Jefferson County Courthouse | |
Location | 527 W. Jefferson St., Louisville, Kentucky |
---|---|
Coordinates | 38°15′16″N85°45′34″W / 38.25456°N 85.75944°W |
Built | 1835 |
Architect | Gideon Shryock |
Architectural style | Greek revival |
NRHP reference No. | 72000537 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 10, 1972 |
The Louisville Metro Hall is the center of Louisville, Kentucky's government. It currently houses the Mayor's Office and the Jefferson County Clerk's Office for marriage licensing, delinquent tax filings, and the deeds room. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Construction began in 1837, and both the City of Louisville and Jefferson County governments starting using it in 1842.
The architect, Gideon Shryock, had intended for the courthouse to have a six-column Doric portico, a cupola, and additional porticos on the wings. The building would be completed by metopes and plain friezes as a full entablature, and engaged pilasters regularly sequenced. Shryock resigned from the project in 1842. It was finally completed in 1860, with Albert Fink, a bridge engineer, and Charles Stancliff in charge. Fink reduced the number of columns for the Doric portico, and did not build the additional porticos and cupola. The Louisville Daily Journal said it was an "elephantine monstrosity". [2]
Construction on the courthouse began in 1837, and both the City of Louisville and Jefferson County governments starting using it in 1842. Slave-trading was held by the courthouse in the 1840s, as were speeches calling for the abolition of slavery. [3] When the courthouse was originally built, it was hoped that it would be the Statehouse for Kentucky. [4] This hope was the goal of James Guthrie, but due to the capital staying in Frankfort, it became known as "Guthrie's folly". It did see some state government use during the American Civil War, when it briefly housed the Kentucky State Legislature when Frankfort was acquired by Confederate forces. [3]
After a fire in 1905, the building was renovated by Brinton Davis. [5] When he visited Louisville in 1948, Frank Lloyd Wright referred specifically to the Courthouse when he said, "Louisville's architecture represents the quality of the old South; we should not build this type of building anymore but we should keep those we have left." This was after efforts in the 1940s to demolish it for urban renewal. [6]
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Improvements to the building includes placing a statue of Henry Clay, designed by Joel T. Hart, on the main floors, and extensive renovations in the 1980s. [7] The Jefferson County Courthouse Annex at 517 Court Pl. was listed on the National Register in 1980.
Louisville Metro Hall was formerly named the Jefferson County Courthouse or Louisville Courthouse. Since the merger of the former City of Louisville with Jefferson County, the building was renamed to Louisville Metro Hall and now primarily houses the offices of the Mayor of Louisville Metro. In addition, the offices of the Jefferson County Clerk, the Kentucky Court of Appeals and the Kentucky Supreme Court Justice for the Louisville district are located in this building. [8]
There are two prominently-sited statues outside the Courthouse. In front of the building is a statue of Thomas Jefferson by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, given to the city in 1901. [3] [9]
The second, on the corner of Sixth and Jefferson and across from the Louisville City Hall, is a statue of King Louis XVI. It was presented as a gift to Louisville from Louisville's sister city, Montpellier, France, on July 17, 1967. At the presentation, a crowd of 300 dignitaries, both French and American, saw Montpellier's Mayor François Delmas officially present it to Louisville Mayor Kenneth Schmied. [10]
The statue of King Louis XVI was sculpted in 1829 by Achille-Joseph Valois for the king's surviving daughter, Marie-Thérèse, queen dowager of France, and made its public debut in Montpellier. However, a year later during the Second French Revolution, it was moved to a military base for protection, then at Montpellier University, and finally in the municipal archives' storage basement. In 1899, the statue was found to have deteriorated with a damaged arm, but remained in storage. It was decided in 1966 to give the statue to Louisville, making a seven-month journey between Montpellier and Louisville. [10] The Carrara marble statue weighs nine tons, and is 12 feet (3.7 m) high. [11] [12]
The statue's right hand was destroyed in May 2020 during protests over the death of Breonna Taylor. [13]
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. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city, although by population density, it is the 265th most dense city. Louisville is the historical county seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
Jefferson County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 782,969. It is the most populous county in the commonwealth.
Louisville is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Georgia, United States, and also a former state capital of Georgia. It is located southwest of Augusta on the Ogeechee River, and its population was 2,493 at the 2010 census, down from 2,712 at the 2000 census. By 2020, its population was 2,381. Its name is pronounced "Lewis-ville", though it and the differently pronounced city in Kentucky were both named for Louis XVI.
The Kentucky State Capitol is located in Frankfort and is the house of the three branches of the state government of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The history of Louisville, Kentucky spans nearly two-and-a-half centuries since its founding in the late 18th century. The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids midway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. The town of Louisville, Kentucky was chartered there in 1780. From its early days on the frontier, it quickly grew to be a major trading and distribution center in the mid-19th century and an important industrial city in the early 20th. The city declined in the mid-20th century, but by the late 20th, it was revitalized as a culturally-focused mid-sized American city.
Gideon Shryock was Kentucky's first professional architect in the Greek Revival Style. His name has frequently been misspelled as Gideon Shyrock.
Bloody Monday was a series of riots on August 6, 1855, in Louisville, Kentucky, an election day, when Protestant mobs attacked Irish and German Catholic neighborhoods. These riots grew out of the bitter rivalry between the Democrats and the Nativist Know-Nothing Party. Multiple street fights raged, leaving twenty-two people dead, scores injured, and much property destroyed by fire. Five people were later indicted, but none were convicted, and the victims were not compensated.
The government of Louisville, Kentucky, headquartered at Louisville City Hall in Downtown Louisville, is organized under Chapter 67C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes as a First-Class city in the state of Kentucky. Created after the merger of the governments of Louisville, Kentucky and Jefferson County, Kentucky, the city/county government is organized under a mayor-council system. The Mayor is elected to four-year terms and is responsible for the administration of city government. The Louisville Metro Council is a unicameral body consisting of 26 members, each elected from a geographic district, normally for four-year terms. The Mayor is limited to a two consecutive term limit, while members of the Louisville Metro Council are not term limited.
Louisville City Hall is a registered historic building in Louisville, Kentucky, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Completed in 1873 to house the Louisville city government, the structure is located at 601 West Jefferson Street in what became Downtown Louisville, the center of the city's civic district.
George Davidson Todd was Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1896 to 1897.
The Hawkins County Courthouse is the seat of county government for Hawkins County, Tennessee, United States, located in the city of Rogersville. It was built in 1836, it is one of six antebellum courthouses still in use in Tennessee, and it is the second oldest courthouse still in use in the state.
The influence of those of French ancestry on Louisville, Kentucky, USA and the surrounding area, especially New Albany, Indiana, began in the 18th century. The city was named for King Louis XVI of France. Before Louisville was established, the site was once home to a French outpost called La Belle.
Luckett & Farley is an architecture, engineering, and interior design firm based in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1853, making it the oldest continually operating architecture firm in the United States that is not a wholly owned subsidiary. The firm began under the name Rogers, Whitestone & Co., Architects, changing its name to Henry Whitestone in 1857, to D.X. Murphy & Brother in 1890, and to Luckett & Farley in 1962. The company is 100% employee-owned as of January 1, 2012 and concentrates on automotive, industrial, federal government, higher education, health and wellness, and corporate/commercial markets. There are more LEED professionals at Luckett & Farley than any other company in Kentucky with 50, as of December 2012.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
The Jefferson Monument is a statue by Moses Jacob Ezekiel located outside the Louisville Metro Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, US.
The Madison County Courthouse is a historic courthouse in Richmond, Kentucky, United States, which serves as the seat of government for Madison County. It is a Greek Revival structure originally built in 1849–1850 by John McMurtry according to the designs of Thomas Lewinski, the two of whom were some of the most prominent architects in central Kentucky during the nineteenth century. It has been expanded and remodeled several times since, most recently in 1965. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Frankfort Commercial Historic District in Frankfort, Kentucky is a 24 acres (9.7 ha) historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It included 86 contributing buildings and one contributing structure.
The Sinking Fund Building, also known as Firehouse No. 2, is an historic building in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. Located on Jefferson Street between Louisville Metro Police Headquarters and the Louisville City Hall Annex building, it is part of the municipal office complex that comprises several neighboring blocks and originally housed the Louisville Division of Fire. The building currently houses the office of the Louisville Metro Revenue Commission, the primary municipal taxing authority for the city-county government. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
A statue of Louis XVI by Achille Valois arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, in December 1966 and was installed in July 1967, before being removed "due to safety concerns" in September 2020.