One of Louisville’s least-remembered large tear-down’s occupied a prominent site across the street from the old courthouse, now Metro Hall, on what was then known as Center Street (indicated above). There’s really very little I could find out about the building, but it does appear in several photos from my postcard collection. Now a park, Center Street once provided a terminated vista on the Doric columns of the old courthouse (along with the adjacent Willard Hotel, which I’ll cover later).
Postcards indicate the ten-story building was called the Realty Building, but this demolition photo lists the structure as the Center Building. Built in the Chicago-style by Louisville architect Henry Wolters, it looks to be clad in stone (Wolters also designed the demo’ed Tyler Block east on Jefferson and the Quinn Chapel Church on West Chestnut). While it does feature decorated spandrels between windows and an intricate cornice, it’s overall ornament is more austere than some of Louisville’s other tall historic buildings.
Good article. Was this the tallest building on the west side of downtown at the time?
Thank you for the article. I now realize why I couldn’t figure out where the Realty Building fit into the streetscape: the corner that it sat on is gone, buried underneath the PNC tower (which I guess is why the RB was torn down?). Sad to see yet another picturesque vista in Louisville that has since been lost.
@Porter Stevens: Actually the building is where the Jefferson Square park is now. The PNC tower is where the building on the left in this picture: http://brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/realty_bldg_ul_01.jpg. The location of Center Street is now the ramp down to the PNC tower’s underground parking garage
The postcard pix here also show how much of the context or urban fabric of downtown was lost. This was one prominent building. Probably 100s (thousands)of lesser buildings, and who knows how many square blocks, were levelled. The city we know today is just a shadow of what existed.
Was the Kentucky Children’s Home located in the old Realty Building?