The parkway system of
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
, United States, also known as the Olmsted Park System, was designed by the firm of preeminent 19th century landscape architect
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
. The system was built from the early 1890s through the 1930s, and initially owned by a state-level parks commission, which passed control to the city of Louisville in 1942.
The system was intended to form a circuit around what was then the fringes of the city of Louisville. However, there is a disconnect of several blocks between Eastern and Southern Parkways, because of a planned parkway running from the terminus of Western (today's Northwestern) Parkway along the
Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
and around to Eastern Parkway was never built.
Today, the system falls under direct management of the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, and under broader supervision by Louisville's Metro Parks Department
Development
The system was first proposed in 1887 by businessman Andrew Cowan, an enthusiastic early supporter of
Louisville's park system. He proposed a series of parkways that would cross every turnpike near the city as the parkways connected the three proposed
parks at the eastern, western and southern fringes of the city. Although Cowan proposed a slow and deliberate development, Mayor
Charles Donald Jacob purchased what became
Iroquois Park a year later and quickly began acquiring through donations the land to build -wide "Grand Boulevard" (later renamed Southern Parkway) connecting that southern property to the city. Jacob claimed the boulevard would rival
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an Avenue (landscape), avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc ...
in Paris.
A parks commission was created in 1890, and soon hired Olmsted's firm to design the entire system. The firm delivered a report in September 1891 calling for three large parks and parkways connecting them.
The parkways were intended to carry light pleasure vehicles between the parks, with no access to heavier commercial vehicles. It was not until 1958 that the city opened up the parkways to all commercial and passenger traffic.
As the city expanded and the parkways became heavily traveled roads, they have been widened beyond their original two lanes, in many cases sacrificing the grass medians and tree-lined yards that were originally a part of them. Still, as of 2000, 75% of the original trees remained or had been replaced by new trees. There were 5,107 trees along the parkways according to a 1994 count.
Between 2008 and 2011, a major project was undertaken to restore many of the trees that had been damaged by storms, traffic, or age and disease. This has filled in many of the canopy gaps along the parkways, and was done as much as possible in accordance with the original Olmstedian plan. Today there are various proposals being debated to ease traffic issues and restore connectivity of the city's parks via these routes. One such plan involves bike lanes and center lanes for turning.
Parkways
Algonquin Parkway
Algonquin Parkway connects the Western parkways to Southern and Eastern Parkways via Third Street, cutting east-to-west across the city. The last of the parkways to be finished,
Algonquin was partially completed in 1928 by the Carey-Reed Company of Lexington at an initial cost of $120,000 with a width of just at the time, although space was reserved for widening once the area became more developed. When it opened it ran from Winkler Avenue to the Kentucky State Fairgrounds. The widening was finished in the late 1930s by workers for the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
.
Algonquin has been cited as the "most extreme" example of a parkway that has deviated from the original plan, due to a junkyard that is located alongside it.
Eastern Parkway
Eastern Parkway begins at an intersection with Third Street in the Belknap (main) campus of the
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...
. This portion ends a few blocks from Southern Parkway, and is a key gap between the parkways that has never been filled in. The portion through the University of Louisville campus was initially just two lanes, creating a major traffic bottleneck. This portion was replaced with a viaduct which passes over the campus, completed in October 1954 at a cost of $850,000. The viaduct was opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by mayor Broaddus, who then got into his car to become the first to drive over it. However, two vehicles competing to be the second collided, creating a wreck within seconds of the road's opening. Today, the parkway has one vehicular lane in each direction, plus painted bicycle gutters, through campus, widening to four lanes immediately east of the viaduct.
East of the university, there is an interchange with
Interstate 65, and past that the parkway takes on a more residential feel for the rest of the route, with houses and apartment buildings on either side, except for near major intersections. The parkway passes over a concrete channel
Beargrass Creek on an overpass built in 1961.
From Barrett to Baxter Avenue, the parkway is divided by a grassy median with mature trees. The final stretch of the parkway, past Bardstown Road, is the only two-lane portion outside of the U of L campus, although it is very wide, to allow for on-street parking. Eastern Parkway ends in a roundabout at the entrance to
Cherokee Park, at the center of which is a 1906 statue of
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (, 1734September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyo ...
made by
Enid Yandell. Eastern Parkway is signed as
US 60
U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia.
The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...
from Third Street to Willow Avenue, nearly the entire length of the parkway.
The right-of-way for Eastern Parkway is wide, and initial development of it was completed in late 1913. A long portion of the route was donated by
John Breckinridge Castleman, accounting for the sharp jog at the Baxter Avenue intersection.
Parkway Field took its name from and was located beside Eastern Parkway from 1926 until 2002.
The entire length of Eastern Parkway is signed as Alternate
US 60
U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia.
The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as General Booth Bouleva ...
, as US 60 followed the Parkway through the city before a bypass,
I-264, was created. Eastern Parkway has an interchange with
Interstate 65.

Although Eastern Parkway was intended as a recreational road, it is the only direct connector between the populous
Highlands and
Germantown sections of Louisville and mid-city destinations like the University of Louisville's main campus. As such, it has had problems associated with a road carrying much more traffic than it was designed for since at least the 1950s, when the intersection with Third Street consistently led the state of Kentucky in number of crashes per year at a single intersection. Various proposals have been made to improve safety on the road, including reducing it to three vehicle lanes and two bike lanes. Narrowing proposals were last made in 2006, although the plan was rejected since the traffic volume at the time, 21,000 vehicles per day, was too much for three lanes.
Northwestern/Southwestern Parkway
Northwestern and Southwestern Parkways were initially called just Western Parkway. A large amount of the right-of-way was donated by Democratic Party boss
John Henry Whallen, who made his residence near what is now Chickasaw Park.
Southern Parkway
First called Grand Boulevard, Southern Parkway runs from near
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States that hosts the annual Kentucky Derby. It opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was prominent in Kentucky for many years. The first ...
to the entrance to
Iroquois Park. It begins at third street, near the Eastern Parkway intersection, and the two parkways can easily be combined to connect Iroquois to
Cherokee Park.
It was renamed Southern Parkway on June 6, 1893, and opened to the public eight days later.
References
{{reflist
Transportation in Louisville, Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Works Progress Administration in Kentucky
Frederick Law Olmsted works
Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
1891 establishments in Kentucky
Greenways
Parks in Louisville, Kentucky