German immigrants began moving into the area in the late 1840s, subdividing the farmland and building mostly wood-framed shotgun houses. Originally the area was known as Henderson, but it came to be known as California during California’s Gold Rush days because it was at the southwestern edge of Louisville. The neighborhood grew between two of the three railroad lines that traveled across the Ohio River in Louisville.

Early on the area was a dense combination of simple working-class homes mixed with a wide range of commercial use buildings. It became Louisville’s manufacturing and industrial heartland, employing thousands of people that produced products shipped by rail and used by millions of Americans.

African-Americans settled into the area after the Civil War. The early population was a dense mix of whites and blacks living in shotguns, with large mansions built by wealthy industrialists along Broadway, but many white families began leaving the older homes in the early 1900s as the western edge of the neighborhood expanded with an early example of suburban sprawl.

The neighborhood lost 50% of its population and single-family housing from 1950 to 1980. With the shift in manufacturing trends after World War II, along with urban renewal, the area became best known for its urban decay.

A small commercial district once existed around 18th St. (Dixie Hwy.) and Oak. St. just south of where the Brown-Forman Corporation headquarters and warehouses are located today.

Bounded by Broadway on the north, 9th St. on the east, Oak St. on the south, and 26th St. on the west.

Schnitzelburg is a special part of the larger area of Louisville known as Germantown. While all of Germantown includes the area roughly bound by Breckinridge St., Shelby St., Eastern Pkwy., and Beargrass Creek, Schnitzelburg is the southwest (Shelby and Eastern Pkwy.) corner of the larger area. Traditionally, Schnitzelburg was defined by the loop of the old Portland-Shelby bus, and before that by a mule drawn car that made the same loop. The loop began at Shelby and Goss, and went out Shelby to Burnett, Burnett to Texas, Texas to Goss and back to Shelby.

The area has a rich German-American heritage. When the original German settlers in Louisville were joined by a great influx of immigrants from Germany in the 1850-60s, the already established neighborhoods of Butchertown and Phoenix Hill had run out of space, so many newcomers and the younger generations moved ‘Out Shelby’ into the subdivisions of Colonel Arthur Campbell’s land, what is now Germantown. Schnitzelburg grew rapidly after St. Elizabeth Parish was founded in 1905.

Originally Schnitzelburg was rural, with large backyard gardens, brickyards, and dairy farms. The area today is full of shotgun cottages, bungalows with front porch swings, and many small businesses, restaurants & pubs. Landmarks include Manual Stadium, St. Elizabeth Church, Emerson Park, & the old Louisville Textile Mill.

Schnitzelburg is bounded by Shelby St., Clarks Ln., & Goss Avenue (Poplar Level Rd.).

www.schnitzelburg.org

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