I am incontrovertibly incapable of research without distractions. If I am searching through historic newspapers on a specific hunt, I never fail to scan the whole page, eyes roving for any interesting tidbit. This is, of course, not without its drawbacks, but since I am also a compulsive list maker, I just add these new notes or rabbit holes to an on-going list (do I often lose my lists? Why yes! Which is why I tape many of them to the walls in my office. I’m just here to make you feel better about your organizational skills and powers of concentration..) and then attempt to steer myself back to the task at hand. But this notice of an auction from an 1884 edition of the Courier-Journal was just too enticing to squirrel away for later.
Wouldn’t you also wonder if this cottage still stands?
The auction notes describes the property as “a good Brick Cottage of three rooms, kitchen and attic, cistern, cellar and large stable, etc. Lot 50×148 feet to an alley.” (So is that three rooms PLUS the kitchen and attic?) Frustratingly, the only direction it provides to the cottage’s location is “on the north side of Market Street, between Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth.”
A section of the 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance map showing the block in question.
West Louisville has been hard hit since the late 20th century, and blocks of buildings have been razed. In 1892, only a few years after the cottage was auctioned off, this block of West Market Street was densely built out, with frame and brick shotgun houses, and more substantial two-story brick stores on the corners. After the Civil War, development in this part of Louisville accelerated. Streetcars pulled by mules allowed people to move into this new suburban area, so you could live further away from where you worked, and not have to walk (although I can’t vouch for the comfort of those early conveyances). By the early 20th century, this neighborhood was home to a well-established, middle class African American population.
This is one of the extant corner buildings, which would have had a store/business on the ground floor and living space above. Circa 2024 image from Google Streetview.
My mystery brick cottage would be, it seems near either end of the street. Sadly, this area falls outside of any listed National Register of Historic Places district (the Russell Historic District is half a block to the south/two blocks to the east) and (brace yourself for my usual refrain here) there are no survey form for any of the buildings in the block.
While I may lack some important archival sources and the western end of the block has been decimated, there are three possibilities still standing.
Two brick shotguns (one later appended with a camelback) were located near the east end of the block in this January 2016 image from Google streetview. The brick house closest to the nice Italianate style store/residence on the corner is now gone.
These two brick shotguns are from the right time period.
Given the outbuildings cited in the auction notice, the cottage was likely located toward the western end of the block and could be one of the two houses pictured above (both late 19th century dwellings, with later, altered porches – among other changes).
The former home of the “Louisville Ry Co Car Ho.” Image courtesy Google Streetview.
While the residential nature of the block has been negatively impacted by population shifts, Urban Renewal, and demolition by neglect, the south side of the street retains an important late 19th building that was once the home of the Louisville Railway Company.
Louisville Railway Company barn, circa 1928. Item Number ULPA CS_092531 in the Caufield & Shook Collection, University of Louisville Photographic Archives.https://digital.library.louisville.edu/concern/images/ulpa_cs_092531?locale=en
Circa 1947 image of the brick building that was then home to Falls City Sales Company (road machinery and equipment). Item no. ULPA R_09780 in the Royal Photo Company Collection, University of Louisville, https://digital.library.louisville.edu/concern/images/ulpa_r_09780?locale=enPhotographic Archives
The Louisville Railway Co building as shown on the 1892 Sanborn map.
I imagine the Railway Company employed many residents in the neighborhood, and if I searched through city directories, I could piece together the lives of those people who once lived on this diminished section of Market Street. But my lunch break is over (who needs to eat when the mind is so pleasantly occupied), and I must curb my curiosity. Did I find the good brick cottage? I don’t know if my mission was successful or not – but I did find some cool historic buildings, and this block is now going down…on one of my lists.
