Louisville Antique Mall building (BS file photo)

The Louisville Antique Mall located on the corner of East Broadway and Campbell Street closed today after a year and a half at its current location and 26 years in business leaving 200 antique vendors and the penthouse Colonnade Cafe to find a new home.  In January 2008, the building was purchased for over $800,000 and owner Denise Golden subsequently invested around $2 million to fix up the structure.

The antique business has apparently been hit hard by the recession despite a good amount of traffic at the site.  Golden says the economy is to blame as spending has become tight.

The five-story art-deco building is currently for sale, along with several other large historic structures on East Broadway.  The 1920s era Louisville Antique Mall building is expected to be listed around $3.8 million.  Hopefully in better times this property and the entire stretch of East Broadway can pick up the pieces and begin to connect Downtown and near-Downtown neighborhoods with Irish Hill and the Highands above.

• Louisville Antique Mall (Official Site)
• Colonnade Cafeteria on Broadway (Broken Sidewalk)

Trolley Shed with Silos in Background

Okay, so there’s nothing really interesting about this building.  It’s not for sale, there’s no planned development, it’s not architecturally anything special, no Presidents gave a speech here.  It is, however, one of our favorite structures in the city; maybe it’s one of yours too?  You’re either going to love it for its gigantic mass and rustic charm or you’re going to hate it for the eyesore that it is.  There isn’t much middle ground here.  Anyway, on to the building.

The complex is on the corner of Logan Street and Finzer Street one block north of that East Broadway “Bridge” Corridor (that’s poised to take off any time now?) in the Smoketown / Jackson Park neighborhood.  It’s hard to miss the thing since it’s so big and sports a chopped off conveyor belt leading some to call it the concrete elephant.  It also dramatically terminates the vista of Campbell Street if you’re going South.  For the last 35 years or so, its been the home to Herrick Electric Corporation, electrical contractors and electric engine repair.

Aerial View of the Property

The building is actually a Trolley Shed in front of a series of grain elevators.  The trolley barn stretches the length of an entire city block, and is really the equivalent of Slugger Field before it was a ballpark.  The shed is one giant long room with clerestory lights and metal rafters.  Inside, the ceiling heights are absolutely huge and the dusty light filtering through the metal trusses into the dark interior create a scene only Piranesi could dream up.

We wanted to go into the silos and check out the spaces inside the concrete towers, but it turns out they are knee deep full of bird crap, dark, and holes are in the floor from when equipment was removed.  So we settled for the trolley barn; there are a couple photos of the interior after the click.  We’re told, though, that the concrete grain silos are the place to be during a tornado with massively thick concrete walls and floors.  It should look quite a bit like the inside of the Ice House Lofts on Main Street.  The thing is structurally sound.

What’s so great about the building is the layering of masses and their addition over time.  This complex appears to have grown and grown since the 1880s with pieces added here and there and on top of other buildings.  The newest part of the building, as far as we can tell, is the orange brick and concrete structure facing Logan Street which was built in the 1940s.  A couple of years ago, we were told Logan Street was the new Clifton, but that doesn’t appear to have happened quite yet.  When it does, though, Logan and Shelby Streets will serve as a great urban corridor connecting Phoenix Hill and downtown with Germantown and beyond.  This property could make one very interesting centerpiece to the entire area.  One day.

More views of the building and a couple shots of the inside of the trolley shed.

Okinawa 'Health' Club

We love East Broadway.  We want development to breathe new life into the many historic properties sitting at the hub of oh-so-many neighborhoods.  Shall we name then? Okay: Phoenix Hill, Smoketown-Jackson Park, Paristown Pointe, the Original Highlands, and the Medical Center.  And those are only the nabes with direct boundaries on East Broad (but not that far east).  We’re calling the area the East Broadway “Bridge” Corridor as it has the potential to link many areas already experiencing redevelopment and growth.

That isn’t to say there’s nothing going on here.  There’s not much, but the area is getting by.  There’s a custom furniture store and a clock store.  A consignment furniture store called the East Broadway Home Store now has two locations and appears to be doing well.  The Louisville Antique Mall and Collonade Cafe are here, too.  There’s a handful of other established businesses, too.  Another building was renovated for a small music venue and record label by the future developers of that building on First Street.  There’s beautiful architecture.  New Directions is planning to renovate the old Tonini Building.  The new construction Shelby Street Apartments are bricked.  There’s no place to eat dinner, get basic goods, or hang out, though.

New-ish Business Along East Broadway

The area is largely for sale, too.  The street’s great landmark with 23,000 square feet and best value at $600,000 is the Eichhorn Stained Glass building which leaves us wondering why it’s still on the market.  There are other properties for sale too that could accommodate various size projects.

The former Okinawa Asian ‘Health’ Club famous for its happy endings and frequently busted for prostitution has been closed for some time and its building is for sale, listed at $300,000.  The location is good between the old Broadway Theater and the Eichhorn building and offers a simple yet strangely grand facade that would make an excellent retail spot with a large glass facade.  The building has 4600 square feet on the ground level and a partial second floor.

The building needs some work inside (all the original spa fixtures are still there, use gloves when removing), but the masonry and roof are in good shape.  There’s an original patterned tin ceiling in there, too, so it’s got character.  The realtor thinks the $300k price tag may be a bit ‘optimistic’, so someone might get a deal in this building that’s not illegal.  The sign needs to be taken down asap, regardless.

The former Steepleton Billiards store is also vacant and for sale.  The property is pricey at $750,000 but contains 20,000 square feet.  There are three buildings on site, but two of them are essentially tear-downs.  The historic structure pictured below is the only one really worth saving.  When Steepleton consolidated to their St. Matthews store, there was interest in the property from the adjacent Goodwill store to use the buildings as warehouse space, but that has since fallen through.  There’s likely a deal to be had here too, as it’s doubtful that price will stick.

Steepleton Property For Sale

So you can see there’s potential here, but East Broadway has, so far, been mostly overlooked by developers.  It does suffer a sort of identity problem: it’s in the middle of everything but really a part of nothing.

We say its time to create a new identity here as the street acts as what we call a “Zipper Corridor.”  A Zipper represents the confluence of many neighborhoods and is the communal strip that brings them all together.  Bardstown Road is a great example of a Zipper Corridor, and to a lesser extent, Frankfort Avenue is, too.  A Zipper has the ability to take on many roles and identities as it meshes together disparate neighborhood identities.  The East Broadway “Bridge” Corridor can be a great Zipper.

• East Broadway Building For Sale; Ready For Redevelopment (Broken Sidewalk)
• East Broadway Theater A Hidden Gem (Broken Sidewalk)
• Snapshot: Bricking The Shelby Street Apartments (Broken Sidewalk)
• Demo Watch: Phoenix Hill Tavern (Politely) Wants More Parking (Broken Sidewalk)
• First Street Mystery Renovation De-Mystified (Broken Sidewalk)
• Revolving Doors: Will The Tonini Building Soon See Action? (Broken Sidewalk)
• Collonade cafeteria on Broadway (Broken Sidewalk)

A couple more photos of the for sale properties if you’re interested.

One of the houses that may be demolished

The Phoenix Hill Tavern is looking to expand its parking options and two houses stand in its way.  The two vacant houses could provide 30 to 50 additional parking spaces.  You can see on the diagram below the surface level parking that already exists on the block (not all of it belongs to the Phoenix Hill Tavern).  It’s a pretty substantial amount of parking.  The pointers indicate the two houses under consideration for demolition.

According to the Courier-Journal, however, the Tavern is “seeking the blessing of the neighborhood” before it moves to raze the houses.  The houses sit in the Phoenix Hill National Historic District but are in poor condition.  You can see in the above photo, one of the houses is over-run with vines.  Underneath the vines, however, wooden detailing can be seen on the portion of the house not covered by aluminum siding (close-up after the click).  The other house that may get the axe is in slightly better shape and is a camel-back shotgun house.

There is already a parking lot separating the two houses where a couple houses had previously stood.  Portions of the parking area sit between houses on Rogers Street and Broadway.  The Tavern owner also owns other property along East Broadway and the neighborhood association worries additional houses may come down in the future.

With nearly half the block already under asphalt, it seems unfortunate that additional houses might come down to be replaced by more cars only using the lot during certain evening hours.  The rest of the day the spots remain mostly vacant as the Tavern has posted “Customer Parking Only” signs.  The neighborhood association met yesterday, so we’ll see if they decide to formally oppose the demolitions.

Current parking space on the block

• Phoenix Hill Tavern (Official Site)
• Tavern wants to demolish buildings (C-J)

Click through for a few more photos of the houses and site.

The Broadway Theater

The grand building on East Broadway between Shelby Street and Campbell Street now home to ORI Furniture USA was once called the Broadway Theater.  Built in 1915 by Louis F. Steuerle and designed by Joseph & Joseph architects, the theater began immediately hosting live music and vaudeville acts to packed houses of 800 people.

In the 1930s, the marquee seen today was added when the theater was converted to a movie house.  Radio shows were also performed here, including performances by Gene Autry.  Early reports of the theater indicated the space was acoustically near perfect.

The property was sold in 1060 to the Catholic Theater Guild where amateur theater productions were staged.  the last performance ran in 1970.  Later, the space was converted into the Mad Hatters nightclub and saw acts from rock groups such as Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osborne, Black Sabbath, and Santana.  By the 1980s, the theater was vacant and quickly deteriorating.

In 1985, Business Office Supply Company, a predecessor of today’s ORI, purchased the building and began renovating the property for a showroom.  The conversion was careful to leave the original plaster detailing of the theater hall and balconies.

The Broadway Theater remains one of Louisville’s last great performance halls still in existence.  You might remember Friday’s story of another extant movie house on Frankfort Avenue currently slated for condos.  This property isn’t for sale and has no plans for redevelopment, but we felt its hidden spaces were worth exploring.  It’s current owners are currently guarding the ornate spaces and quality of the building for whatever may come down the road.

The building sits along the East Broadway “Bridge” Corridor we’ve been talking so much about lately just down from the monumental Eichhorn Stained Glass Building currently for sale and the Shelby Street Apartments currently under construction.  This is just one more reason we believe this part of town deserves to be part of Louisville’s urban regeneration in year’s to come.

Inside The Broadway Theater

• East Broadway Building For Sale, Ready For Redevelopment (Broken Sidewalk)
• Snapshot: Bricking The Shelby Street Apartments (Broken Sidewalk)
• Hilltop Theater May Soon Be Hilltop Condos (Broken Sidewalk)
• Theaters of Louisville (Wikipedia)
• Office Resources, Inc. (Official Site)

Click through for a tour of the building inside and out, including 5 historic photos.

Eichhorn Stained Glass Building

The Eichhorn Stained Glass Building located at 810 & 812 East Broadway near Shelby Street has hit the market and could potentially spark an East Broadway renaissance.  The three-story building covers 18,600 square feet and was built in the 1860s.  The property is listed at just under $600,000.  The structure originally housed a dry goods store and today is the home of Eichhorn Stained Glass and Lightspeed Photography.  The building has a dominant presence on East Broadway and features a Mansard Roof and intricate details.  Broken Sidewalk went inside to check out the guts of the building and discovered this is a redevelopment project waiting to happen.

What’s most remarkable about this East Broadway building are the ceiling heights.  All three floors and the basement are super-sized.  The ground floor of the building currently has 14 foot ceilings, but those are drop ceilings put in place in the 1920s or 1930s.  The original ceiling could be pushing 20 feet.  The second floor has similar ceiling heights with potentially huge over-sized windows.  The current windows on the first two floors are smaller than the original window openings, and the third floor is boarded up.  As we rode the freight elevator to the top level, the ceilings somehow became even taller.  The third floor space is undivided and features massive old-growth timber beams and rafters and could easily be a two-story space.  If windows were replaced in the mansard roof, the space would have been flooded with light.

We climbed up to the roof while we were visiting to check out the view.  A tornado that came through the area just over a year ago had ripped off a portion of the roof and a new quarter million dollar roof has been installed.  This building is the tallest in the immediate area (not counting church steeples), and the view of downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods is inspiring.  Peter Eichhorn remembers watching the Pegasus Parade roll down Broadway from the rooftop, probably the best view there is for the parade.  The roof sloped gently, but we were imagining a roof-deck to watch the sun set over the Louisville skyline.

Back inside, we made our way to the back of the building currently used as an art-glass studio.  An interior courtyard once probably used as stables has at some point acquired a roof, but could easily be opened up again.  Finally, in the basement, we found massive stone arches nearly two feet thick.  The basement contains an additional 4,500 square feet, bringing the total in the structure to over 23,000 SF.  Eichhorn always considered this basement space, with its tall ceilings, stone arches and walls, and old-growth rafters, an excellent potential Rathskeller.

The building covers its entire site from sidewalk to alley, providing a very dense example of urban built form, but leaving no room for parking.  Engineers, however, have studied the idea of parking in the basement via a ramp or courtyard area for potential residential redevelopment.  Given its central location adjacent to Downtown, the Medical District, the East Village, Phoenix Hill, and the Highlands, however, it is certainly feasible that a resident wouldn’t need a car at all to get around.

Considering the great shape the building is in structurally and the stewardship it has received while in the hands of the Eichhorn Stained Glass Company, it’s amazing this building hasn’t already been redeveloped.  The East Broadway corridor is a bridge connecting several thriving yet disparate neighborhoods, from the East Market Corridor to the Highlands.  With the great stock of architecture in the area such as this building, redevelopment of this part of town could lead to a seemless transition from downtown to Bardstown Road.  There’s already activity in the area, too.  The Shelby Street Apartments are directly across the street are under construction, the Tonini building is set to be renovated, and several new retail outlets including a home store, custom furniture store, clock store, antique mall, and a music venue have all opened recently in the area.  This building could be the centerpiece of the East Broadway revitalization puzzle.

Inside The East Broadway Building

• Eichhorn Stained Glass Company (Official Site)
• Lightspeed Photography (Official Site)
• Official Property Listing (LoopNet)

Click through for a tour of the building inside and out. 25 total photos (2 from 1879).

Shelby Street Apartments

Crews at the mixed-use, mixed-income Shelby Street Apartments on the corner of East Broadway were pouring concrete columns on the structure’s ground-level facade that will mimic the neighborhood’s historic limestone facades and preparing to begin laying thousands of red bricks on the corner infill project.  Much of the building’s metal roof has already been installed. Townhomes line Shelby Street while the building’s accented corner features retail with more apartments above.  The $3.5 million project will include a grand total of 22 units and 3,500 square feet of retail space.

• Shelby Street Apartments: Window Edition (Broken Sidewalk)
• Shelby Street Mixed-Use Development Mega-Update (Broken Sidewalk)

Shelby Street Apartments

Mercy Cross as it once appeared

Okay, so the vandalism happened a while ago, but it’s still unfortunate that the stone cross that once adorned the steeple of the original Mercy Academy building in the Original Highlands is now destroyed.  It seems foolish the girls Catholic school forgot to take the ornament with them to their campus way out in the suburbs when they moved last year.  A small plaque next to the shattered cross explains its history:

“Cross erected above the original building of Our Lady of Mercy, 1901.  Dedicated here September 24, 1981, in memory of all the Sisters of Mercy in the Louisville area, in the one hundred fiftieth year of the founding of the congregation, 1831 – 1981.”

So the cross lasted nearly twenty seven years to the day at its East Broadway site.  Watch out Wayside, the place is surely cursed now.

Mercy Academy Cross Destroyed