroit’s.  This type of commercial/mixed-use building is considered easily disposable here, and we will quickly realize the shortage of reusable urban buildings in the city if we don’t slow down the wrecking ball.  Russell will come back.  It’s only a matter of time.  We just hope there’s a Russell left to come back to.

• Demo Watch: How Long Can West Market Street Survive? (Broken Sidewalk)
• Demo Watch: Condemning West Main’s Future (Broken Sidewalk)
• Ouerbacher House Falling Down (Broken Sidewalk)

Click through for more photos of the buildings and collapse and photos from a few years ago.

The giant 5-story brick 19th century warehouse on the corner of 18th Street and Main Street will be reduced to two stories by the end of the month.  When we visited last time in September, we were puzzled at the slow progress of the demolition and the lack of an intent to demolish sign.  It turns out that the city condemned the massive building against the owner’s wishes and the case has been in court for some time.

The current owner purchased the building a while back with the understanding that it was “free from all encumbrances” and planned to store items there previously housed in a leased space off Barret Avenue.  Shortly after closing on the property, he found out the city had condemned the property as a fire hazard.  To appease the city, a sprinkler system was installed but shortly afterwards, several pipes froze and burst causing water to collect in the basement.  The sprinklers were fixed, but problems continued.

A few bricks began to fall off the top of the building along the alley and the city again pushed for its demolition citing safety concerns.  The owner was not able to move into the building and couldn’t move out of his leased space, causing more problems to arise.  The property was put on the market, but a buyer could not be found.  With court costs rising, he agreed to take demolition courses and purchase insurance to tear down the building down and salvage the materials inside.  With a previous background in interior remodeling and demolition in his business (Downs Enterprises), the proposal was quite feasible.

Asbestos was then found in the building and the city wanted it abated properly, a cost that pushed $170,000.  Not able to afford its removal, work on demolition halted and the case went back to court.  Eventually an agreement was made and the asbestos removed.  Crews got back to work removing bricks by hand and stacking them for salvage.  120+ year-old brick can go for $0.35 each, so the building was essentially financing its own demise.

Vandalism set in once the building began to come down.  A chain link construction fence was stolen, windows were broken, thousands of dollars of copper went missing, and cars stored inside were riddled with bb’s.  The city began pressuring the owner to tear the building down faster, but the salvage operation takes time.  Another agreement stipulating the building be razed to the second floor by the end of the month was reached and it looks like the demolition crews will make that deadline.  The case remains in court as demolition continues, so the process is far from complete.  The building, however, is completely destroyed.

The building might not have been in all that terrible of condition warranting demolition, though.  The massive solid masonry walls were in need of tuck-pointing but were not visibly falling apart or bowing and the owner remembers the roof being in decent shape.  Many buildings in town, including some in the heart of downtown, are shedding bricks from their parapets without condemnation orders.  The building wasn’t perfect, of course.  It needed a lot of work to be turned into anything besides a warehouse, but unless a building topples over, there’s little that can’t be realistically fixed.  The owner would have liked to see the building remain standing, content to use the space as a warehouse.

This type of massive structure, ranging from three to five stories tall with carved limestone ornaments and moments of ornate brick detail, is exactly what Louisville will need in its urban future for redevelopment.  Its really quite close to downtown at 18th Street, but, of course, on the wrong side of the I-64 interchange for any serious redevelopment opportunity now.

In time, however, Shippingport, Russell, and Portland, all within walking distance of downtown, will emerge as logical centers of investment.  It’s significantly more expensive to build new than to renovate an existing warehouse.  And fortunately there are several other large, old warehouses around this area that will hopefully not meet a similar fate.

What’s unfortunate it that this building is only a few blocks from the Ouerbacher House that drew so much preservation concern when it faced condemnation, but this much more massive building drew none.  This is Portland and Shippingport.  These are Louisville’s natural warehouse districts going back to the beginning.  We must be careful not to lose sight of the importance of what might appear “plain” or “ordinary” buildings in our preservation battles.  This warehouse should not have had to be torn down.

• Demo Watch: West Main Street Warehouse Demolition (Broken Sidewalk)
• Demo Watch: How Long Can West Market Street Survive? (Broken Sidewalk)

See more photos of the demolition, inside and out, after the click.

West Market Street in the Russell neighborhood has some of the best architecture in town.  It’s every bit as beautiful as its East Market counterpart, but has been neglected for decades and has begun losing buildings left and right.  There have been some notable exceptions, though.  The Ouerbacher House, once set for demolition by the city, has been thrown a life preserver and will be undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation and a small warehouse on Market has been colorfully renovated and is desperately seeking a tenant.  You might remember when the east wall of the Ouerbacher House partially collapsed and the media flurry that eventually landed Studio Kremer the task of preserving it.

Other buildings haven’t been so lucky.  A giant 3-5 story 19th century warehouse is currently being demolished (we’ll have more on that one very soon) and several others have been torn down in the past couple years (we’ll show you one that’s now gone on Friday).  We spotted another grand yet simple 19th century commercial live-work building on West Market this week that may have a date with the wrecking ball if action isn’t taken soon.

The old Portland Bait and Tackle, most recently A1 Batteries and Tires, is haphazardly boarded up and suffering from a gaping hole in the side of the building.  The battery and tire business apparently didn’t make it (there are still tires stored inside, though).  The building is valued at $70,000 by the PVA.  You can see a rowhouse next door has been torn down in the last year.  The house demolition is probably the cause of its neighbors wall problem.  Below, you can see the black outline where the house used to be.

There’s no intent to demolish sign posted, but the building’s outlook doesn’t seem good.  This building is only a block from the Ouerbacher House, too.  What could be a redevelopment target area immediately adjacent to downtown (this is a block between 16th & 17th street, its not far from downtown) is instead withering away into just one giant grassy field.  Hopefully this one won’t make the field that much bigger.

• Historic Preservation Activity (Broken Sidewalk)
• Colorful West Market Street Renovation (Broken Sidewalk)
• Preservationists: Pretty Please Save the Ouerbacher House (Broken Sidewalk)
• Ouerbacher House Falling Down (Broken Sidewalk)
• Demo Watch: West Main Street Warehouse Demolition (Broken Sidewalk)

A couple more photos after the click.

This small building on Second Street just north of Broadway is undergoing the surgical removal of a mid-century addition.  We spotted strewn bricks and bulldozers and assumed the building was a gone-er, but upon closer inspection, it appears only the back two-thirds of the building will be removed.

You can see in the photo above a vertical line of bricks missing on the side of the building.  That line represents the the end of the historic structure and the beginning of the addition.  The building has been vacant for quite some time, and no information was posted on site, so we don’t yet know what (if anything) will happen to the property.  It is located next door to the downtown location of Grey’s College Bookstore, so the destruction taking place out back could potentially be for their parking lot.  Who knows?  At least the historic portion of the building might have some life left in it yet.

More destruction after the click.

The shotgun house on Campbell Street we told you was scheduled for demolition back in October is safe… for now.  A tipster tells us the property owner was denied a demolition permit at a Butchertown Landmarks meeting and must fix up the property.

The owner of the house has apparently been trying to assemble a large, vacant plot of land to sell, and finally the Butchertown neighborhood has caught on to the scheme.  Five other houses weren’t so lucky, however.  Above, you can see the property that was demolished by the same owner (The white shotgun house that was saved is hiding behind the trees).  All of the property sits just north of the floodwall, but several wood and brick shotgun houses still cling to survival in this overlooked corner of Butchertown.

It’s unclear what will actually become of the house.  It is currently in terrible condition and would require a significant renovation to become habitable.  The PVA assesses the property at just over $20,000.  The owners also operate a junk yard in Butchertown, just off Mellwood Avenue.  A picture of the site is below.

• Death List: Another Butchertown Demolition (Broken Sidewalk)

A small church on the corner of Chestnut Street and Shelby Street  has been sitting wounded from this year’s windstorm and in need of repair.  A decorative brick element has toppled over onto the sidewalk, its bricks still strewn about the base of the building.  This is one of our favorite churches in town as it is small but grand, proudly occupying its corner site.  Its austere detailing and multi-colored slate roof help define the Phoenix Hill neighborhood.

The building sits next door to the Cloister Apartments and was once part of the complex that housed the Ursuline Academy of the Immaculate Conception, serving as its convent.  According to the Encyclopedia of Louisville, the building along with the Cloister were refurbished in the late 1970s when it housed a gourmet restaurant called Raposo’s.  The restaurant closed in 1980 and the next year, the Louisville School of Art moved in.  Upon merging with the University of Louisville in 1983, the building was again vacant.  Six years later, Temple Beth Shalom began meeting in the building, which perhaps explains the Star of David on the building’s steeple.  The same year, a fire tore through the structure, destroying several 19th century murals by artist Johann Schmitt painted between 1868 and 1872.  Schmitt was born in southwest Germany in 1825 and was trained as an artist in Munich.  He painted throughout the midwest, including other churches in Louisville.  The congregation apparently still meets in the building’s basement.

The brick on much of the building is now in need of tuck pointing, probably the reason for the damage in the first place.  The Jefferson County PVA lists the structure’s owner as Child of the King Ministries, Inc., but we’ve never seen any activity going on at the building.  The building appears to be in sound shape, but needs quite a bit of repair, especially to the roof and steeple.  Hopefully this building can one day rise from the ashes of its 20 year old fire (it’s in Phoenix Hill, after all), and become a neighborhood landmark once again.

• Cloister Apartments Trading Slate For Asphalt (Broken Sidewalk)
• Covington Biographies: Johann Schmitt (Kenton Co. Library)

More photos after the click.