Columbia Building (Louisville, Kentucky)
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The Columbia Building, originally named the Commerce Building, was
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 ...
's second
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
, designed by Cornelius Curtin and completed in 1890 at a cost of $1 million. It was located at the northwest corner of Fourth and Main streets and built of pressed red brick in the
Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
style. It was built just five years after the world's first skyscraper, the
Home Insurance Building The Home Insurance Building was a skyscraper that stood in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Originally ten stories and tall, it was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1884 and completed the next year. Two floors were added in 1891, bringing its ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. It had 10 stories and a height of 162 feet. The Columbia was first called the Commercial Club Building, and was the tallest building in Louisville for over a decade. It was demolished in 1966 as a part of a downtown redevelopment plan, and a 24-story highrise, now called the BB&T Building, was built on the site in 1972.


See also

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History of Louisville, Kentucky The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids halfway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. Louisvi ...
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March 1890 middle Mississippi Valley tornado outbreak On Thursday, March 27, 1890, a major tornado outbreak struck the Middle Mississippi Valley. To this day, this outbreak is still one of the most deadly tornado events in United States history. At least 24 significant tornadoes, several o ...
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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 ...


References

1966 disestablishments in Kentucky Demolished buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky Commercial buildings completed in 1890 Buildings and structures demolished in 1966 Skyscraper office buildings in Louisville, Kentucky Former skyscrapers 1890 establishments in Kentucky Romanesque Revival architecture in Kentucky {{Louisville-struct-stub