One of the city’s many Olmsted parks and the surrounding early streetcar suburb was named after the city’s mayor in the 1890s. The defining feature of the neighborhood is the stone bridge, circa 1904, which runs through the middle of the park to span a low valley where two small streams converged at the archway on the way to the south fork of Beargrass Creek at Castlewood Ave.

General John Breckinridge Castleman donated land along Castlewood Ave. that became part of the lower park and a separate tract now called the Castlewood Open Space, a short distance away.

The park and surrounding subdivisions evolved slowly, the first subdivision was laid out in 1873 on the flatter terrain between Baxter, Bardstown Rds. and Edenside Ave., but because of its relatively remote location from downtown, development did not pick up until the 1880s. The extension of a streetcar line down Bardstown Road to Bonnycastle Ave. and the establishment of nearby Cherokee Park created more demand for housing in the area.

Further west, newer sections between St. Louis and Calvary cemeteries were developed from 1907 until the 1930s with relatively strict deed restrictions on the lots, including deep setbacks,  exteriors only of brick, stucco or stone, utilities and wires located in alleys, and the prohibition of wood fences.

Today, the area around Cross Rd. and Hill Rd. features some of the most eclectic and attractive residential architecture in the city.

Bounded by Rufer Ave. on the north, Bardstown Rd. on the east, Eastern Pkwy. and Calvary Cemetery on the south, and Beargrass Creek and Barret Ave. on the west.

www.tylerpark.org

Aneighborhood landmark is the Bullock-Clifton House, a former farmhouse at the corner of Richmond and Rosedale, built in the ‘steamboat gothic’ style in 1834.

Like many places in the U.S., most of the streets were named after the early landowners who turned into developers in the early 1900s. A section of the neighborhood is one of the city’s more densely populated areas and is a National Historic Register District.

Deer Park includes two pedestrian courts whose long rows of houses, with no conventional street, are accessed by alleys and sidewalks running through the small lots. Ivanhoe Ct. was built in 1914, and the slightly smaller Maplewood Pl. were both built during the streetcar suburb era.

Due to the lack of geographical obstacles such as steep hills or creeks, the neighborhood developed quickly and uniformly. Shotgun houses and modest 2 story Victorians make up the majority of the stock in the oldest sections, while modest craftsmen-style houses dominate further out, along with a few small ranch style homes.

The neighborhood also has one of the last of the pre-World War II subdivisions in the area with larger houses built in various historical revival styles.

Some of the somewhat narrow east/west streets are now one-way, which is an oddity for a traditional neighborhood somewhat far from downtown.

www.deerparklouisville.com