Engine 7

Located at 821 South 6th Street, little more than a block south of Broadway, Engine 7 is the nation's oldest operating fire station. The station serves the Historic districts of Limerick and Old Louisville. Unfortunately, years of neglect have allowed the building to fall into disrepair and the station is now in danger of being closed. This building is an excellent example of a circa 1900 fire station; a "must see" for those interested in the history of fire service.

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Belle of Louisville

Something you can't do just anywhere is to ride an Historic Steam Boat, but you can in Louisville. The Bell of Louisville was built by James Rees & Sons Company of Pittsburgh for the West Memphis Packet Company in 1914. Her original name was the Idlewild.

For information on scheduled excursions, just click here.

For more information on the history of The Bell Of Louisville, click here.

If you would like more information on Riverboat history, you can visit the following sites:

Steamboat.org
&
The Howard Steamboat Museum

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Jefferson County Jail

Location: 514 West Liberty Street

Click on the photo for more photos, information and a map.

Cathedral of the Assumption

"The Cathedral" was designed by William Keeley and constructed between 1849 & 1852. It is the ecclesiastical seat the Louisville Archdiocese, the oldest inland Roman Catholic diocese in the United States. The church was built in the Gothic Revival or American Gothic style. The Italianate parish school was constructed in 1867 and the rectory (Italianate with Tudor elements) was constructed in 1912.

Restoration of the Cathedral was completed in 1994.

For additional information on this and other historic places in Louisville, see Joanne Weeter's book, Louisville Landmarks.

Click on the photo for more photos.

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Union Station
1000 West Broadway
Circa 1891

TARC, the Transit Authority of River City, is the current owner of Union Station. Their web site has a very good history of this building. Rather than duplicated their efforts, I refer you to their page on the history of the building. Click here.

Additional photographs of the building are available by clicking on the image to the left.

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The L&N Building
900 West Broadway
Circa 1907

Across Tenth Street from Union Station sits the L&N Building, built as the headquarters of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. An addition in 1930 finished out the entire block from Ninth Street To Tenth Street. At its completion, this eleven-story building housed over 2000 men and women, about a fifth of L&N’s total Louisville workforce. The building became a local landmark with the addition of a two-story tall neon sign on the east side of the building.

The building was sold to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1984 after the L&N Railroad merged with the Seaboard Railroad.

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