Downtown

Downtown

by | Jul 14, 2023 | Architecture, Cool Districts, Historic Districts, Local Landmarks, Urban Attractions

Downtown

Main Street
Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th-most-populous city in the U.S. It is the regional economic hub and cultural and social heartbeat of more than a dozen surrounding counties in Kentucky and S. Indiana and is within a day’s drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population.

Named after King Louis XVI of France and founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, it is one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians. With nearby Falls of the Ohio as the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site.

Downtown Louisville is one of only a dozen U.S. cities that have all five major performing arts groups and also has the unique Bourbon District, a walkable urban experience where you can visit nearly a dozen distillery and tasting experiences.

Notable architectural highlights include Whiskey Row, a block of mid-1800s whiskey distillers’ warehouses. Start your downtown walk at 1st and Main Sts. and travel west.

At 2nd St., the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge (c. 1929) was the first bridge to carry car traffic across the Ohio River in Louisville and is one of three pedestrian bridges in the area.

The 300 W. Main block features Actors Theater (c. 1837), one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city, a fine example of small-scale Greek revival architecture. The 400 block features two International style buildings, the 40-story PNC Tower (c. 1972) and on the north side of Main St., the American Life Building (c. 1973), 3 Riverfront Plaza at the Belvedere, was designed by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. The post-modern Humana Building (c. 1984) designed by Michael Graves also at 4th & Main is one of the city’s most famous buildings.

West of 6th St. to 9th St. are the last of the historically intact areas of commercial architecture in downtown and the second-largest concentration of cast-iron buildings in the nation.

Louisville Downtown Management District, a taxed business improvement district, promotes downtown’s quality of life by providing “safe and clean and hospitality” operations through their Downtown Ambassadors to create a more enjoyable environment for workers, residents and guests.

The Louisville Visitors Center, 301 S. 4th Street is operated by Louisville Tourism. Mondays – Saturdays 10 – 5, Sundays 12 – 5.

Louisville Visitor Center
Louisville Downtown Partnership
Bourbon District
Fourth Street Live!

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GALLERY

500 block W. Main St.

South side of street.

600 block W. Main St.

South side of street.

600 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

600 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

700 block W. Main St.

South side of street.

700 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

700 block W. Main St.

Louisville Leadership Center

800 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

800 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

500 block W. Main St.

Humana building is a best case example of infill

Kentucky Center

500 block W. Main St.

4th Street Live!

4th Street Live!

4th St and Liberty St

Selma Hall

Selma Hall

by | Dec 13, 2016 | Architecture, Cool Architecture, National Register

Selma Hall

Selma Hall

Built in 1837 by a prominent citizen and merchant, Selema Hall is a restored plantation home with details befitting its antebellum roots. Combining Greek revival and Federal styles, the design may have been influenced by other ‘Jeffersonian’ period houses such as Farmington which was built 30 years earlier and is significantly smaller in plan and scale.

The main floor of the house is a half-level above grade, with the lower level containing bedrooms and other support spaces. The front portico shelters a porch and outside entrance to the basement.

Originally on 6,000 acres of farmland, the estate was purchased in the early 1920s and the subdivision of Riedling was created.

On the National Register of Historic Places.

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GALLERY

Selma Hall

2837 Riedling Dr.

Federal

Federal

by | Nov 28, 2016 | Architectural Styles, Architecture

Federal

Federal
Named for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, the style shares its name with its era, the Federal Period.

The Federal style typically used plain surfaces with attenuated detail, usually isolated in panels, tablets, and friezes. It had a flatter, smoother façade and rarely used pilasters. It was a style influenced by ancient Roman architecture.

At the time, before there were many formally trained architects, a gentleman’s education included the ability to draw a idiomatic classical elevation plan for craftsmen, who where masons and carpenters, and who had knowledge of the classical vocabulary. They produced a vernacular, or localized version, of this style of architecture.

Louisville’s earliest townhouses were created in the Federal style. The few surviving Federalist buildings we have today are of the late Federal style.

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GALLERY

Old House Restaurant, c. 1829

432 S. 5th St.

Vendome Copper & Brass Works

729 Franklin St.

A Brief Architectural Dictionary

A Brief Architectural Dictionary

by | Nov 19, 2016 | Architecture, Glossary

A Brief Architectural Dictionary

Style

Vocabulary specific to Louisville’s unique historic building styles, for anyone wanting to learn a basic architecture vocabulary.

Dentils

Small rectangular blocks that, when placed together in a row abutting a molding, suggest a row of teeth.

Fish Scale Shingle

Siding shaped like the overlapping scales of a fish. Also known as scalloped. Shown with saw tooth pattern shingles.

Gingerbread Detail

Elaborately detailed embellishment, either lavish or superfluous. Also an American architectural style of the late 1860s and ’70s.

Juliet Balcony

Also known as a balconet or balconette. Named after the scene from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet.

Portico

A structure consisting of a roof supported by columns at regular intervals, typically attached as a porch to a building. A portico can be of any size, and as small as a stoop.

Oriel Window

A form of a bay window, which projects from a wall but does not reach the ground, typically supported by corbels.

Parapet

A low protective wall along the top edge of a roof, or balcony.

Tower

A tower goes all the way to the ground, unlike a turret that projects vertically from the wall of a building.

Turret

A turret projects vertically out from a building, unlike a tower that goes all the way to the ground.

Window Hoods

Bracketed window hoods and entry portico with matching pediment surmounting pilasters.

Dormer

A perpendicular window located in a sloping roof; triangular walls join the window to the roof. Dormer windows are sometimes crowned with pediments, and they often light attic bedrooms; “dormer” derives from “dormir,” French for “to sleep.”

Leaded glass windows

“Stained glass” is the popular term used to describe what is more properly called “leaded glass,” because the materials used can be colored (stained) or not. The terms are often used interchangeably. Within the industry “leaded” suggests no color, and “stained” implies color.

ROOFS

Mansard Roof

A four-sided hipped roof featuring two slopes on each side, could exhibit one of five profiles — straight, flared, concave, convex, or S-curved, the lower slopes being very steep, almost vertical, and the upper slopes sometimes being so horizontal that they are not visible from the ground. Named after the French 17th-century architect Francois Mansart (1598-1666), who popularized the form.

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)