East Market District, Louisville

Last updated

East Market District East Market District.jpg
East Market District

The East Market District, colloquially referred to as NuLu (a portmanteau of "New" and "Louisville"), [1] [2] is an unofficial district of Louisville, Kentucky, situated along Market Street between downtown to the west, Butchertown to the north, Phoenix Hill to the south, and Irish Hill to the east. The area is home to schools, churches, large and small businesses and some of the city's oldest homes and businesses. A destination since Louisville's founding, Market Street has played host to a variety of businesses throughout the city's history that have drawn Louisvillians for generations to its addresses.

Contents

The district is today well known for its galleries showcasing local, regional and national artists, unique specialty stores, antique shops and a growing number of upscale restaurants. While multiple art galleries are located in Louisville, they are especially concentrated in this district. Keeping with the sustainable culture of NuLu, many of its restaurants offer organic and locally sourced ingredients. The district also houses numerous architecture firms, antique stores, advertising and media agencies, a record label, film production group, publishing company, designers and more.

History and architecture

The area that is now NuLu was originally part of a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) Royal land grant to Col. William Preston for his service during the French and Indian War. In 1827, the area was annexed by the city of Louisville under the name of "Uptown". Around 1832, Market Street's eastern terminus was occupied by the Woodland Gardens, a green oasis of amusement and entertainment in the growing city that became a favorite gathering spot with German immigrants. The gardens themselves gave way to the Bourbon Stockyards when it closed in 1880, which helped fuel early growth of meat purveyors, tanners and other industries associated with the livestock trade, including the establishment of five Market Houses that populated the street. Two of these could be found in today's East Market District: the Shelby Market, between Campbell and Shelby Streets, and the Preston Market between Preston and Floyd Streets.

From the early 1960s until the early 2000s, ten buildings on the 800 block of East Market area were owned by Wayside Christian Mission and used as the main housing campus for homeless women and families (men are still housed at a location on Jefferson Street). Eventually businesses in the area, led by antiques dealer Joe Ley, put pressure on the homeless shelter by opening a hearing process for Wayside's buildings to be added to the historic register, forcing Wayside to halt necessary renovations to its buildings. After months of stalled construction, Wayside Christian Mission sold its Market Street property and moved to a new location at 2nd and Broadway. Investors bought the ten properties for renovation, and hearings to add the buildings (some built as recently as the 1980s) to the historic register were called off.

Haymarket

The Haymarket area, which occupied most of the blocks around Jefferson, Market, Floyd and Preston streets, had a long and ethnically rich history, says University of Louisville archivist Dr. Tom Owen. "Dating as far back as the late 1800s an open-air market was operated here by vendors of varied national heritage," he says. "At that time the Haymarket extended from Preston Street to Second Street and was the center for the majority of the produce traded in the city." The first blow to the Haymarket's produce-market predominance came in 1955, when several fruit vendors and produce companies, including Horton Fruit, Al Campisano Fruit, and the Hill and Sloan, S&S, and Clarence Mayfield produce companies formed the Louisville Produce Association and moved from East Liberty Street to Bishops Lane. The original Haymarket buildings were demolished in the late 1950s as part of an urban renewal initiative, but a new Haymarket was constructed in the 1960s and expanded several times over the next two decades.

Architecture and design

The creator of New York City's Central Park and father of Louisville's original parks system, Frederick Law Olmsted, designed two parks that replaced the original Market Houses, with the mini-parks themselves later replaced by traffic lanes.

Designated in 1983 as part of the Phoenix Hill National Register Historic District, the area has a rich blend of architectural styles, ranging from pre-Civil War federal style town-homes and shotgun houses, to Italianate and Victorian residential and commercial structures, as well as large pre and turn of the 20th century buildings built to house Louisville's thriving businesses during the boom following the Civil War. Many of these buildings are today home to the many galleries, shops, restaurants and residents in the district. This includes Louisville's first commercial building seeking national LEED platinum certification as a green structure, known as The Green Building, located in a 110-year-old former dry goods store.

What may be called the flagship building of NuLu is The Green Building. It was originally built in 1891 by Sternau's Dry Goods and was used as a dry goods store until it closed in 1949. It has since been used as a Goodwill Thrift Store (1956–1977) and a photography warehouse (1977–2006). In 2006, Gill and Augusta Holland purchased the building and began a dramatic renovation to try to achieve LEED Platinum Certification. The Green Building earned LEED Platinum Certification in 2010, becoming Louisville's first commercial LEED Platinum structure and Kentucky's first LEED Platinum adaptive reuse structure. Holland coined the term NuLu.

Events

Galleries, museums and other businesses in the East Market District as well as the West Main District are prominently featured during the monthly First Friday Hop, where free buses circle the downtown area with stops at most galleries and museums along its route. [3]

The NuLu East Market Festival is an annual event designed to showcase what the neighborhood and city of Louisville have to offer. Originally held September 26, 2009, the festival featured local vendors, food booths, beer and wine sales and a musical lineup featuring Ben Sollee.


Market Street often played host to Academy Award winning pioneer movie director, D. W. Griffith, a native of nearby Oldham County, Kentucky, whose family had moved to Louisville where D.W. began work for the Meffert Stock Company. [4] This touring theater group was led by William H. Meffert, whose family had lived and worked in the 800 block of East Market Street from the 1850s through the 1960s. Writer and director Cameron Crowe chose the East Market District to shoot scenes for his 2005 film Elizabethtown , starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisville, Kentucky</span> Largest city in Kentucky, United States

Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowling Green, Kentucky</span> City in Kentucky, United States

Bowling Green is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Warren County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by pioneers in 1798, Bowling Green was the provisional capital of Confederate Kentucky during the American Civil War. As of the 2020 census, its population of 72,294 made it the third-most-populous city in the state after Louisville and Lexington; its metropolitan area, which is the fourth largest in the state after Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky, had an estimated population of 179,240; and the combined statistical area it shares with Glasgow has an estimated population of 233,560.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Louisville</span> Public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General Assembly to be a "Preeminent Metropolitan Research University". It enrolls students from 118 of 120 Kentucky counties, all 50 U.S. states, and 116 countries around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Speed Art Museum</span> Art museum in Louisville, Kentucky

The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest and largest art museum in Kentucky. It was established in 1927 in Louisville, Kentucky on Third Street next to the University of Louisville Belknap campus. It receives around 180,000 visits annually.

Haymarket may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Original Highlands, Louisville</span> United States historic place

The Original Highlands is a historic neighborhood in the Highlands area of Louisville, Kentucky, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell, Louisville</span>

Russell is a neighborhood immediately west of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.. It is nicknamed "Louisville's Harlem". It was named for renowned African American educator and Bloomfield, Kentucky native, Harvey Clarence Russell Sr.. Its boundaries are West Market Street, 9th Street, West Broadway and I-264.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Louisville</span>

Downtown Louisville is the largest central business district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the urban hub of the Louisville, Kentucky Metropolitan Area. Its boundaries are the Ohio River to the north, Hancock Street to the east, York and Jacob Streets to the south, and 9th Street to the west. As of 2015, the population of Downtown Louisville was 4,700, although this does not include directly surrounding areas such as Old Louisville, Butchertown, NuLu, and Phoenix Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butchertown, Louisville</span> United States historic place

Butchertown is a neighborhood just east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States, bounded by I-65, Main Street, I-71, Beargrass Creek and Mellwood Avenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoketown, Louisville</span> United States historic place

Smoketown is a neighborhood one mile (1.6 km) southeast of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Smoketown has been a historically black neighborhood since the Civil War. It is the only neighborhood in the city that has had such a continuous presence. Smoketown is bounded by Broadway, CSX railroad tracks, Kentucky Street, and I-65.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky</span>

This is a list of official neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky. Like many older American cities, Louisville has well-defined neighborhoods, many with well over a century of history as a neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Hill, Louisville</span>

Phoenix Hill is a neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky just east of Downtown. Its boundaries are Market Street to the North, Preston Street to the West, Broadway to the South, and Baxter Avenue to the East. The Phoenix Hill neighborhood, settled before 1850 by German immigrants, is now a rich tapestry of people and a diverse mix of business, industry and residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddy's Markets</span>

Paddy's Markets is a commercial enterprise that has two large markets in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Paddy's Markets are located in Haymarket and Flemington and specialise in the sale of fruit, vegetables, fish, clothes and giftware. Both markets are operated by Sydney Markets Limited, along with the rest of Sydney Markets located at Flemington.

John Gill Holland, Jr. is an American film producer and co-developer of The Green Building in Louisville, Kentucky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisville Glassworks</span> United States historic place

The Snead Building located at 815 W. Market St. is a multi-use facility housing two working glass studios : a Walk-In Workshop and tours by appointment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haymarket (Louisville)</span>

The Haymarket referred to an outdoor farmers' market in Louisville, Kentucky. The market occupied the block between Jefferson, Liberty, Floyd and Brook streets. A small section extended south down Floyd Street. It was established in 1891 on the site of the city's earliest rail station, belonging to the Louisville and Frankfort Railroad. The site had been cleared after the station relocated to First Street in 1881.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cityscape of Louisville, Kentucky</span>

Louisville, Kentucky is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations, the most noteworthy being the Old Louisville neighborhood, the third largest historic preservation district in the United States. The city also boasts the postmodern Humana Building and an expanding Waterfront Park which has served to remove the former industrial appearance of the riverfront.

The Green Building is a building located in the East Market District (NuLu) of Louisville, Kentucky. It is Louisville's first commercial Platinum LEED certified building, and Kentucky's first Platinum LEED adaptive reuse structure. The building, designed by Los Angeles architecture firm (fer) studio, was awarded Platinum certification in 2010. Design principals, Doug Pierson and Chris Mercier, are both former senior project architects with Frank Gehry's Los Angeles office, Gehry Partners LLP.

The Clarksdale Housing Complex was a housing project located in Louisville, Kentucky directly east of downtown in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haymarket (Boston)</span> Open-air market in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Haymarket in Boston is an open-air market on Blackstone, Hanover, and North Streets, next to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway between the North End and Government Center.

References

  1. ↑ Howard, Hilary (September 9, 2008). "Louisville Neighborhood Becomes an Arts Area". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "Lunch With...Gill Holland". Courier-Journal. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Republic Bank First Friday Hop". firstfridayhop.com. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ Stokes, Melvyn (December 14, 2007). D.W. Griffith's the Birth of a Nation : A History of the Most Controversial ... - London Melvyn Stokes University College - Google Books. ISBN   9780198044369 . Retrieved October 1, 2013.

38°15′11″N85°44′17″W / 38.25306°N 85.73806°W / 38.25306; -85.73806

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.