In a classic Keep Louisville Weird moment, a tree stump we are guessing was left from the wreckage of Hurricane Ike has been carved into what appears to be a chair consisting of two rather large lizards. The piece of art is located in the Highlands-Douglass neighborhood on the corner of Hampden Court and Grasmere Drive. May lizard duo keep watch over the street and all who pass by.
This week, the water of the Ohio River was crystal clear, affording views all the way down to the bottom of the river. At least the shallow portions close to shore. With the muddy river waters made clear, a phenomenon that happens from time to time, it’s interesting to see what lies half buried in silt beneath the surface.
Here’s one sunken treasure that’s been sitting in its watery grave for years. We’ve also seen bikes, trash cans, traffic cones, schools of slender gar fish, and assorted car parts on various clear-water days.
Silent film legend D. W. Griffith once called East Market Street home when his family was living in Louisville. Griffith was born in 1875 in LaGrange, and in 1889, after the death of his father and ensuing economic hardship, his family moved to Louisville to operate a boarding house. The brick and limestone row-building at 805 East Market Street is an unassuming two-story building where Griffith spent some of his early years helping to support his family working at a dry goods store and a bookstore. He moved to California in 1907 to pursue his career in film.
Griffith is best known for his 1915 film, Birth of a Nation, “one of the most influential and controversial of American motion pictures. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film was based on Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman, a novel and play. The Birth of a Nation is noted for its innovative technical and narrative achievements, and its status as the first Hollywood “blockbuster.” It has provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and sympathetic account of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan” (Wikipedia).
East Market Street entrepreneur, developer, and film producer Gill Holland thinks the little known house of D.W. Griffith could be a pilgrimage stop for many film fanatics and hopes to install a historical marker at the spot describing its history and importance.
Here’s the trailer from Birth of a Nation.
Don’t forget: today is Repeal Day, celebrating the end of the prohibition of alcohol. Consuming Louisville is reporting that Proof on Main is offering drink and bar food specials today and Imagine Louisville has a piece on Minneapolis’ love of the Urban Bourbon Trail. There are also special deals to be had at Bourbons Bistro and Bar Blu at the Marriott. Revelry in the River City tonight.
Julia Christensen will be unveiling her Big Box Reuse exhibition tonight at The Green Building on East Market Street beginning at 5:00 p.m. at the First Friday Gallery Hop. She has travelled 75,000 miles documenting big-box conversions for her book and her photography. The show runs through January 30th.
The McCrory’s Building on Fourth Street just south of 4th Street Live! has been vacant for some time and a planned club for the location fell through a couple months ago. We’ve received word from a Broken Sidewalk tipster, though, that a new local restaurant is eyeing the space for an expansion.
The owner of Cafe 360 and Mantra Lounge in the Highlands on Bardstown Road and Bonnycastle Avenue is looking to open a new concept restaurant on Fourth Street, and is in reportedly in talks with several retail spots on the street including the McCrory’s property. Cafe 360 owner Sanjay Taxak opened the Bardstown Road restaurant and hookah lounge in 2005, but says his new concept will be completely different and sans hookah.
No deal has been signed for the McCrory’s space, but it’s looking like we might hear news of a new restaurant in the area soon. Cafe 360 is known for its affordable food, and with few local dining options in this stretch of downtown, an affordable dining spot could be just what Fourth Street needs. We’ll keep you posted.
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 Ouerbacker 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.
Last week, the city closed a century-old one-lane bridge crossing Harrods Creek on River Road. Then (well, really all the way up to this morning), the bridge posed an imminent safety risk for “errant” drivers and would be closed for the indefinite “long term.” There has been a battle over building a new, wider bridge over the creek.
It doesn’t appear to be the neighbors complaining, though. River Fields, the anti-bridge coalition also opposing the east end bridge over the Ohio River, wants the original Harrods Creek bridge restored and no new structure built. With the recent closing, though, the area is getting antsy for a crossing, so could a new bridge that’s safe for motorists and cyclists be coming soon?
Not so fast. Later this afternoon, the city revised its bridge policy and claims to have the old bridge open again in a week or two with new guard rails. So the no bridge, new bridge, old bridge ordeal will live on, at least for now. We stopped by the bridge last week to check it out now that it’s closed to motorists and walking up to it won’t land us in the hospital. The guard rails are, in fact, severely decayed. (There’s an interesting stone rail bridge support there, too, with three massive trees growing from it) You can see a few more photos we snapped after the click.
The renovation of the historic Madrid Building dating to 1929 on the corner of Third Street and Guthrie Street is now complete. The three-story building has been converted into modern offices and the original attached 220-spot parking garage has also been restored and modernized. The building gets its name from the old Madrid Ballroom that once operated on the top floor of the building as an ornate Castilian nightclub. The operation closed in 1952 and was subsequently the victim of a not-so-historically-friendly renovation. Now the ballroom has been uncovered and could possibly be restored to its original grandeur.
