Underneath the nice, smooth skin of our rapidly growing modern city is the bones of a city we have forgotten. Like a ghost with no house to haunt, all around us these shells from a bygone era are being re-purposed into restaurants and distilleries, slowly erasing our city’s history one micro-brewery, vintage clothing store and bourbon bar at time. Here is a list of just a few of the Louisville landmarks we’re sad to see have disappeared over the decades:
Fontaine Ferry Park – Kentucky Kingdom is not the first amusement park in The River City… that designation goes to Fontaine Ferry. It opened its doors in 1905 and closed in 1969. The park was located partially on the Aaron Fontaine estate in West Louisville, ferry landing – hence giving the park its iconic name. It re-opened in the 70’s as Ghost Town on the River and finally River Glen Park before the city bought the land in 1981. Presently the Fontaine Estates neighborhood and Shawnee Park Sports Complex reside on the property where countless generations of Louisvillians spent countless summer afternoons with friends and a ferris wheel.
Minor league sports – The story of minor league sports doesn’t begin with The Bats and end with Louisville City FC. Our town has been home to several minor league, professional sports teams over the years ranging from basketball, football, and hockey; teams like Louisville Panthers (hockey), Louisville Icehawks (hockey), Louisville River Frogs (hockey), Louisville Red Birds (baseball), Kentucky Colnels (basketball), Louisville Shooters (basketball), Louisville Fire (Arena Football) and Louisville Lightning (Indoor Soccer) are only a few of the teams in our storied athletic history to play in the River City.
Louisville Falls Fountain – Only old school Louisvillians know what I mean when I refer to “The Fountain” – the turquois monstrosity that floated in the river, about half-way between the Kentucky and Indiana shorelines. In the summer months it was on and lit up at night – the spray itself was supposed to make a (sort of) Fleur-de-lis but ultimately just looked like a geyser in the middle of the river. Eventually they thought the turquois base was tacky so the painted it a lovely shade of gray camouflage…so it looked like some kind of giant, steel, misshapen rock in the middle of the water. It spewed forth is first gallons of water in 1988, and after a decade of maintenance issues and malfunctions, was sold off for scrap in 1998.
Movie Houses – The movie industry is suffering these days, partly because everything can be streamed almost immediately upon its release. But it’s hard to imagine that paying twenty bucks for a XD/3D ticket to “Jurassic World, then getting gouged on ten more bucks for popcorn and another five for a coke on your way to see “Jurassic World,” being systematically herded like cattle with 400 strangers into the techni-color germ factory we call the modern multiplex. I can understand why movies aren’t America’s first priority anymore. But it wasn’t always this way in Louisville. We used to have big beautiful ornate movie houses with grandiose names like The Savoy (211 W. Jefferson St.), The Rialto (616 S. 4th St.), The Mary Anderson (612 S. 4th St.), The Majestic (618 S. 4th St.), The Globe (2010 Portland Ave), The Cozy (3150 S. 3rd St.), The Dreamland (444 Market St.) and The Capitol (2129 S. Preston St.). These were places where you would get dressed-up, pay a quarter and then go get lost in a world where Humphrey Bogart navigated the African Queen down the Amazon; or Marilyn Monroe seduced average working stiffs by letting her dress get blown up by an air vent; or James Dean was still the coolest rebel without a cause the world had ever known. It was a world where John Wayne was still John Wayne. It truly is hard not to miss those big beautiful theaters, temples built to the gods of cinema, and not long for an era that slipped away when we weren’t paying attention.
Honorable Mention: Drive-ins. If you didn’t wanna get dressed up or run in to your parents and their friends – you would pack a car with friends and try to sneak a few extra people in the trunk and head to a drive-in theater. They were setup all over town called things like: Kenwood (7001 Southside Dr.), Dixie (4915 Dixie Hwy), East Drive-in (Shelbyville Rd.), Parkway (2705 Millers Ln.), Twilite (4015 Crittenden Dr.), Skyway (3609 Bardstown Rd.) and the Southpark (9205 National Tpke).
Mazzoni’s – They invented the Rolled Oyster and made it a Louisville staple on menus all over town for generations to come. The dish was originally invented in their downtown saloon located at 3rd and Market and once prohibition hit the saloon, it was the oysters that kept the Mazzoni family's doors open. In over a century in business, the restaurant moved four times and was passed down through five generations of family before dying a slow death at its final location in Middletown.
The Galleria – We may only miss this shopping center in the heart of downtown (on 4th Street between Muhammad Ali Blvd. and Liberty Street) because, in 20/20 hindsight, we know of the giant safety patrol orange tourist haven wrapped in a mile of neon light that has taken its place, in 4th Street Live. It was at one time a bustling economic center for a flourishing downtown Louisville culture. Originally opened in 1973 as River City Mall (the project was initially hatched in 1941, but wasn’t able to secure funding for over three decades). It received a facelift in the early 1980’s and was rechristened The Galleria, where it lasted for another twenty years or so before closing and yielding it’s plethora of real estate (right in the middle of 4th Street) to Cordish Company who built the massive eyesore we see today.
Kaelins – How could I leave out the restaurant that claims to have been the first one to add cheese to a burger? The restaurant located 1801 Newburg Rd., their 1934 invention has kept millions of fast food restaurants open and even more college kids fed for the last 80 years. Sadly, the restaurant closed in 2009 after three-quarters of a century in business.
Dark Star – OK…I know it’s still open…but is it really? How did Dark Star, our favorite weird little hippy bar (named after a Grateful Dead song), end up closing down, only to re-open in the East End, in Prospect. This time we’re supposed to take this place seriously, posing as a classy family establishment that caters to soccer moms and serve fried chicken? Now I know what Don Henley meant when he sang: “I saw a Deadhead Sticker on a Cadillac.” We all miss the old beer stained pool tables, bathrooms with doors that had no latches and a floor so tacky almost everyone I know left a shoe stuck to the Dark Star carpet at some point.
