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

Downtown Jeffersonville

Downtown Jeffersonville

by | Oct 15, 2016 | Cool Districts

Downtown Jeffersonville

Spring Street Jeffersonville

Spring St., Jeffersonville, Indiana, is just across the Big Four pedestrian bridge, between the Ohio River and W. Court Ave. A four block long historic commercial district lined with boutique retail stores and restaurants. A linear waterfront park along the river extends the entertainment district several more blocks, creating a very walkable riverfront experience. RiverStage is an outdoor public entertainment area along a terraced lawn on the city’s historic riverfront in the Jeffersonville Arts And Cultural District.

www.cityofjeff.net
www.jeffmainstreet.org
Falls of the Ohio State Park

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Bicycling to S. Indiana

Big Four Bridge

Big Four Bridge Ramp

Over W. Riverside Dr.

Big Four Station

Big Four Pedestrian Bridge at Pearl St.

Spring @ E. Chestnut Sts.

One block east of Big Four Station.

Spring @ Chestnut Sts.

355 Spring St.

One of several pocket patios, or parklets, on this street.

RiverStage on the Ohio River

Jeffersonville, IN waterfront.

Revetment stones on wharf

1930s WPA project used locally quarried limestone.

E. Riverside Dr.

Jeffersonville waterfront.

Early riverfront home

E. Riverside Dr.

Falls Of The Ohio State Park

390 million year old fossil beds are among the largest, naturally exposed, Devonian-era fossil beds in the world.

Big Four Bridge

Big Four Bridge

by | Oct 3, 2016 | Cool Districts, Local Landmarks

Big Four Bridge

Big Four Bridge

The Big Four Bridge is a six-span former railroad truss bridge crossing the Ohio River from Louisville to Jeffersonville, Indiana. It was completed in 1895 and updated in 1929.

The largest single span is 547 feet long, with the entire bridge spanning one half mile.

The bridge took its name from the defunct Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, which was nicknamed the “Big Four Railroad”. The bridge was decommissioned in the 1960s, when the ramps to the bridge on both sides of the river were removed.

The Big Four is now a pedestrian and bicycle bridge that opened to the public 24 hours a day in 2013. The bridge has millions of visitors each year, making it the most popular urban attraction in the area.

The George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge downstream is the only other bridge allowing bicyclists and pedestrians to travel across the river near downtown Louisville.

The Big Four

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Big Four Bridge

in the fog

Big Four Bridge

LED lights in motion

Big Four Bridge Ramp

Over W. Riverside Dr.

Bicycling to S. Indiana

Big Four Bridge

South 4th St.

South 4th St.

by | Sep 13, 2016 | Cool Districts

South 4th St.

S. 4th Street

Between the Seelbach and Brown Hotels is the historic downtown retail / entertainment district, which in its day, was the city’s fashionable shopping and entertainment hub.

Today, it offers a glimpse into the past with architecture, unique ‘local’ shopping, dining and entertainment, between two historic hotels.

www.facebook.com/SOFOLouisville

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GALLERY

Fourth St Live!

Muhammad Ali Blvd @ 4th

Fourth St.

@ Guthrie St.

The Highlands

The Highlands

by | Sep 13, 2016 | Cool Districts, Neighborhoods

The Highlands

The Highlands

The mainly residential area contains the city’s highest density of restaurants, swingin’ night spots, eclectic shops, and oddity businesses. Centered along a three-mile stretch of Bardstown Rd. and Baxter Ave., it is so named because it sits on a ridge between the Beargrass Creek’s Middle Fork, which runs through Cherokee Park, and the South Fork, which divides Germantown from the Tyler Park neighborhood.

The commercial area extends from the intersection of Baxter Ave. and Lexington Rd. in the north, to the intersection of Bardstown Road and Taylorsville Road/Trevillian Way to the south. A 1/2 mile section of nearby Barret Ave. contains similar businesses.

The former ‘streetcar suburb’ corridor thrived up until the 1960s, but as the suburbs expanded the business district fell into decline. After many older buildings had already been razed to make space for modern fast-food restaurants and drive-in banks, the Highlands Commerce Guild was organized, and in 1977 they began to address the problems, the area began to rebound commercially in the 1980s.

Because of the large collection of nightclubs and restaurants, it is known locally as “Restaurant Row”. The 900 block of Baxter Ave. is one of three late night bar districts in the city that benefit from 4 AM liquor licenses. The Highlands is the cultural center of the city.

The area’s elegant architecture attracts young professionals because of its location near downtown and other amenities such as Cherokee Park and the pedestrian-friendly shopping. Today, many of its neighborhoods have among the highest percentage of college graduates and average income in Louisville. The gentrification of the Highlands has had a spillover effect on adjacent areas, such as Germantown, Nulu, and Clifton, as they’ve developed their own shopping and nightlife districts.

Individual neighborhoods in the Highlands include the Original Highlands, Phoenix Hill (eastern 1/3 of the neighborhood), Irish Hill, Cherokee Triangle, Tyler Park, Deer Park, Bonnycastle, Highlands-Douglass, and Belknap.

The Highland’s landmarks include the Mid-City Mall, which was the city’s first indoor mall, completed in 1962; and the Barnstable-Brown Party, held at a home on Spring Dr. in the Bonnycastle neighborhood, is Louisville’s most famous Kentucky Derby party.

www.thehighlandsoflouisville.com

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GALLERY

Vic’s Classic Bikes

900 block Baxter Ave.

Steel City Pops

Bardstown Rd. near Highland Ave.

Cahoots

Former bar on Bardstown Rd.

Jack Fry’s restaurant

Bardstown Rd. @ Highland Ave.

Bardstown & Longest

The corner where Louisville’s preservation movement began.

Discoveries

Bardstown Rd. near Longest Ave.

Barnstable Brown Party

Bonnycastle’s bell on Spring Dr.

West Main Street

West Main Street

by | Sep 12, 2016 | Cool Districts, Historic Districts, Preservation Districts

West Main Street

West Main Street

Fort Nelson, built in 1781, was the second on-shore fort in what is now Louisville, in response to continuing attacks from Native Americans and the threat of British attacks during the Revolutionary War. The fort was constructed between today’s Main St. and the river, with a main gate near Seventh St.

Starting in the 1850s, many taller buildings with decorative cast-iron façades were built, making it the largest collection of cast iron façades in the U.S., rivaled only by New York’s SoHo neighborhood and Portland, Oregon.

The development of the area was aided by its proximity to the river and the Falls of the Ohio. Steamboat traffic stopped to unload passengers and cargo. Warehouses for manufacturing and storing goods, including tobacco and whiskey, where built in the area.

With the growth of railroads, and a decline in river traffic, commercial activities moved south along 4th St. and came to center around Broadway.

The 1970s brought the beginning of revitalization of Main St. with the new Galt House Hotel and Riverfront Plaza.

The St. Charles Hotel, opened in 1869, still stands today at the S.E. corner of Main & 7th. it is one of the oldest buildings on W. Main. St. Actors Theatre in the 300 block of W. Main is another one.

The West Main District, one of the five districts downtown, includes the 800-600 blocks of W. Main and the southern side of the 500 block, and includes Museum Row, ten tourist attractions within four walkable blocks.

The Main Street Visitors Center is located at 627 West Main Street.
Hours are seasonal: Monday through Friday, 11 am to 3 pm, weather permitting.

Main Street Association
Louisville Downtown Partnership
Louisville Historic Preservation & Urban Design

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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.

600 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

700 block W. Main St.

South side of street.

730 W. Main St.

Coal hole covers.

700 block W. Main St.

Louisville Leadership Center

700 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

800 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

800 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

800 block W. Main St.

North side of street.

Fort Nelson

In 1778 Major George Roger Clark brought 150 soldiers and 80 settlers from Redstone, Pennsylvania, down the Ohio River to Corn Island. A month later, Clark took the soldiers to fight the British in the American Revolution. The families left behind established Fort Nelson, the first permanent settlement at the site of Louisville and Clark is recognized as the founder.