#false facades

Skin deep

Dual hotel tower a grand exclamation point for Whiskey Row’s final development

In a lot of ways, modern Downtown Louisville can be summed up in one block: Whiskey Row. Abandoned only a few years ago, the block will soon be completely transformed. It’s got a diverse set of backers and uses and is looking for a new urban future based on sound city-building principles. It’s at the heart of the city’s identity, but had been forgotten and almost lost for good.

A third of the…

Building Blocks: Here’s one idea to reuse the facade of the Water Company Building to remake Downtown

As I write these words, the historic Water Company Building is breathing its last under the weight of the wrecking ball. The landmark-yet-unlandmarked building, whose simple-yet-grand facade has graced South Third Street for well over 100 years, is meeting its end as the result of a controversial (which is putting it lightly) process that has pushed it aside in favor of the monumental Omni Hotel…

Butchertown’s seven-story Main & Clay apartments ready for construction

The construction fence is up, asbestos is out, and crews are set to begin work on a 262-unit, $50 million apartment building in Butchertown. According to the Courier-Journal‘s Sheldon Shafer, Nashville-based developer Bristol Development Group has closed on the property assemblage and has obtained building permits, so demolition crews will soon prepare the site for construction of the so-called M…

(Michael Schnuerle)

The building at 1020 East Broadway was once Grimes Vacuum Service and had been covered in a patchwork of eclectic tin signs advertising vacuum-related goods. Much of the building was covered up, including the second floor behind some absurd 1970s version of a Mansard roof.

The building went up for sale and First National Acceptance Company of East Lansing, Michigan is listed as the new owner. That company is a subsidiary of First National Bank of America and is involved in the real estate note buying industry, so we’re not sure if they are actually the developers behind the project or just holding the mortgage.

According to permits filed with Metro Louisville, the building is getting entirely new electrical and HVAC systems in what appears to be a pretty extensive renovation. The building contains three apartments above the ground floor commercial space.

We’d guess that the building’s date to sometime in the 1870s, with additions over the years. Insurance maps from 1905 show the building is actually made up of three distinct structures, which are still discernable today if you look closely.

The building also appears in some photos of the 1937 flood, where a pontoon bridge built of bourbon barrels and designed by local architect William Arrasmith once stood. Those photos show the top of the building as a standing seam metal pitch roof. We couldn’t track down any full on photos of just this building, but it falls within the style of Louisville vernacular commercial architecture, which was once prolific throughout the city. Sadly, many of these buildings have been torn down through the years.

The buildings appear on a 1905 map of the area. (Courtesy KYVL)