The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
Louisville Gardens was stage to Elvis, Elton John and more
A former county armory turned 6,000-seat arena, the Louisville Gardens has started its life over a few different times - with its most recent evolution just on the horizon.
The building at 525 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd. first opened in 1905 as the Jefferson County Armory. It was subsequently used as a highly popular venue, becoming a stage for such acts as Elvis, Elton John, Ray Charles and Tom Petty in addition to a range of athletic events.
In 2006, Louisville’s Grammy-nominated My Morning Jacket performed the last concert at the arena, which then became used for storage.
In 2022, Louisville Metro released a plan for proposed renovations to outfit the building into leased office space for production companies. The building would also have a museum to memorialize the venue’s storied history besides a small retail space and a restoration of the upstairs black box theater for concerts and band rehearsals.
The Starks Building, soon to become apartments
The Starks Building has been described by its admirers as a time capsule, frozen in time on the corner of Fourth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. The 14-story building was constructed in 1913 and remains an echo of the turn-of-the-century commercial architecture in the heart of Louisville’s business district.
The building’s origin has strong ties to Chicago, with local businessman John Price Starks commissioning D. H. Burnham and Co. for its design in 1911. Daniel H. Burnham is believed to have been chosen due to his international recognition as one of the leading promoters of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
According to its state historic registration nomination, the Starks Building had the first self-park parking garage in the city as early as 1953.
The building has changed ownership several times since its construction. It is now slated to be re-outfitted as Starks Artist Lofts, featuring roughly 264 loftstyle apartments opening in 2025.
Heyburn building named after globally recognized namesake
The Heyburn building was built in 1928 and commissioned by prominent local businessman William Heyburn, then-president of Belknap Hardware. The company was the largest single unit hardware plant in the world, according to its nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places.
According to its nomination form, the 17-story building was part of a slate of downtown commercial structures “that transformed the street from a fashionable residential district to a dominant commercial hub” in the early 20th century.
‘Hot Brown’ at the Brown Hotel
At the corner of Fourth and Broadway, the 16-story Brown Hotel was designed to be a landmark destination from its very beginning in 1923. Throughout its now 100-year legacy, the hotel’s past guest list is long and tinged with royalty.
The first person to sign its guest registry was a former British prime minister, and Queen Marie of Romania was entertained in the Crystal Ballroom in 1926.
The Brown Hotel has received national recognition for the creation of “The Hot Brown,” an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and topped with a Mornay sauce.
Since its 1926 debut, the dish has been featured in media outlets including the New York Times and the Los Angeles
The Starks building, right, at Fourth and Muhammad Ali.
Times as well as television shows such as “Man vs. Food” and “Throwdown! with Bobby Flay.”
Wright-Taylor Building’s terra cotta marvel
The Wright-Taylor Building, on Fourth Street near Chestnut, is considered a strange marvel for architecture fiends. The building’s use of colored terra cotta – a high-grade clay fired at high temperatures to achieve incredible strength and durability – in its TudorGothic style was a spectacle of its time and is now a rare example of this design-material combination.
The building was constructed in 1928 by Wright and Taylor Inc. According to its historic nomination form, the site originally housed a variety of small boutiques, including a dress shop and a games store.