Fourth Street, 1920

Fourth Street was Louisville's commercial center for decades.  During the 1970s, it was transformed into a pedestrian mall.   Trouble was, by the time the River City Mall was completed, most of the stores were in trouble, and soon out of business.  Years of construction and mud and reconstruction and more mud, drove most of the last remaining downtown shoppers and stores out of the city center.  With them went the major hotels and the theaters, leaving an avenue of little more than wig shops by the early 1980s. Slowly, over the past decade or so, efforts at revival have met with some success.  The Seelbach and Brown Hotels are open again, as well as the Palace Theater.  Fourth Street is again open for limited traffic and trolley service, an enclosed Galleria provides some degree of downtown shopping, a new convention center is under construction and a few restaurants can again be found on the street.  The city continues to try to find more ways to breathe life into what was once the vibrant heart of the city.