Check out how the view north on Sixth Street from Main Street has changed in the past 87 years. The building on the left, then the Swann-Abram Hat Company, remains pretty much unchanged, complete with one of the best fire escapes in the city while the right side has been dramatically altered.
Long before the Kentucky Center for the Arts was built, the structure on the northeast corner of Sixth & Main Streets was occupied by Weatherly-McKennie Dry Goods Company. The site was cleared a while before the Kentucky Center was built and several development ideas were floated including proposals for apartments and several different schemes for performing arts centers.
At one point, large structures (mostly industrial) reached nearly to the riverfront and you can make out the outline of some substantial buildings where the Muhammad Ali Center and the Waterfront Plaza / Belvedere are today. You might also notice Sixth Street was one-way north in the past.
In the distance, you can see the elevated train line heading to Central Station at Seventh Street. That has, of course, been replaced with the far more intrusive elevated highway. And, hey, they buried the power lines.
