The Commodore Apartment Building, also called Commodore Apartments, is a luxury
condominium complex located 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 ...
's
Bonnycastle neighborhood. The building is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.
History
The 11-story
high rise
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...
Commodore Apartment Building was opened in 1929 and designed by the architectural firm of Joseph & Joseph in 1928. The architects designed four other buildings in the Louisville area including the Republic Building (1916) and the Elsby (1918) in
New Albany, Indiana. The building is located near
Cherokee Park.
The building is built on land that was once owned by Isaac Everett, one of the founders of the
Galt House
The Galt House Hotel is a 25-story, 1,300-room hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, established in 1972. It is named for a nearby historic hotel erected in 1835 and demolished in 1921. The Galt House is the city's only hotel on the Ohio River.
Origi ...
.
[Places in Time - Bonnycastle](_blank)
By Marcella Johnson ''Courier Journal
The ''Courier Journal'',
also known as the
''Louisville Courier Journal''
(and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017,
is the highest circulation newspape ...
'' Everett purchased about of land for $25,000 dollars (
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
). The land then was used to build himself a mansion. The estate passed down to his daughter Harriet, who later married and became Harriet Bonnycastle. After her husband's death, she donated land to Louisville to build
Cherokee Park to spur future developments in 1891.
Harriet would sell parcels of land for over the next twenty years and eventually in the late 1920s the Commodore Apartments went up.
After surviving the Great Depression, and continuing as a luxury apartment building, it was sold for $650,000 and restored for another $125,000 in 1978 by Louisville native, actor and entrepreneur Roger Davis. Davis sold the Commodore in 1980 for $1,000,000 to Jack MacDonald of Acre Realty,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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[ '']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 ...
'' April 4, 1981 page B10 which converted the Commodore from an apartment building to a condominium complex of 59 units.
The building's passenger
elevators
An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...
are among the few remaining that require an
Elevator Operator
An elevator operator (North American English), liftman (in Commonwealth English, usually lift attendant), or lift girl (in British English), is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator.
Description
Being an effec ...
. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 1982.
Gallery
Image:1928Exterior.jpg, Opening Day, 1928. The Commodore Apartments.
Image:CCEntryDoor.jpg, Architectural detail of entryway.
Image:Lobby1.jpg, Main Lobby with fireplace.
Image: Lobby6.jpg, Left receiving area with historic tapestry "cartoon" and antiques.
Image:Lobby2.jpg, Looking toward the inner lobby.
Image:Lobby4.jpg, Looking toward the elevator.
Image:Lobby3.jpg, Antique hutch.
Image:Lobby5.jpg, Looking toward office archway.
Image:Rookwood.jpg, Rookwood Architectural Faience Garden Jar.
Image:RPmark.jpg, Rookwood markings.
See also
*
References
External links
{{National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
Residential buildings completed in 1929
Apartment buildings in Louisville, Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
1929 establishments in Kentucky