Design Details

Design Details

by | Nov 13, 2016 | Architectural Details, Architecture

Design Details

Style

An abundance of natural resources, such as hardwoods, limestone, and coal to fire furnaces to make iron, brick, and terracotta; an abundance of skilled immigrant craftsmen; the proximity to the Ohio River; the forces of capitalism, new efficiencies of production, the standardization of parts, and effective railroad connections between industrial centers and their hinterlands, all combined to make Louisville’s historic architectural details special, beginning with the facades of thousands of commercial buildings in the center of town and later on houses in the newly emerging suburbs.

DETAILS

Limestone Column

Conrad-Caldwell House

Window hoods

600 block W. Main St.

Peak-a-boo Window

1232 E. Broadway (demolished in 2016)

The Comfy Cow

The Comfy Cow

by | Nov 12, 2016 | Local Landmarks

The Comfy Cow

The Comfy Cow

Though this building is not on Louisville’s Landmarks list it has its own preservation success story. Genny’s Diner began next door as an eight-seat restaurant and grew to over 175 seats. In 2001, the owner bought this 100 year old Queen Anne house to raze as a parking lot.

Before that happened, Clifton was named a local preservation district in 2003 and the owner was unable to get the permission of the Metro Landmark’s Commission to tear it down.

Fixing up the house at the time would have cost about $300,000, so the owner let the house fall into disrepair. He amassed many code violations and in response to court orders, he tried to give the house away as well as sell it. None of the neighborhood advocates of the restoration stepped up to buy or take the property, until the Comfy Cow stepped in.

They were able to buy the property for fair price, and along with many perks thrown in by the city, the house was renovated in 2009 as retail and office space. The former neighborhood eyesore has become a popular neighborhood destination.

www.thecomfycow.com

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GALLERY

The Comfy Cow

2221 Frankfort Ave. saved from the wrecking ball.

Twig & Leaf

Twig & Leaf

by | Nov 12, 2016 | Local Landmarks

Twig & Leaf

Twig & Leaf

Established in 1962, “Twig and Leaf” is a diner and local landmark located in the Douglass Loop area of the Highlands. In 2011, it was designated as a local landmark after a CVS pharmacy was rumored to be taking over the entire block. Area residents worked to save the diner.

In 1959, a local businessman renovated a small property, that had been a Dairy Freeze, into the style of the then-modern diner. Hap’s Big Burger Drive-In only lasted a year before the business was sold again.

There are several steps to petition for the designation of local landmarks. Two hundred signatures from within the county are sufficient to trigger the public discussion; of those signatures, 101 must be from residents living within a one-mile radius, or from within the council district in which the proposed landmark is located.

The Twig and Leaf collected a total 679 signatures, with 245 coming from within its council district.

There are nine specific criteria ranging from the property’s “embodiment of distinguishing characteristics of an architectural type or specimen” to “its identification with a person or persons who significantly contributed to the culture and development of Metro Louisville, the commonwealth, or the nation.” a property just needs to meet at least one of them.

The Twig and Leaf met a total of six.

www.thetwigandleaf.com

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GALLERY

Twig & Leaf

2122 Bardstown Rd.

Shotgun

Shotgun

by | Nov 12, 2016 | Architectural Styles

Shotgun

Shotgun

Long rectangular dwellings, one room wide and generally one story tall. They can be two stories in what is called a Camelback, with a second story in the back. Believed to be first built in the U.S. in Louisiana by free Haitians because of the compact lot size required, the shotgun house design may have been brought to Louisville by French fur traders and possibly first built in Shippingport.

Louisville’s surviving shotguns were built after the end of the Civil War, and mainly between 1890 and 1915. Louisville now has the largest collection of Shotgun houses in the entire country, only after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. They are a special and unique vernacular architecture to Louisville.

Shotguns are found in many of Louisville’s neighborhoods such as Portland, Germantown, Butchertown, Russell, California, and the older sections of the Highlands.

Shotgun houses are among the most common late 19th century and early 20th century house types in the urban South.

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GALLERY

Shotgun

Craftsman

Craftsman

by | Nov 12, 2016 | Architectural Styles

Craftsman

Craftsman

The terms craftsman and bungalow are often used interchangably, though there is a fundamental distinction. Craftsman refers generally to the Arts and Crafts movement and is considered an architectural or interior style, whereas bungalow is a particular form of house or building. Thus, a bungalow can exhibit a craftsman style, and many of them indeed did so.

Low-pitched, gabled roof, wide overhang of eaves, exposed rafters (rafter tails) under eaves, decorative brackets (knee braces or corbels); incised porch (beneath main roof); tapered or square columns supporting roof or porch; 4-over-1 or 6-over-1 sash windows, often with Frank Lloyd Wright design motifs; hand-crafted stone or woodwork, often mixed materials throughout structure.

Bungalows can either be front-gabled, side-gabled, or cross-gabled.

Bonnycastle is one of the neighborhoods that has a large number of craftsman houses in Louisville, though they can be found all over the city in neighborhoods built in the early to mid-20th century.

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GALLERY

Craftsman

An Arts and Crafts bungalow.