Post Card Greetings from Old Louisville

"St James Court,
Louisville, Ky."
Post card mailed in 1908

When we think of the entrance to St. James Court today, we think of the entrance off Magnolia across from Central Park. Not so around 1900, when the entrance was at Fourth and Magnolia.  

This picture shows the well known lions that once guarded the entrance to the court on their handsome bases, all, alas, now gone.

This picture also shows an entrance to Central Park on the right.  Olmstead's original design for the park made it an enclosed oasis inside the city because of the shrubbery that separated the park from the noisy street.  The perimeter plantings were removed in the 1970s in order to make the park safer. Unfortunately, this also destroyed the idyllic tranquility within.

St. James Court was built in the late 1890s on the site of the 1883-1887 Southern Exposition.  Today it hosts the region's premier open air art show every fall.  In the picture above, we are looking west onto Magnolia from Fourth Street.  On the left is St. Paul's Episcopal Church (now West End Baptist).   Mid-way down Magnolia on the left is the present entrance to St. James Court.

Enlargement (89 sec @ 56kbps)

 

Vintage Postcard Views of Louisville

Old Louisville 
     Second Street  
     Third Avenue  
     Fourth Avenue  
     St James Court  
     Central Park  
     The Confederate Monument  
     Churches
     Hotels  
     Schools  
     The 1937 Flood  

Louisville (the rest of the city)
     Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby  
     The Old Court House  
     City Hall
     East to West along Broadway 
     The Seelbach Hotel  
     Railroad Stations   
      Churches 
     
     Without extended descriptions:
      
     Fourth Street   
     The Armory  
     Hotels         
     The Old Post Office and Customs House    
     City Parks   
     Cemeteries   
     Miscellaneous  

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