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The Starks Building features the trademark Chicago School of architecture with Beaux Arts details, such as its unique cream-colored bricks.&nbsp;Various motifs can be found around the building, such as lion's heads, acanthus leaves, and urns. The combination of motifs and Chicago School details accurately&nbsp;exemplifies artistic expression at the turn-of-the-century. The history of the Starks Building dates back to 1911, when local fine men's clothing tycoon John Price Starks commissioned the architectural firm&nbsp;D. H. Burnam and Company of Chicago&nbsp;to create a new edifice to house the Starks's retail concerns. It is important to note that D. H. Burnam and Company was, at that time as well as today, one of the leading promoters of the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago.&nbsp; A 1926 addition, designed by the successors of D. H. Burnam, the&nbsp;Chicago firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White,&nbsp;transformed the building into a rectangular style while enclosing one end of the building to create a "U" shape. This new addition created a natural central sun w and courtyard. Today the courtyard has been covered with a Plexiglas skylight. A 1953 renovation added the first parking garage in the city. Currently, Hertz Investment Group owns the building and leases the spaces for offices, retail use, and dining.

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History of the most recent purchase of the building

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National Register of Historic Places nomination form

Building tour and Amazing Otis elevator systems @ Historic Starks Building Louisville KY

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The Starks Building, built in 1913 on the site of the former First Christian Church of Louisville, utilizes 14 stories of architecture and has over 395,505 square feet of space. Commissioned by local businessman John Starks Rodes, the building was designed by architects in the Daniel Burnham firm of Chicago. 

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 for its historical contribution to the Lousiville business district as well as its showcase of Beaux Arts designs popular in Chicago, and in many major cities, at the beginning of the 20th century. Soon after its completion, the Starks Building has endured as a prominent visual and practical landmark of the Louisville downtown scene. 

Starks Building

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This extended walking tour starts at city hall and includes landmarks such as the Brown Hotel as it moves south towards Old Louisville. The tour stops at St. Catherine Street to give users the option of picking up the "Old Louisville" tour. which is also in Clio. This tour includes numerous downtown hotels, theaters, churches, and other landmark buildings such as the Brown Hotel. The tour also includes stops at historical markers and monuments that share historic events that shaped the city. 

Before the 1873 City Hall was built, no government building existed for the city's use. Previously, city officials occupied space in the county courthouses with no building for their own use. The prior county courthouses included a log courthouse built in 1784, and then a brick courthouse from 1811 to 1837.&nbsp; In April 1867, architects John Andrewartha and C.S. Mergell won a competition to design a city hall for Louisville. Original designs set the courthouse to be three times its current size, complete with a three-story portico entrance. After several options, the&nbsp;design was finalized and set for construction in 1870. City Engineer, I.M. St. John, was designated to oversee the project, while Andrewartha was named the managing architect. It took three years to finish the project. The city used stone from the White River quarries near Salem, Indiana. The total cost came out to $464,778. Using a combination of Italianate motifs and a French Second Empire style, City Hall is typical for the post Civil War era, in which it was built.&nbsp; The prominent bas relief of the&nbsp;city seal also displays a train "ploughing into the wilderness," bearing the slogan,&nbsp;"Progress, 1871." It is clear how important the railroad was to Louisville at the time. Additionally, other carvings, such as that of livestock, display the central role of agriculture in Louisville in 1873. Perhaps the most visible aspect of City Hall is the 196-foot clock tower. The bell in the clock has gone through two major periods of silence. First, in 1964 the clock broke, leaving a silence for four years, until it was repaired again 1968. Once again in the 1970s, the clock was silenced and remained silent until 1991.

This historic government building was completed in 1873 and features a blend of Italianate and French Second Empire styles, reflecting the optimism of the post-Civil War era in Louisville. The exterior features a 195-foot clock tower and several engravings that depict the centrality of agriculture and river traffic in the city's early years. 

The architects of the City Hall included John Andrewartha and C.S. Mergell, as well as the firm C.L. Stancliff and Co. Little is known about Andrewartha, except that he arrived in Louisville on July 4, 1865 without money, friends, or acquaintances. Historians believe that, in addition to the City Hall, Andrewartha designed the Courier-Journal building, the Central Colored School, and the Nicholas Finzer School.

Louisville City Hall

The Congressional&nbsp;
Medal of Honor is the highest award that can be bestowed upon
a military service member, and is traditionally presented by the President of
the United States to the recipient in the name of Congress. In 1861, Iowa
Senator James Grimes proposed the Medal of Honor to be bestowed upon sailor and
marines in the department of the Navy that distinguished themselves as
exemplary.&nbsp; In 1862 Massachusetts Senator
Henry Wilson proposed a similar action for the Army. On July 12, 1862 S.L.R.
No. 82 was signed by President Abraham Lincoln and the “Medal of Honor” was
born. The Medal itself is an inverted five point star and has three versions
for the different branches for the military that can be seen today. The first
Medal of Honor was awarded in 1863 to Private Jacob Parrot serving in the U.S.
Army from Ohio during the Civil War.&nbsp;

The Kentucky Medal of Honor Memorial is located on the
Jefferson County Courthouse lawn in Louisville, KY. It was funded in the year
2000 by Jefferson County Commissioner Russ Maple who served in the 82nd
Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. The monument was
funded by donations that matched the&nbsp;$75,000 cost. The Sculpture was created by artist&nbsp;Doyle Glass of Texas.
The base of the monument is engraved with the names pf&nbsp;every Kentuckian who received the
Medal of Honor while serving in the United States Armed Forces.&nbsp;

The Kentucky Medal of Honor Memorial is dedicated to the 56 Kentuckians who have received the Medal of Honor since the creation of the award in 1861. The memorial is engraved with the names of service members who have received the award dating from the Civil War to the present. The Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest decoration for battlefield valor. The memorial depicts Army Sergeant John C. Squires, a Louisville resident who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Italy during World War II. 

Kentucky Medal of Honor Memorial

Louisville architect Brinton B. Davis designed the Inter-Southern Insurance Building in the neoclassical style and it opened in 1913 as a building of various law offices and commercial businesses. In 1933 the building was renamed the Kentucky Home Life Building and it still serves under this name as an office building surrounded by other office buildings for metro government and law firms.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 

Law Offices of Trabue, Doolan, Helm & Helm was one of the notable businesses located in the Inter-Southern Building during the 1920s. Thomas Kennedy Helm was the attorney of Charles Duncan Campbell, the President of Louisville's Campbell Tobacco Company which was located at 1114 W. Liberty St (no longer a working address or company). The Campbell Company is notable for its successful tobacco export business during the 19th and 20th centuries to places such as Britain, France, and West Africa in a complex web of Atlantic World trade. 

Inter-Southern Insurance Building

<h3>Founding the Cathedral of the Assumption</h3>
A Catholic presence first became evident in Louisville in 1811, when a small group formed the St. Louis Church. They were served by a "circuit rider priest" named Father Stephen Theodore Bodin.
In 1830, the St. Louis Church moved to the current location of the Cathedral of the Assumption. In 1841, the Diocese of Bardstown, which included most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, moved from Bardstown to Louisville. The St. Louis Church was then renamed St. Louis Cathedral.
Bishop Joseph Flaget decided in 1849 that Louisville needed a new cathedral. Though he died on February 11, 1850, Bishop Flaget witnessed the start of construction on what is today the Cathedral of the Assumption. The Cathedral was dedicated on October 3, 1852.
<h3>Bloody Monday, 1855</h3>
One terrible piece of history that took place, in part, within and around the walls of the cathedral was the bloody riots of August 6, 1855. Today, the infamous event is known as "Bloody Monday."&nbsp;
The conflict began during the presidential election of 1844. "Nativists" (those attempting to protect the rights of native-born Americans) devised a plan to set themselves up at polling stations to prevent illegal voting by immigrants. A popular German newspaper ran a warning about the plan and urged German-Americans to go to the polls armed in order to protect their rights. George D. Prentice, who would become famous for his anti-immigrant writings, then translated the warning and published it in the Whig Louisville Journal. As one might imagine, discussion of conspiracies and opposing sides arming themselves generated much resentment, until eventually a mob formed at the German newspaper, forcing the editor of the paper to flee.
This marked the start of a new wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in Louisville. In the following years, though things did not turn immediately violent, newspapers continued publishing anti-immigrant sentiment, and fears and negative feelings continued to simmer. By 1850, there were nearly 11,000 immigrants in Louisville, out of a total white population of 36,224. Most of the anti-immigrant Nativists joined the American Party, which became known as the Know Nothing Party.
On the August 6, 1855 election day, members of the Know Nothing Party started fist fights with German and Irish American voters at the polls. Reportedly by noon, all immigrant voters had left the polls. Afterward, in what is today "Phoenix Hill" and at the time the center of where most immigrants lived, Know Nothing Party adherers formed a mob, ransacked neighborhoods, and murdered 22 people. As much of the immigrant-concentrated area burned, the Know Nothing mayor actually came to the rescue of the Cathedral of the Assumption, as well as the German St. Martin of Tours. Because of the mayor's intervention, the immigrant-dominant churches were saved, and the violence ended.
Today, docents are happy to give tours of the Cathedral church and the Archdiocese of Louisville History Center to organizations, and Archdiocesan parish and school groups.
Group Tours can be scheduled by calling the parish office (502) 582-2971. Guided tours are by appointment only.

Louisville's Cathedral of the Assumption is both the third oldest Catholic Cathedral in the United States and the fourth oldest public building in Louisville. The historic grounds were consecrated in 1830, though the current cathedral wasn’t built until 1852. The cathedral has seen quite a lot of history, from the anti-immigrant Bloody Monday riots of 1855 to the fallen soldiers of the Civil War.

Cathedral of the Assumption

After studying at the Boston School of Cooking, Jennie Benedict began her career as a chef and caterer in 1893. She was then hired in Louisville by the Courier-Journal as the editor of the "Household" department.
During this time she co-founded the Business Women's Club. Benedict continued to be successful, as she later opened Benedict's, a restaurant and tea room, and she published the Blue Ribbon Cookbook.
The building continued its use as the Business Women's Club from 1899-1911. Since then it has been used for offices, a hot dog shop, and a jewelry shop at various points. It has recently been purchased by philanthropist Christy Brown for restoration. On February 7th, 2008, the National Park Service listed the Business Women’s Club on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Business Women’s Club was a club for professional women established in 1899 by 37 leading women of Louisville. The founders include educator and philanthropist Patricia Blackburn Semple and Jennie C. Benedict. Semple directed the women of Louisville in the relief effort for World War I. Benedict was a chef, caterer, and author who opened Benedict's restaurant and tearoom on South 4th Street in 1900. She is best known as creator of "Benedectine," a sandwich spread that remains a Kentucky favorite.

Business Women's Club

The American Mutual Savings Bank, located on 608 W Walnut St. (now known as W Muhammad Ali Blvd.) in Louisville, KY was opened on February 18, 1922. The American Mutual Savings Bank stood out among other early twentieth century banks for its founder, William H. Wright, an African American business man who also owned Mammoth Life and Accident Insurance Company, providing financial services for the African American community in Louisville. The American Mutual Savings Bank, in addition to savings accounts, provided accounting services to small businesses and home loans to clients, encouraging those in the community to build their own homes with the help of Samuel Plato, the man who designed and built the American Mutual Savings Bank building. The bank also opened up more than 5,000 accounts during its short tenure, many of whom were African American and had never used a bank before, giving financial advice, banking experience, and the possibility to create a savings account.Unfortunately, once the Great Depression hit in 1929, the American Mutual Savings Bank struggled to stay open after seven years of business. To stay afloat, William Wright joined with the First Standard Bank, also owned by an African American man, closing both banks in November 1930 to consolidate the two into the Mutual Standard Bank, which reopened in the spring of 1931. However, the lack of confidence in banks and the hurt from the Great Depression ruined the reputation and business of banking, and the Mutual Standard Bank was forced to close in May 1931.Though the bank lasted for less than a decade, the American Mutual Savings Bank was an inspiration for many in the African American community in Louisville, Kentucky. With the motto, “The bank of personal service,” the American Mutual Savings Bank aimed at helping African Americans in the area to gain banking experience, build homes, and have assistance to create and manage their own businesses. Furthermore, the great success the American Mutual Savings Bank had before the Great Depression made many in the community proud as it served many customers, had over $300,000 in assets, allowed hundreds of families to become homeowners, and provided loans for the&nbsp;building or remodeling of African American churches in Louisville during the years the American Mutual Savings Bank was open. For further reading on the American Mutual Savings Bank, please see the following articles and books.Articles from the Louisville Leader newspaper: “American Mutual Savings Bank Open to the Public,” February 25, 1922. “The American Mutual Savings Bank in Thrift Campaign,” May 13, 1922. “Negro Bank Receives Excellent Rating,” September 22, 1922. “American Mutual Savings Bank a $300,000 Mark,” March 24, 1923. “Mutual Bank on Top,” May 3, 1923. “Mutual Savings Bank Announces Program; National President Writes,” February 28, 1931. “Officers and Directors Close the Mutual Savings Bank,” May 9, 1931.The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia edited by Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, and John A. Hardin, pg. 19.Life Behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville Kentucky, 1865-1930 by George C. Wright, pg. 226. <div> </div>

The American Mutual Savings Bank was an African American owned bank that was open from February 18, 1922 until May 1931. During its success years, the American Mutual Savings Bank obtained over 5,000 accounts, had over $300,000 in assets, assisted businesses in accounting services, gave loans to African American churches in the area, and allowed for hundreds of families to become homeowners through their services. 

American Mutual Savings Bank

<h3>History of the Louisville Gardens</h3>
In 1893, state legislators ordered that all first and second class cities in Kentucky provide an armory, and that same year, the city began planning the eventual building. Twelve years later in 1905, at a cost of $440,000 (equivalent to about $12 million today), Louisville architect Brinton B. Davis and firm Caldwell &amp; Drake finished the Jefferson County Armory on December 31st. Nearly 10,000 people showed up to the dedication ceremony.&nbsp;In the following years, as Louisville didn’t have a centralized community center at this time, the Jefferson County Armory began hosting community events and giving locals an opportunity to take part in recreational activities as well as speaking events. For example, in 1911, President William Taft visited the armory to give a speech outlying his policies for international peace. A year later, over 10,000 people came to the armory during a dedication after the Titanic disaster. During the Ohio River flood in 1937, the Armory served as a refugee center for people looking for dry accommodations.&nbsp;
By 1937, however, the University of Kentucky and Notre Dame basketball teams played at the Armory, the first of many such games. Basketball games thereafter became a popular and common activity at the Armory, and when Leo A. Seltzer leased the building in 1945 with a 15 year lease as the Kentucky National Guard moved out (ending the military function of the building), the space boosted its entertainment appeal. The Polack Bros. Circus would eventually set attendance records in Louisville.&nbsp;
On September 30, 1948, President Truman gave a speech from the Armory during the 1948 Presidential elections. Elvis, Scotty, Bill, and DJ would make their second appearances in Louisville at the Armory (the first being at the Rialto Theater) on November 25th, 1956. Prior to the show, with fears of riots over Elvis’s superstar status, Louisville Police Chief Colonel Carl E. Heustis enforced a “no wiggle ban” for the concert. As Don Freeman from the Courier-Journal wrote about the concert:“Teenagers deliriously squealed, the flash bulbs of shutterbugs shot off all over-the whole armory suddenly felt like the inside of a heavily pounded drum.
Elvis Presley had sprung forth in all his glory, plus a green dinner-type coat and Black slacks.
Elvis-the ideal of every red-blooded American girl.
He wheeled squeals out of his fans with 23 minutes of high emotion singing, then disappeared under heavy escort.
Unable to corner him, fans did the next best things.
A bevy of girls shriekingly touched the microphone he had used and some other girls kissed the palms of their hands after rubbing them over the stage dirt he hard trod, police said.”
Martin Luther King Jr. would also addressed residents of the city in this venue on August 23, 1960.
By 1963, large-scale renovation took place and the building was thereafter named the Louisville Convention Center. Under the new name, the building took on a much different role, hosting smaller meetings, music acts, and so forth. The convention center changed its name to the Louisville Gardens in 1975. By 1980, the National Park Service listed the building on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1998, the name was changed once again to the Gardens of Louisville.&nbsp;
At the moment, the city is in talks about the future of the building.

Originally known the Jefferson County Armory when it was built in 1905, the Louisville Gardens building now stands as a multi-purpose arena for a variety of events. First opening in 1905 as an actual armory complete with drill halls and ammunition for the local branch of the state militia, the historic building has witnessed more 20th-century Louisville history than most other buildings. Because the armory included a swimming pool, rifle range, and other recreation infrastructure, the Louisville community used the building as a gathering place right from the beginning. After 1945, the building became home to the University of Louisville basketball and later, at various points, both the Kentucky Colonels and the Kentucky Wildcats. 

In 1963, the building was converted into the Louisville Convention Center where many famous individuals would eventually host events in Louisville. However, when the Kentucky International Convention Center was built in 1975, the building was renamed yet again to what it is today, the Louisville Gardens. Currently owned by Metro Louisville, it was used to house victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2004, and it currently is in use as a warehouse. Its future remains uncertain as developers make bids on the building.

Louisville Gardens

The current Seelbach hotel opened in the spring of 1905 as a 150-room hotel operated by Bavarian immigrant brothers, Otto and Louis Seelbach. The hotel was the result of their successful&nbsp;restaurant&nbsp;which opened in 1886 and later expanded to include a hotel. The "new" Seelbach Hotel billed itself as "turn-of-the-century Beaux Arts Baroque Hotel." Within a few years, the hotel had expanded to five hundred rooms and became the leading hotel of the city. During the&nbsp;era of&nbsp;Prohibition, the continued production of&nbsp;bourbon in this region&nbsp;attracted wealthy travelers who appreciated the Seelbach's capacity to serve alcoholic beverages with discretion. Prominent bootleggers&nbsp;from around the country were even more intrigued, with men such as&nbsp;George Remus and possibly even Al Capone becoming frequent visitors at the Seelbach. F. Scott Fitzgerald also became a regular visitor of the Seelbach. While in the army, Fitzgerald trained&nbsp;at Camp Taylor, a former training base about six miles southeast of the city.&nbsp;Fitzgerald's love of good whiskey and expensive cigars brought him to the Seelbach, where his observation of characters of wealth and privilege spurred his imagination. It was at this time that Fitzgerald began planning his most famous novel, the Great Gatsby.&nbsp; Fitzgerald based the character&nbsp;Jay Gatsby upon his encounters with bootlegger George Remus. He also chose the Grand Ballroom as the most appropriate setting for two other characters, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, to be married.&nbsp; The Seelbach closed during the 1970s-a result of both a recession and the decline of downtown areas as centers of recreation and hospitality. The Seelbach was renovated and reopened in&nbsp;1982. The hotel is presently operated by the Hilton chain. Like the Seelbach, the&nbsp;surrounding area has also enjoyed the return of tourism and hospitality in downtown Louisville.&nbsp;

Completed in 1905, this iconic hotel may be best-known for inspiring several scenes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's most famous work, The Great Gatsby. Although the author did not identify the Seelbach Hotel by name in the novel, it was here where he spent much of his time as a young soldier on leave. The hotel's interior and its colorful guests, as well as the setting of Tom and Daisy Buchanan's wedding, were drawn from his memories of the Seelbach. Renovated to resemble its former appearance with modern convienences, including larger rooms than was typical for the early 20th century, the hotel retains much of its character and historic grandeur even if it is now part of the Hilton chain. For residents and visitors to Louisville, this architectural masterpiece is one of the city's iconic buildings and one of its leading historic landmarks. The hotel has been frequented by eight U.S. Presidents, leading movie stars, and some of the most infamous gangsters who made their living from the hotel's underground Rathskeller which was full of illicit liquor during the Prohibition. Today, the hotel is now known for a more as a leading destination for conventions, social events, and travelers to the city seeking a genteel atmosphere and Southern hospitality.

Seelbach Hotel 

Founded by Henry Kaufman in 1879, Kaufman-Straus was one of the two largest department stores in the city of Louisville, specializing in women's clothing, furs, and linens and also some menswear.&nbsp; In January 1961, Raoul Cunningham,&nbsp;president of the NAACP, united the NAACP Youth Council and CORE into a mass campaign.Beginning on February 9, the joint campaign began stand-ins at Kaufman-Strauss and Stewart’s department stores.&nbsp; At the same time, adult members of the NAACP introduced the "Nothing New for Easter" campaign, a boycott of downtown businesses which continued until May and ended after the 1961 Kentucky Derby.&nbsp; This consumers’ boycott had the potential to keep 75,000 Black&nbsp;residents from buying any items from the downtown Louisville&nbsp;businesses, also depriving the downtown businesses of 18 million dollars a year. By the end of February, Kaufman-Strauss and Stewart’s opened negotiations.&nbsp; The sit-ins forced the manager of Kaufman-Straus to close the Charl-Mont Tea Room.&nbsp; It was not until the public accommodations ordinance was passed in 1963 that African-Americans were finally served in the store's restaurants.&nbsp; On May 14, 1963 the Louisville Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance for open accommodations, which&nbsp;finally gave&nbsp;Louisville&nbsp;a policy of nondiscrimination for public accommodations.

This historic department store was targeted for sit-ins because African-Americans were denied service in their restaurants. In February 1960 student members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and members of NAACP Youth Council protested in front of the store. The building is now home part of Fourth Street Live and home to the Sports & Social Club among other businesses.

Kaufman-Straus Department Store

The NAACP Youth Council and CORE rallied a massive
campaign, during which hundreds of African American students joined protests against segregation in the spring and summer of 1960. Sit-ins were held in the Kaufman-Straus Department Store, Stewart's Department Store, the Blue Boar restaurant, and other locations in downtown Louisville's 4th Street shopping district. The students and community leaders increased their efforts the following year, introducing a "Buy Nothing New for Easter" campaign where 75,000 participants vowed that they would not purchase anything from any store that discriminated against Black customers. The protests led the management of Kaufman and Stewart's to request negotiation in 1961, but neither store proceeded towards integration. The joint department store sit-ins began under the leadership of Raoul Cunningham on
February 9, 1961. On February 20, the police arrested
Cunningham and four teenagers. By the spring of 1961, over 700 residents of Louisville had been arrested--more than in any other city in the nation. Between 1961 and 1962, African Americans continued their pickets, boycotts, and sit-ins, seriously disrupting business in the downtown area. Recognizing that these protests&nbsp;threatened their city's economy and might also&nbsp;disrupt the Kentucky Derby,&nbsp;Louisville businesses began to serve Black patrons, and the city became the first major city south of the Mason-Dixon Line to bar racial&nbsp;discrimination&nbsp;in public&nbsp;accommodations in the spring of 1963.

African Americans in Louisville protested segregation throughout the 1950s with mixed results. Though school integration passed in 1956, much of the rest of Louisville life remained racially segregated. The anti-segregation movement reached a critical mass in February 1960 when the a delegation of white and Black community leaders expressed frustration at the failure of the city council or Mayor Bruce Hoblitzell to support their demand for a municipal ordinance banning segregation. In the spring of 1961, in part inspired by the successes seen in Greensboro, NC, the African American community effectively acted to organize major stand-ins in local department stores.

1961 Campaign to End Racial Segregation - Fourth Street Shopping District

The history of the Pendennis Club is rather interesting. While
it has always been a social organization, it first started out as a gentleman’s
club. This club was particularly strict with its members or rather, the select
members it allowed in. This elite private club excluded prospects such as
African Americans, people of the Jewish faith, as well as females. The club
remained this way well after the majority of most businesses desegregated in
the 1960s.&nbsp;One man in particular, Louis Coleman Jr., was denied membership
into the Pendennis Club because of his race. He then filed a complaint in
1991with the Kentucky Human Rights Commission.&nbsp;Following this complaint,
Louis teamed up with Jan Phillips and Richard Beal and protested by staging a
lunch on the sidewalk in front of the building. These three advocates believed
it was the best way to achieve desegregation for the club. Their unique style
of protesting was repeated throughout the 1990s. &nbsp;Because of his protests on the club along with
other civil rights issues at this time, Coleman Jr. is one of Kentucky’s most recognized
civil rights activists. The members of the club countered this complaint and
said that they were entitled to privacy as well as free association under the
Constitution to allow in whomever they please. The Pendennis Club did not fully
open its doors to members of race, gender, and religion until the year
2006.&nbsp;Following desegregation, several members of the club said that many
African Americans still refuse to belong to that particular environment given
its history on racism. Though the club eventually opened its doors to a wider
variety of people, it is still remarkable that the Pendennis Club managed to
continue to discriminate on the basis of race, illegally, forty years after the
Civil Rights Movement.




















Let’s fast forward to the
Pendennis Club today. Today, the club persists because it is open to anyone no
matter his or her race, religion, or gender. No one has a right to be a member.
Nor does heredity play into becoming a member. As for what goes on inside,
there is a variety of things for its members to take part in. There is squash,
fitness, banquets, as well as food and drinks available. While it started out
with a tortured past, the club applauds itself at being a place where one can
relax and enjoy&nbsp;his or her time there, presenting itself as a place of
civility, decency, and social graces. The Pendennis&nbsp;Club has tried to
reform by&nbsp;looking to&nbsp;the future with open arms towards&nbsp;who is
allowed in as members.&nbsp; &nbsp;

The Pendennis Club is a social organization where members are meant to feel at home. The building consists of a library, a billiard hall, as well as a dining hall. Numerous elites have been welcomed here in the past. The club opened its doors in 1928. The architecture and its intricate detail is what makes this building stand out and is also what put it on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. 

The Pendennis Club

The Ronalds and the Brennans

The Ronald-Brennan House is typical of the antebellum
Italianate townhouses designed by the Irish-American Louisville architect Henry
Whitestone, though there is no proof that he worked on this particular home. Built
for Francis Slaughter Jones Ronald, it was one of the first residences in
Louisville with electricity, and features crystal and etched-glass chandeliers
and a signed Tiffany lamp. Ronald and his son owned a warehouse and tobacco
wholesale company on Main Street, but the financial panic of 1873 and the
ensuing depression (lasting until 1879) caused Ronald and Co. to declare
bankruptcy in 1877. Francis died during the crisis, and in May of 1884, a
trustee for the family sold the Ronald house to Thomas Brennan.

Thomas Brennan immigrated to the United States from
Ireland in 1842 and made a fortune as an inventor, with twenty-seven patents
for agricultural equipment including a new, more efficient milling mechanism.
He was awarded first prizes for two of his inventions at Chicago's 1893 World's
Columbian Exposition, and founded the farm machinery manufacturing Brennan
&amp; Co., Southwestern Agricultural Works. In 1869, he married Anna Bruce, an
immigrant from the Isle of Jersey whose Anglican priest father was descended
from soldiers in Napoleon's army and who was a friend of author Victor Hugo. In
America, Anna studied five languages at Wesleyan College in Cincinnati before
her marriage to Thomas.

Thomas and Anna had nine children, one of whom died
in infancy, and none of whom had children of their own. Those who survived to
adulthood were Mae Bruce, a multi-linguist and pianist, and her sister Beulah
Bruce, a violinist and pianist who studied in Paris; Henry Martyn, founder of
the Arctic Ice Company, president of the Metropolitan Realty Company, and U.S.
Collector of Customs for the Port of Louisville; Albert Andrew, who lived in
New York City for most of his life and worked for the Yankees baseball team;
Thomas Jr., who worked for his father and then in agricultural manufacturing in
Chicago; Robert Emery, a doctor who served in the First World War and became
professor of surgery at the New York Polyclinic School and Hospital, where he
treated boxer Jack Dempsey and author Damon Runyon; lawyer and FBI agent Napoleon
Bruce; and Dr. John Arvid Ochterlony Brennan, who, like Robert, studied
medicine at the University of Louisville (under his namesake, Dr. Ochterlony)
before serving in the Medical Corps during World War I.

Dr. J.A.O. Brennan returned to Louisville after
post-graduate work in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin and service during the
war, working in St. Mary's, St. Elizabeth's, and St. Anthony's Hospitals. In
1912, architect C.A. Curtin designed an addition to the family home for Dr.
Brennan's medical office, complete with a waiting room and exam rooms, in the
style of the original design. It connects to the house through what was once
the bay window in Thomas Brennan's study, with the central panel converted into
a doorway and the other two windows bricked up. 

After Dr. J.A.O. Brennan's death in 1963, only
Albert and Napoleon remained in the house. All of the Brennan siblings had periodically
or permanently returned to the family residence, and were members of the Filson
Historical Society, to which they each donated numerous items; in 1969, the
last remaining brothers donated the house and furnishings to the Filson. Much of the old Victorian style had been preserved. The
house was turned into a museum and has been maintained ever since. Featuring 16-foot
ceilings, hand-carved marble and slate mantels, stained-glass windows, family
portraits, antique furniture, and a period garden, the historic Ronald-Brennan
house also includes Dr. J.A.O. Brennan's examining table and medical literature
from the turn of the century.

The Ronald-Brennan House is the last remaining house in what was once a residential street brimming with similar homes for wealthy Victorian-era families. Built in an Italianate style for tobacco wholesaler Francis Slaughter Jones Ronald in 1868, its architect is unknown, but resembles the designs of local Irish architect Henry Whitestone. The house was purchased by inventor Thomas Brennan in 1884 and remained in the family for seventy-five years. Thomas's son, Dr. J.A.O. Brennan, added a wing to accommodate an in-house medical office in 1912. The house is now the headquarters of Preservation Louisville, and open to the public for special events, particularly during the holiday season.

The Ronald-Brennan House & Medical Office Museum

History of the Palace



From the mid-nineteenth century until the 1920s, St. Joseph's
Infirmary stood on the present-day site of the Palace Theater. Owned by the
Nazareth Literary and Benevolent Institute of Nelson County, Kentucky, the
infirmary was sold in 1926 in preparation for opening a new hospital on Preston
Street. Loew's Theaters hired Austrian-American architect John Eberson
(1875-1954) to design a first-run cinema for the 4th Street site as an outlet
for Columbia and Metro-Goldwin-Mayer. Despite having no formal architectural
training, Eberson had changed careers in 1908, seven years after arriving in
the United States, from electrical engineer to architect, and achieved fame in
the field for his "atmospheric" theater designs.

For Louisville's Loew's Theater, Eberson designed a lavish, jewel-toned
grand lobby and theater (seating 3,300) in Spanish Baroque
"Churriguerresque" style, with alcoves, niches, fountains, statues
and carvings of over 140 famous figures, and a ceiling inspired by a National
Geographic photograph of the night sky with the lights placed to approximate
actual stars.&nbsp;The theater opened on September 1, 1928, showing The Old Gray Horse and Excess Baggage and a performance by Jan
Garber's band and Haden Read on the 1000-pipe Wurlitzer organ. Though
Louisville, and particularly 4th Street, boasted a number of theaters during the
1920s and 1930s, Loew's was the largest in the state and one of the largest in
the region, heralded by Louisville's Courier-Journal
as an "architectural marvel." It is also only one of two cinemas of
the era still standing on Louisville's renewed hotspot, 4th Street. Among its
famous out-of-town frequenters was gangster Al Capone, who would travel through
underground steam heat tunnels running between the theater and the Seelbach
Hotel during Prohibition. During the 1937 Flood, the theater's organ was raised
above the high water level to save it from destruction.



In 1948, Loew's became the Loew's United Artist Theater, then the
United Artist Theater in the mid-1950s, and the United Artists/Penthouse
Theater in 1963, when the the 900-seat balcony was enclosed to accommodate a
second screen. The first film shown in the Penthouse was Lawrence of Arabia.&nbsp;The theater was one of six local theaters identified by the NAACP for demonstrations in 1961&nbsp;because of their refusal to admit African Americans. As images of arrests appeared in the local newspaper The Courier Journal, the number of demonstrators and demonstrations increased outside the theater. Over 170 students and 10 adults were arrested during one of the largest demonstrations held during the same year. Following the passage of the public accommodations ordinance, the theater continued to prosper through the seventies as a first-run movie palace.In 1978, it was renamed the Louisville Palace,
but closed due to financial difficulties soon afterward. Purchased and renovated
the same year by John Siegel, the Palace reopened in 1981 as a live
entertainment venue, but continued to struggle and periodically close
throughout the next four years, in spite of its addition to the National
Register of Historic Places in 1982. It closed for nine years between 1985 and
1994, becoming one of downtown Louisville's ten most endangered historic
buildings for a time. 

The Palace Today 

With new ownership and restoration,
the Palace reopened in 1994 with a sellout Yanni concert and rededication. Despite
changing hands from one theater and entertainment company to another since that
time, the Palace has regained its place as a Louisville fixture, featuring
Broadway and other theatrical performances from local to international artists;
classic film screenings in the summer; and concerts and comedians. The restored
space is also a popular venue for weddings, corporate and social events,
dinners and fundraisers, renowned for its barrel-vaulted "ceiling of
celebrities", "Faces Lobby", Spanish courtyard garden-style
theater, and several reported ghosts. The Faces Lobby also holds monthly
concerts featuring local bands.

The Louisville Palace Theater opened in 1928 as Loew's Theater. It features a Spanish Baroque style with arcades, balconies, and turrets. In 1961, the theater was boycotted by Civil Rights activists because of their refusal to admit African Americans. Today, the theater operates as the elaborate setting for live performances, concerts, and summer cinema classics screenings. Painted in bursts of jewel tones, the Palace is heavily ornamented with alcoves, balconies, statues, and busts, and its theater ceiling imitates a starry, cobalt nighttime sky. 

Louisville Palace Theater

History of Kentucky TheaterThe Kentucky Theater was opened October 6, 1921, and was designed by Joseph &amp; Joseph. It was originally operated by the Modern Amusement Company. A 1940 remodeling increased seating from 780 to 1,100 by the addition of a balcony. The theater’s color scheme and decor was also changed at this time. In 1984 it became home for a multimedia slide presentation promoting Kentucky tourism, but the show was short-lived and in 1986 the building closed. Ten years later the City of Louisville marked the abandoned building for demolition.Local entrepreneur George Stinson bought the historic theater at auction to save it from the wrecking ball and in 1998 gave a no-cost lease to a band of volunteers who created a non-profit arts organization, called the Kentucky Theater Project, Inc. Since that time, organization founders worked with more than 200 volunteers to transform the Kentucky Theater into a vibrant community arts center that was due to bring new life to Fourth Street.In 2008, the Kentucky Theater was revamped into an upscale gourmet food mart, known as the Theater Square Marketplace.History of Ohio TheaterThe Ohio was built in 1941. &nbsp;Seating was listed at 900. It was located next door to the larger Kentucky Theatre. The Ohio Theatre closed as a motion picture venue in 1965.The facade and marquee of the building are all that remain of this theater today, along with its large “Ohio” vertical sign. Part of the storefront portion of the theater building still exists, as well. Unfortunately, the remainder of the Ohio Theater was demolished.Before a 1948 Supreme Court decision broke up a&nbsp;monopoly, theater chains and movie studios were joined at the hip. This meant that &nbsp;pictures from Columbia and Warner Brothers landed at the Kentucky or the Ohio. Civil Rights Sit In DemonstrationsIn 1961, numerous sit in demonstrations by&nbsp;&nbsp;African Americans, led by&nbsp;young people, largely area high school students occurred. Under the leadership of organizations including the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), sit-ins, picket marches, and other forms of non-violent protests by African Americans and some white supporters began in earnest in February 1961. City police arrested protesters on charges of delinquency and disorderly conduct, but the demonstrations continued.Many of the demonstrations centered on the 4th Street shopping district and the Kentucky/Ohio Theaters. There, African Americans were often discriminated against and harassed when attempting to make purchases or eat at certain restaurants.

On Fourth Street, one of the historic main drags of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, there's an area called the Theater District. It's a bit of a misnomer, since there is only one theater in the area. It could be argued, however, that there are one and a half theaters, as the building was once the Kentucky Theater and a part of the Ohio Theater is still there. 

Kentucky/Ohio Theater

The opening of the J. Grahm Brown's "Brown Hotel" was one of the most anticipated events of 1923 in Louisville. On October 25, 1923, 1,923 people attended the hotel's first opening dinner and dance party. The next night another 1,200 guests attended the second opening dinner. The following Saturday, it is said that a further 10,000 people flooded&nbsp;the hotel as it opened its doors to the general public for the first time. In retrospect, it appears that all the anticipation for the hotel was absolutely deserved, as the Brown Hotel transformed the city. The hotel was in no time at all the social center of Louisville. As the glory days of the 1920s continued, theaters, churches, and professional offices sprouted up around the hotel. J. Graham Brown even built his own theater near the hotel, which still&nbsp;today is in operation. People began referring to the&nbsp;neighborhood surrounding the hotel as the&nbsp;"magic corner," with so much of the life of Louisville converging in this special place at 4th and Broadway. During the Prohibition (which was in effect from the opening of the hotel until 1933), the hotel suffered for its effect on business. However, it survived, and names like Lily Pons, Al Jolson, and Queen Marie of Rumania are all a part of those early years. A very notable piece of its history was during the Flood of '37. The Ohio River, by which Louisville sits, crested 34.2 feet above flood level on January 27. However, the river did not return to normal levels until around mid-February. Nearly 1,000 residents of Louisville&nbsp;found refuge in the 15-story hotel during this time. The Brown finally found itself no longer struggling to survive during World War II, when soldiers from nearby Ft. Knox would seek a chance to put their struggles away for an evening at the Brown Hotel. The hotel hit its stride during this era and enjoyed a boom in business. During the spring of 1961 The Brown Hotel became one of the targets of the "Nothing New for Easter" boycotts.&nbsp; The boycott served as economic activism against local businesses which discriminated against African Americans and led to the accomplishment of Louisville's Public Accommodations Act. The protests resulted in the arrests of seven hundred, primarily Black, citizens who participated in the strike. &nbsp;<div> </div><div>A magnificent representation of the 1930s, The Brown Hotel displayed characteristics of early twentieth century architecture and reflectedthe context of the downtown Louisville's culture. The architectural achievements of The Brown Hotel earned positive impressions among the community for their hospitable accommodations to all attending patrons.&nbsp; The Brown hotel inspired a centralized hub of activity&nbsp;located in the Louisville Downtown area that aided the&nbsp;integration of&nbsp;social connectivity.</div> Today any visitor can ask the older staff for stories, and each will be able to recount the legends and tales of these different eras. It is a hotel absolutely packed with its unique history and beginnings.

In 1923, Louisville was the 34th largest city in America with a population of 235,000. That was the same year that J. Graham Brown opened the Georgian Revival-style hotel, in great anticipation of the local population and newspapers. The Brown Hotel would soon inspire an entire downtown rejuvenation effort that would come to include businesses, movie theaters, a residential community, and a parking garage. An ordinary hotel might not inspire so much rejuvenation, but this was the Brown Hotel, and it was not ordinary in any way, with its very first visitor in the guest register being David Lloyd George, former prime minister of Britain.

Brown Hotel 

Named for Indiana native and Louisville-resident&nbsp;J. Graham Brown, the Brown Theatre was modeled after New York's famed Music Box Theatre and opened on October 5, 1925 with Elise Janis in&nbsp;Puzzles. Show bookings decreased during the Great Depression (1930s), and the Fourth Avenue Amusement Company leased the theater as a movie theater at this time. Throughout the 1950s, the majority of Louisville's white-owned establishments located outside of the African American community either completely excluded African Americans or treated them significantly differently. Overall, the city was deeply and structurally segregated, and sit-ins began in downtown Louisville in 1956. Although the Brown Theatre had relaxed its policy to admit African American school children for the performance of the Ten Commandments, management did not permanently change its policies. Members of the NAACP Youth Council specifically protested the Brown Theatre on December 25, 1959, when the theater refused admittance to fifteen ticket-holding African Americans. The ticket-holders had received the&nbsp;tickets through the mail or reserved them by telephone for the theater's first public showing of "Porgy and &nbsp;Bess," an all African American cast. In response to why the theater turned away the African Americans, management cited the policy of all downtown first-run theaters. Demonstrations continued at the Brown Theatre until 1963, when a public accommodations ordinance was passed and the theater opened its doors to African Americans. (For more information&nbsp;on Louisville's civil rights movement, see link in the "Additional Information" section.) Theater renovations began in 1962 to return live performances to the theater, and a second renovation occurred in 1971. Following the 1971 renovation, the Louisville Board of Education purchased the theater thereafter and contracted it to the Louisville Theatrical Association. At this time, also, the theater was rechristened The Macauley Theatre. The original Macauley Theatre operated from 1873 to 1925--when the property was sold to the Starks Brothers and raized--and was located at 329 W. Walnut (now Muhammad Ali) Street. The Broadway-Brown Partnership formed in 1982 and purchased the theater and adjoining Brown Hotel to rejuvenate Louisville's southern end&nbsp;business district. In 1997, the Fund for the Arts--the nation's oldest united arts fund--acquired the theater and continued a $4.2 million restoration. The Fund for the Arts contracted the Kentucky Center to manage the theater, which continues to this day. After generous gifts from the W. L. Lyons Brown Foundation, the Brown family, and the Brown-Forman Corporation, the theater is re-rechristened&nbsp;W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre (1998). A 1998 gift from Owsley Brown Frazier leads to the main reception area being named the Frazier Lobby.

The Brown Theatre opened on October 5, 1925. Originally named after J. Graham Grown, the theater changed names in 1971 and again in 1998. It is now known as the W. L. Lyons Brown Theatre, owned by the Fund for the Arts, and managed by the Kentucky Center. The theater was also a site for ongoing civil rights protests against segregation from 1959 to 1963 and is included in Louisville's Downtown Civil Rights Trail.

Brown Theatre

Establishment of the
LFPL

A group of five Louisvillians
including Mann Butler founded the Louisville Library Company, based around a
small collection within the old Court House, in 1816. It was the first of
several underfunded attempts throughout the nineteenth century to provide the
city of Louisville (or at least, those citizens able and willing to pay for its
services) with a library. The lottery-funded Public Library of Kentucky was the
first to attempt a free, public library in Louisville in 1871. Their work culminated in the purchase of Weisinger Hall (previously
Kaufman's Department Store), where the citizen-organized Polytechnic Society of
Kentucky funded the small collection and kept the vision of a library alive
until the turn of the century. The Polytechnic Society and Public Library of Kentucky
merged in spite of controversy over offering free services, forming the Louisville
Free Public Library in 1902. The merger provided a temporary home and 65,000
volumes for the fledgling library. With a grant from philanthropist Andrew
Carnegie acquired through the efforts of the Scottish Society, the library's
main site began construction in 1905 and officially opened in 1908, after
delays due to construction worker strikes. As the library prospered, over
thirty branches were added (though some later closed), including the historic
Western Colored Branch (today's Western Branch), which was the first Carnegie-housed
library in the U.S. built exclusively for African Americans. 
History of the Main
Branch at York Street

The Main Branch of the LFPL was
designed in the Beaux-Arts style by New York firm Pilcher and Tachau (the
latter a native Louisvillian), and is considered one of the finest examples of
Beaux-Arts architecture in the state of Kentucky. The Delivery Room
(present-day foyer) is a two-story Louis XVI style space with stained-glass,
barrel-vaulted ceiling, white marble columnns, neo-Renaissance murals by
Theodore L. Wilberg, and two staircases with bronze and iron railings. Its open
stack room was an innovation at the time, and a popular feature upon the
building's formal opening in 1908.



In addition to books, the LFPL contained
a natural history museum, an armory including Daniel Boone's rifle along with
Medieval weapons and armor, collections of American Indian weapons and beads,
and paintings, drawings, etchings, bronze engravings, and statues. In addition,
it was the first local home for Louisville's Egyptian mummy, Then-Hotep (now, along
with the natural history collection, at the Kentucky Science Center). The
library's thirteen-foot bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, sculpted by George
Grey Barnard and donated (along with fifteen paintings) by Mr. and Mrs. Isaac W. Bernheim, was dedicated on
October 26, 1922, and attended by Lincoln biographer and muckraker Ida B.
Tarbell. It is a long-held tradition that rubbing Lincoln's toe is good luck. 

Along with 70% of Louisville, the
library and its collections were submerged during the Great Flood of 1937, with
the high water reaching thirty feet above flood level. Collections of rare
bird's eggs were crushed, artwork endangered, taxidermy specimens and moth and
butterfly collections damaged, and Then-Hotep the mummy all but destroyed. She
was saved through the efforts of Lucien Beckner, director of the institution
which is known today as the Kentucky Science Center (then the Museum of History
and Science), who used equipment at the 3rd Street Louisville Gas &amp;
Electric Company to dry the mummy out. The building itself suffered damage as
the books expanded as they took on water and broke the supports holding up the shelves
and the ceilings, and naturally many of the books themselves were damaged or
destroyed.&nbsp;

Nonetheless, the library thrived,
becoming the first United States library with its own FM-radio station, WFPL,
in 1950. A few years later, a second station, WFPK, was added. In 1969, an
110,000-square-foot modern concrete-and-glass addition was constructed at the
rear of the building, allowing more space for programs and departments
including the Junior Art Gallery in the Children's Library, the Audio-Visual
Department, the Kentucky Division, rare books and special collections, the
Foundation Center, the Talking Book Library for the visually impaired, and a
U.S. Government document depository. Along with the addition, a new sculpture
of Benjamin Franklin, sculpted by Felix de Weldon (sculptor of the Iwo Jima U.S.
Marine Corp War Memorial), was added to the grounds.



In 2009, another major Louisville
flood devastated the library's main floor as seven inches of rain fell in
seventy minutes. When the building was repaired following the disaster,
measures were taken to prevent future flood damage, including the addition of
holding cisterns for excess water.

The Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL) is an example of public services and innovation that started in the beginning of the 20th century. Opened in 1908, it is the largest public library system in Kentucky. Its main and original building sits at 301 York Street, though other historically significant branches include the "Western Colored Branch" at 604 South Tenth Street--the first Carnegie-housed library built entirely for African-Americans. Today the library includes 17 branches aside from the main library, and tours can be set up at the main site or any of the other branches upon request. 

Louisville Free Public Library 

Murray Atkins Walls was born in Indianapolis on December 22, 1899. She spent her childhood and high school years in Indiana and attended Butler University. After she graduated, Atkins&nbsp;moved to New York City where she received a master's degree from Columbia University.&nbsp;After graduating from Columbia, Walls moved back to Indianapolis but settled in Louisville after marrying John H. Walls,&nbsp;one of the first presidents of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP.&nbsp; In the late 1930s, Murray Atkins Walls worked as a&nbsp;federal housing surveyor which began her fight for desegregation in Louisville. In the 1940s she began attending sit-ins at "whites only" libraries and continued to fight for desegregation until all branches were open to all regardless of color by&nbsp;1952.&nbsp;Walls was appointed to the Kentucky Board of Education by the governor in the early 1950s. She used this position to fight for more equal funding and opportunities for Black students and faculty.&nbsp; Walls's efforts to desegregate the Louisville Girl Scouts began in the 1940s. She was frustrated that camp began for African American girls right after school let out for the summer as this practice allowed little time for families to prepare for&nbsp;camp. In 1954, she and others pushed the Cardinal Girl Scouts to consider integration.&nbsp; "We must help our young people to hold with respect the dignity of human beings be they white or brown or Black or yellow," Brown declared.&nbsp;"They cannot have it so long as we set one group off to themselves as untouchables, unworthy of belonging to the whole group" (Higgins 9-10). Murray Atkins Walls's inspiring words eventually helped convince the leaders of the Louisville Girl Scouts to officially integrate in 1956. For her efforts, she awarded with the Thanks Badge in 1962--the highest honor one can receive from the Girl Scouts.&nbsp; Murray died in 1993 and eleven years later, the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana&nbsp;dedicated this marker&nbsp;in front of the Louisville Public Library to honor the woman who challenged the schools, libraries, and Girl Scouts to serve all residents equally.&nbsp;

Erected in 2004, this marker honors the achievements of civil rights pioneer, Murray Atkins Walls. Walls challenged segregation in many public settings, including the city's libraries and schools. She also fought for equality and racial understanding within the Girl Scouts. Walls ended the practice of segregation at the local camp in 1956 and became the first woman of color on the Kentucky State Board of Education. The monument was dedicated by the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana and reflect her leadership as the first woman of color to join the local board of the Girl Scouts. 

Murray Atkins Walls Historical Marker, Louisville 

Congregation Formation and Reform Adath Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in the five-state region around Kentucky, was officially chartered as the K.K. Adas Israel traditional synagogue on January 13, 1843. The city may have been home to Jewish citizens and landowners as early as the late 1700s, and certainly by the early nineteenth century, but it was in the 1830s that Jewish institutions began to appear, including the Israelite Benevolent Society, along with official gatherings for worship. Most of Louisville's early Jewish residents came from German states (especially Posen, a province of Prussia), and the official language of the synagogue was German until the 1860s&nbsp;when English services were introduced. At first, Adath Israel met in rented rooms on Main, near Brook Street. In 1849, the congregation erected a two-story building on 4th near Walnut (present-day Muhammad Ali Boulevard), but it was destroyed by fire in 1866. Two years later, construction was completed on a new temple at 6th and Broadway. In addition to its religious functions, the synagogue also served as a center for secular community work and charity. Visits from Dr. Isaac M. Wise (of Cincinnati) convinced the congregation to join the Reform Judaism Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1873, making Adath Israel the second largest Reform temple. Rabbi Adolph Moses, a medical doctor from Alabama who had attended Louisville College, added a Sabbath School during his tenure from 1881-1902. A new congregation, Brith Sholom, was established by a fresh generation of German Jewish immigrants in 1880. Traditional services, with Reform overtones, were held in their native German at a temple at 1st and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali). In 1903, Brith Sholom sold their first temple to Congregation Anshei Sfrard and moved to a new location at 2nd and College Streets. The congregation officially joined the Reform movement in 1920, and in 1949 relocated to Cowling and Maryland Streets.Twentieth Century TempleJust after the turn of the century, the Adath Israel Sisterhood was established, followed by the construction of a new temple for the congregation at 834 South Third Street from 1905-1906. The National Register of Historic Places nomination form attributes the building design to W.J. Dodd (1862-1930), but&nbsp;Lee Shai Weissbach's more comprehensive book,&nbsp;The Synagogues of Kentucky: Architecture and History, attributes the design to&nbsp;&nbsp;Louisville architectural firm McDonald and Sheblessy.&nbsp;&nbsp;With minimal ornamentation except for Classical motifs on the capitals and arches, the Temple is a modified Greek cross plan constructed of Bedford, Indiana limestone. A brick section behind the sanctuary held an auditorium, library, religious school, and the rabbi's study.As members of the congregation moved to homes further from downtown Louisville, toward the East End, during the mid-twentieth century, land was purchased for a <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://theclio.com/web/entry?id=34943">new temple off Brownsboro Road</a>, which also holds archives and exhibits on local and national Reform Jewish history. During its construction, in 1977, Adath Israel and Brith Sholom joined to form one congregation&nbsp;and moved into their new synagogue in 1980. Today, the Temple on 3rd Street is home to the Pentecostal church Greater Bethel Temple of the Apostolic Faith.

The Temple at 834 South 3rd Street, now a Pentecostal church, was home to Louisville's Adath Israel congregation from 1905-1980. Adath Israel, founded by German/Prussian Jews in 1843, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Kentucky and the five-state region surrounding it. It was also one of the earliest--and second largest--Jewish Reform congregations. The Greek Ionic style Temple was designed by the Louisville architectural firm McDonald and Sheblessy. The building served Adath Israel until 1980, when the Brith Sholom and Adath Israel congregations merged and moved to a new synagogue on the East End. 

Temple Adath Israel (Greater Bethel Temple of the Apostolic Faith)

Presentation Academy, a college-preparatory school established for women in 1831, was created by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and led by Mother Catherine Spalding during its formative years. The academy remains the longest continually-operating school in the city. In 2009, the school completed the construction of a new facility for the arts and athletics, a $5 million addition.  

Presentation Academy

The congregation dates back to 1816, with the establishment of Louisville's First Presbyterian Church. This original congregation gave birth to several different congregations over the years, and also absorbed the members of area churches. For example, a third of the Second Presbyterian Church chose to merge with this congregation when their church joined the Southern Assembly following the Civil War. This church was constructed in several phases beginning in 1909, and replaced a previous structure that was constructed at this location by a smaller congregation that merged with the congregation that became Central Presbyterian. Perhaps the highlight of the facility is the church's fully-restored 1930 E. M. Skinner Pipe Organ, which was made specifically for the Louisville congregation by Boston's Skinner Organ Company. 

Downtown Louisville Walking Tour- City Hall to Old Louisville

Starks Building

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information