The Cherokee Triangle is a historic neighborhood in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, USA, known for its large homes displaying an eclectic mix of architectural styles. Its boundaries are
Bardstown Road
Bardstown Road is a major road in Louisville, Kentucky. It is known as "Restaurant Row". It carries U.S. Route 31E and U.S. Route 150, from the intersection of Baxter Avenue (US 31E) and Broadway (US 150), southeast through ...
to the southwest,
Cherokee Park and
Eastern Parkway
Eastern Parkway is a major road that runs through a portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, it was the world's first parkway, having been built between 1870 and 1874. At the time o ...
to the southeast, and
Cave Hill Cemetery
Cave Hill Cemetery is a Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of buri ...
to the north, and is considered a part of a larger area of Louisville called
The Highlands. It is named for nearby Cherokee Park, a park designed by
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the USA. Olmsted was famous for co ...
, the designer of
New York's
Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
.
History
The land was part of a military land grant in 1774 to Southall and Charlton, and changed hands numerous times between then and 1863, when most of the land that is today's neighborhood was purchased by George Douglass. His home was located at the corner of Dearing Court (formerly Douglass Place) and Dudley Avenue, and is now included in the grounds of Cave Hill. In 1869, he sold to realtors James W. Henning and Josiah S. Speed for $135,000.
The largest portion of Cherokee Triangle was developed by Henning and Speed in the 1880s, as an early
streetcar suburb of Louisville. While the two were long-time developers, they had plans to establish residences for themselves there and develop the neighborhood as "the best possible environment of suburban living." They laid out the first subdivision, the Highland Addition, in 1870, containing just 150 lots, with an average size of 60 by 180 feet. The first house in the neighborhood, located at the corner of Transit Avenue (now Grinstead Drive) and New Broadway (now Cherokee Road), was completed in 1871 as a wedding present for Henning's daughter.
Henning and Speed sold lots briskly for an average of $1,200 each, between 1870 and 1873, but development virtually halted in Cherokee Triangle and everywhere else after an economic depression known as the
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the ...
. Development was slow until 1883, when the opening of Louisville's
Southern Exposition
The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of world's fairs held in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on immediately sout ...
, which had the greatest impact on
Old Louisville, stimulated the real estate market in the Highlands. Clayton Longest subdivided his property in 1884. But prices for lots were still relatively low.
After the opening of Cherokee Park in 1891, The area quickly became a popular site for affluent families to build homes, and the Baringer Farms subdivision, as well as the rest of the undeveloped land in the area, was soon developed.
Much of Cherokee Triangle was originally part of a city called Enterprise, which had incorporated in 1884 for tax reasons and to keep liquor sales out of the community. Enterprise even had a school, which is now
Bloom Elementary. The city was annexed by Louisville in 1896.
Many wealthy residents left for new suburbs after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, and as was typical of older affluent neighborhoods such as Old Louisville, large multi-story buildings were split up into inexpensive apartments. The Cherokee Triangle Association formed in 1962, and new rules and down-zoning slowed the trend. It was designated a preservation district in 1975, with suburban-style zoning restrictions, partially to prevent developments such as modern apartment complexes that were seen as out of place. Largely as a result of the preservation district status, the neighborhood has undergone a period of sustained gentrification and enjoyed the greatest appreciation in property values in the city over the past decade.
The Aquarius Apartments on Cherokee Road, the construction of which was a major factor in establishing the preservation district, was cited as an example of an "incompatible intrusion". As a sign of how the neighborhood has appreciated in recent years, the property was recently purchased by a developer who submitted a controversial plan to raze the apartments and build a 29-unit luxury condominium building on the site. Though his proposal was rejected by the local Architectural Review Committee due to its size, it is reflective of the increased attractiveness of the neighborhood.
The neighborhood is known for its annual art fair, which occurs over a weekend in late April, one week before the
Kentucky Derby. A local landmark was a statue of General
John Breckinridge Castleman, dedicated in 1913, and supposedly the only equestrian statue in the world for which the horse posed also. The statue was removed on June 8, 2020.
Demographics
As of 2000, the population of Cherokee Triangle was 4,290,
of which 94.1% are white, 2.2% are listed as other, 2% are Hispanic, and 1.7% are black. College graduates are 51.8% of the population, people w/o a high school degree are 5.9%. Females outnumber males 50.2% to 49.8%.
See also
*
Episcopal Church of the Advent (Louisville, Kentucky)
*
Old Louisville
*
West Main District, Louisville
The West Main District is one of the five districts of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The district, or a portion of it, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as West Main Street Historic District, due to its containment of some ...
*
References
* Anne S. Karen, ''The Cherokee Area: A History'' (Louisville 1971)
External links
Cherokee Triangle, Louisville, KentuckyStreet map of Cherokee TriangleImages of Cherokee Triangle (Louisville, Ky.) in the University of Louisville Libraries Digital Collections— Article by Wendy Conlin of ''
The Courier-Journal
''The Courier-Journal'',
also known as the
''Louisville Courier Journal''
(and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''),
is the highest circulation newspaper in Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett and billed as "Part of the ''USA Today'' Net ...
''
{{National Register of Historic Places
History of Louisville, Kentucky
Neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky
Local preservation districts in Louisville, Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Streetcar suburbs
Tourist attractions in Louisville, Kentucky
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
Populated places established in 1870
1870 establishments in Kentucky