On the first weekend of October, Louisville residents in search of a good time had the choice of several 
popular fairs to visit, including the the St. James Fair in Old Louisville.
Since 1957, when the neighborhood was in shambles, the fair has attracted visitors to a humble celebration of the neighborhood, where art was displayed on clotheslines that ran for tree to tree. Now the fair has been considered the best art show in the nation by Sunshine Magazine in recent years and draws 750 artists and 300,000 people. Over the years, proceeds from the fair have aided neighborhood restoration.
For the past 13 years, a competing event, the Unfair, has been held in the parking lot of the Magnolia Bar. The artists are local and more avant guard. About 20 "starving artists" who cannot or do not want to pay the steep $450 entrance fee at the St. James Fair offer affordable art to a loyal, but smaller crowd. Prior to last year when the city imposed $85 fees on artists who wish to exhibit, artists sold their wares in the bar parking lot or outside the St. James fair.
This drama comes to life every October and is an interesting commentary on the dynamics of modern Louisville. As Louisville become more upscale with developments like NuLu and gentrification projects around the city, the reality is that Louisville has working class roots. A strong contingent of locals who love their neighborhoods also love the fact that the area is being restored, but are often less than thrilled that development may leave them behind. Developers and merchants aim to bring new money into the neighborhood, and pitch to outsiders not locals.
Old Louisville, the scene of the dueling fairs, was once an area for the wealthy, but deteriorated badly over the years. Stately brick Victorian buildings with elegant stained glass windows fell into disrepair. Homes were subdivided into apartments. The area, though near the University of Louisville, was a haven for drugs and crimes. In 1960, activists spearheaded by Courier-Journal writer J. Douglass Nunn started Restoration, Inc. which restored 10 home in St. James Court. The effort spread. Ultimately, by 1975, the area was named a historic preservation district. Each passing decade has bought new developments to restore the unique architecture of the neighborhoods, though large sections still need renovation.
Currently, the population of the neighborhood is a diverse mix of students, young professionals, and hipsters who come to soak up the neighborhood culture. Property values are up, crime is down, and exciting new restaurants and shops draw in traffic to an area once again known for its beautiful architecture the "largest collection of pedestrian-only streets of any U.S. neighborhood."
There is hint of protest to all this represented by the Unfair. However, the future of Old Louisville lies in the wave of development still in full force. At the same time, there is always room for an alternative voice. As is true in Butchertown and other parts of Louisville, different views will continue to coexist and make their mark on neighborhood history.
At the moment, there are some amazing housing values in Old Louisville. Make sure to ask Mollie of Younger Group Real Estate how you can be part to the emerging history of an up and coming neighborhood. We know Louisville!!
Since 1985, Genny's Diner on Frankfort Ave. in Clifton has paid to tribute to a Louisville invention - the cheeseburger. Diner owner Frank Faris magnified the fried meat and cheese delight into the Big Daddy platter featuring 10 ounces of meat with cheese on a bun served with steak fries. (Bigger sizes available!) If you started out with Frickled (i.e., fried) pickles and ended with peanut butter pie, you could experience the offerings noted by Southern Living Magazine and numerous local reviewers as some of the best down home eating in Louisville. The burgers, pickles, and pies are only a small fraction of the extensive menu of soups, sandwiches, entries, and desserts. Now, after a long and heated battle with the city and local residents, Genny's is closing its doors to make way for a Comfy Cow ice cream store, as cow trumps cow in Clifton/Crescent Hill.
Sweet Daddy - Watch more Funny Videos
Genny's began as an eight seat establishment but grew to over 175 seats. In 2001, Faris bought a 100 year old Queen Anne house next door to raze as a parking lot. Before he got around to doing it, Clifton was named a local preservation district in 2003 and Faris was unable to gain the permission of the Metro Landmark's Commission to tear it down and carry out his plan. When he bought it, the house didn't look too bad, but fixing up the house would have cost Faris about $300,000.
Over the years, Faris let the house fall into disrepair, perhaps in an effort to gain permission to demolish it. He amassed many code violations. In response to court orders, he tried to give the house away as well as sell it. None of the neighborhood advocates of the restoration stepped up to buy or take the property, until the Comfy Cow stepped in.
The Comfy Cow, which currently has a store in St. Matthew/Graymoor/Devondale, saw the Frankfurt Corridor as an ideal future location. According to co-owner Tom Koons-McGee, he and his partner Roy Koons-McGee had not envisioned a location on Frankfurt available so soon, but they were able to get the place for fair price from Faris, along with many perks thrown in by the city. They plan to renovate the diner as a retail location and refurbish the house for retail and office space. The project, estimated to cost several hundred thousand dollars, will be financed with a Small Business Administration Loan, a forgivable loan from the Metro Development Authority. They city will work with the courts to waive the $70,000 in maintenance fees. In addition, the Metro Development Authority will provide $150,000 for an environmental assessment of the property. (For the full story about the battle over the Frankfurt St. house and the purchase by the Comfy Cow, click to see this WHAS 11 News video.)
The ice cream store, opened in 2009, has quickly developed a reputation for its made-on-the premises creative flavors which change daily. Voted the Best Ice Cream Shop in LEO's 2010 Readers' Choice Awards, flavors are introduced on a trial basis and if the public likes them they remain part of the rotation. The ice cream, made on batches of only four gallons at a time, is also served at other Louisville locations, but the St. Matthews shop on Herr Avenue, with its clever logo, ice-cream-scoop-lights, and refurbished soda fountain, is a popular family destination. Expected to open on Valentine's Day in 2011, the store is expected to be popular at its new location on Frankfort as well, both because of its delicious ice cream and because it stepped up to refurnish a neighborhood eyesore.
There is a certain irony in that one cow-related comfort food is taking over for another. But does this change-of-hands of the Frankfurt Ave. building mean the end of the Frank Faris and his Big Daddy burgers for Louisville, birthplace of the cheeseburger? Absolutely not. Though Genny's will close on October 16, Faris is looking at potential sites for a 200-seat restaurant with plenty of parking, possibly along the Bardstown Road and Dixie Highway corridors and Southern Indiana. Cow may trump cow on Frankfort Ave. but the greater Louisville area will emerge a winner once be both endeavors are up and running.
For good eating and affordable housing, Louisville is a winner. Contact Mollie Younger of Younger Group Real Estate for interesting, affordable Louisville properties! We know Louisville!!
If you're sitting on your porch in Louisville, you may be enjoying today's 70° weather, but fall is coming, then the winter. If you would like to sell your home and move to a new one, you may lament that the time to do it for this year may have passed. After all, real estate season traditionally winds down when kids go back to school, right? Wrong. Homes can actually sell in any season.
Traditionally, there may be more people looking in the spring and summer, but there is always traffic from people who are transferred into a great city like Louisville and from other serious buyers who want to make a change. This year, with mortgage rates as low as 3.8% on 15 year loans for people with good credit and housing prices low, the stage is set for heavier traffic than usual.
Often, once school starts, you may be reluctant to move since a new home or new neighborhood will disrupt the school year for your kids. Ironically, children not only adjust to new circumstances (often more easily than adults), but may actually receive more help in from teachers when they enter the class midyear.
As the fall moves toward winter and the holiday, you may decide to postpone moving so as not to disrupt your holiday routine. While overwhelming decorations might turn off buyers, low key decorations actually give your home a welcoming atmosphere. Motivated buyers may actually plan their house hunting around times of the year when they have extra days off or lighter days at work.
In reality, having your home priced right is one thing that will help it sell no matter what season or time of year it is. When your real estate agent offers you direction on how to price, listen up. The pricing advice will be based on comparable values in the neighborhood and on the condition of your home,. Area statistics are showing that homes are selling for about 93% of their asking price in the part of St. Matthews near Clifton and Crescent Hill, vs. 96% in the part near Anchorage and Douglas Hills. If you base your pricing expectations on what you see on line for the whole area of St. Matthews, you may be surprised. Keep this in mind - youu may not get the same price you would have a couple years ago, but when you go to buy, you will find much more house for the same price.
The other important factor is demand in the neighborhood. Currently, nationwide, homes in higher price brackets are staying on the market longer than lower prices homes, but than many other factors come into place. In sections of Downtown and Old Louisville, home prices have an average price of $90,650 and a median price of only $45,375, but homes on are the market an average of 144 days. In the Butchertown/ Highland/ Germantown area, prices average $179,727, have a median price of $161,261, and sell within 55 days. The numbers do not mean that you should hold off making a move, but you should chat with your agent for a deeper understanding of what the statistics mean.
If you want to sell your home now, don't hesitate. A perfect buyer could be waiting for you. Homes can sell in any season, and this could be your time.
For some insight into how your home might sell, call Younger Group Real Estate! We know Louisville!! Our team will be there every step of the way.
This week might as well be called "idea week" in Louisville, as the week will be consumed with IdeaFestival 2010 and an event exalting NuLu, one of the best ideas in modern Louisville. The Nulu Festival, called by some the "after party to IdeaFestival," celebrates the development of NuLu and the city's commitment to redefine itself as the essence of the Possibility City. Louisville, known for its bourbon and its famous Derby, strives to be known for its innovation and its commitment to green living. It will be innovation on display in Louisville's East Market District.
NuLu, situated along Market Street lies between downtown to the west and the Highlands neighborhoods to the east, and flows into Butchertown and Phoenix Hill. Once an area for businesses that served the meat processing industry, NuLu has been the scene of green renovation of old buildings - notably the Green Building at 732 E. Market. The area is now the center of the arts scene, as many galleries and antique shops are located in the neighborhood. Trendy restaurants, which often offer house-cured meats and locally-grown pruduce, beckon patrons shopping in the area as well those who come just for the food. Once a dilapidated reminder of an important part of Louisville's past, NuLu is a shining example of the city's present and future.
This week's IdeaFestival brings together global thought leader in diverse fields such as science, medicine, the arts, 
business, design, technology, and education to explore imagination, innovation, and ideas to transform the world. Participants will connect and interact with each other but also expand the horizons of attendees. As noted in festival publicity, "the IdeaFestival is all about the bottom line," as new ideas not only result in new products in the field, but require new ways to bring them to market. The festival, held at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts from September 29 - October 2nd, offers some free events, but a pass or ticket is required for most events. Full details, including the complete program and pass pricing, are available at www.ideafestival.com.
On October 1st and 2nd, NuLu will explode with music and fun as the second annual NuLu Festival kicks into gear. Less cerebral than IdeaFestival, the NuLu Festival is a free celebration of the revitalization of the East Market District. IdeaFestival-goers are encourages to attend this festival as an after party to their own event, and see innovation in Louisville in action. Centered in the 700 block of E. Market St., the festival will offer family entertainment, great food and local microbrewery-produced beers, and an opportunity to explore local stores. Live bands will include Love Jones, Lucky Pineapple, The Fervor, The Instruction and The Pass.
Local eateries will offer a taste of new Louisville for those who want to eat on the run as they explore the festival or who want to experience the joys of sit-down dining. Both Taste on Market and 732 Social will open their doors with a special menu; Cake Flour will offer gourmet waffles and hot dogs while Crushed Ice will tempt attendees with its famous lamb kebobs. The Louisville Beer Store will divert festival goers to its own Oktoberfest to promote local craft beers. Kids in attendance can visit the Kids' Corner for face painting, appearances by local mascots, The Bubble Truck, and water activities by the Louisville Water Company, in addition to enjoying the regular festival fun.
Needless to say, the Festival aims to heighten awareness of what's on Market Street. Though NuLu encompasses more than this one street, the galleries, specialty stores, antique stores, boutiques, and restaurants on this street are on the main drag and merit a return visit. For a guide to experience East Market Street block by block, checkout this handy NuLu Guide.
Come to the East Market District for Innovation on display! To buy a home in NuLu, Butchertown, Phoenix Hill. or any other Louisville neighborhood, call Younger Group Real Estate! We know Louisville!! Our team will be there every step of the way. Coming soon to our website - a special first time homebuyer's page!
Phoenix Hill lies east of downtown Louisville and a bit southwest of Butchertown. Framed by I-65 to the west, E. Main St. to the north, Baxter Ave. to the east, and E. Broadway to the south, Phoenix Hill is well known for its diversity. Now the neighborhood is an important part of the NuLu development in the East Market District west of downtown and east of The Highlands. It is considered part of East Market Street art gallery district and is home to many artists who have set up shop. Like Butchertown, Phoenix Hills is the also site of exciting new housing and business developments, but one of the most exciting trends in the neighborhood is the Creativity Rising Public Art Project.
Funded by a $5,000 Kentucky Arts Council “Arts Build Communities” grant, Councilman David Tandy’s office, and private donors, Creativity Rising is managed by the Phoenix Hill Neighborhood Association, Curator Aron Conaway, and the Center for Neighborhoods. The project has commissioned 12 local artists to create works throughout the neighborhood which commemorate the neighborhood’s rich history and often installed at buildings central to the community. The goal is to bring art to the people in the process.
Originally, the works were planned to be placed on public propriety but regulations got in the way, so most exhibits are located on private property.
Whether you like or hate the individual works, the exhibits are pure Louisville.
Exhibit 1 – 1017 E. Broadway, Skull Alley – Breaking Away – Artist: Andy Cook
This functional biker rack sculpture features a 3-dimensional phoenix with a tail that looks like a skull breaking away from a 2-dimensional squares. This combination of art with a useful rack is an interesting commentary on development in Phoenix Hill and Louisville, which have become known for its support of biking.
Exhibit 2 - 500 Block of S. Clay - Home, Sweet Home – Artist: Denise Furnish
Home, Sweet Home, often needlepointed on samplers, has been recreated in polypropylene webbing and sewn into a chain link fence near the UofL Medical Center, which has a large and growing campus in the area. The project is envisioned as gift to the neighborhood – the residents of Phoenix Place apartments and the homeless visitors of St. John’s Center.
Exhibit 3 – Alliance Machine Tool, 524 Baxter Ave. –6 Day Bike Races - Artist– Sean Garrison
Six Day Bicycle Races at Phoenix Hill Brewery is a painting that honors a popular sport in the late 19th century and a popular attraction in the Old East End. The brewery was closed during Prohibiiton and torn down 1938. During its heyday, a park next door was a social center and site of a bowling alley, dance floor, and bar where Bohemian and lager Phoenix beer was served. Patrons could sit outside and see downtown Louisville.
Exhibit 4 – New Directions Housing Corp. 100 E. Liberty St. – Msyitc Truths –Artist Russel Hulsey
Msyitc Truhts is a sign that explores language and poetry through unconventional spelling of the line "The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths."
Exhibit 5 – The Green Building, 732 E. Market St. – Serenity Seat Shrine #1 – Gwen Kelly
Considered a “games-of-life” piece, the sculpture invites passers by to sit down and reflect on themselves.
Exhibit 6 –400 Block of S. Wenzel St, at the Cain Center Parking Lot. – Gold Throne– Thaniel Ion Lee
The artist considers the work, a golden wheeled chair, a monument to his travels in the city.
Exhibit 7 – Kicking Rocks – Liberty Green Community Center, 500 E. Jefferson St. T- Artist: Thea Lura
Representing the resident s of Phoenix Hill enumerated in the 2000 Census, over 4,000 gold-painted pebbles in a glass ajar are displayed at a central gathering spot at Liberty Hill, a mixed-income residential compluex..
Exhibit 8 – The Lounge, 947 E. Madison St. – They’ve Got Stars on Thars –Artist: Lisa Simon
Emulating the iron brick ties that shore up unstability in brick walls of buildings built in the early 20th century, colorful ceramic stars grace The Lounge on E. Madison.
Exhibit 9 – Various locations - Phoenix Hill – Portraits of a Neighborhood –Artist: Skylar Smith
Locations throughout the neighborhoods are marked with signs prompting you to dial a number to hear a recording of neighborhood history recounted by residents.
Exhibit 10 – 834 E. Chestnut (tree) – 37 Tree Rescue –Artist: Rodd Smith
A raft installed on a tree on E. Chestnut St. commemorates the water level of the flood of 1837.
Exhibit 11 – Beacon – Signarma, NE Corner of Market and Campbell St – Artis: Brook White
A huge chandelier celebrates the importance of art glass in the area, while representing the water of the Ohio River and fiery passion of Phoenix Hill.
Exhibit 12 – Fresh Grasp – Phoenix Hill Townhouses, SE corner of Campbell and Marshal – Artist::Mary Yates
A pieces of social commentary about the “food desert” where healthy produce often does not make it low income communities, Fresh Grasp has images of fruit surrounding a tree to underscore the need to “branch out” in how food is distributed. It promotes the need for the community to bring affordable, healthy food to low income communities.
For a good look at an important piece of Louisville history and the future of the NuLu district, visit Phoenix Hill.
| AREA | SALES | TOTAL $ | AVG PRICE | MEDIAN | % OF LIST | AVG DOM | HOMES FOR SALE |
| 00 (Central Downtown District/Old Louisville/Butchertown) | 11 | $1,259,851 | $114,532 | $65,500 | 91.15% | 82 | 106 |
| 01 (Dtown/Old Lou./Shively/West Lou/Butchertwn) | 56 | $2,446,687 | $43,691 | $25,000 | 95.72% | 60 | 743 |
| 02 (Butchertwn/Highlands/Germantwn) | 78 | $15,352,725 | $196,830 | $146,250 | 96.52% | 73 | 512 |
| 03 (Clifton/Crescent Hill/St Matthews) | 51 | $13,268,550 | $260,168 | $206,000 | 93.86% | 82 | 498 |
| 04 (Pleasure Ridge/Valley Station/Shively) | 48 | $4,124,025 | $85,917 | $76,450 | 96.29% | 39 | 433 |
| 05 (Auburndale/Fairdale/Iroquois Prk/Shively) | 51 | $4,236,871 | $83,076 | $79,000 | 95.60% | 65 | 615 |
| 06 (Buechel/Highview/Okolona/FernCreek) | 90 | $11,071,073 | $123,012 | $114,998 | 96.84% | 67 | 906 |
| 07 (FernCreek/Hikes Point/Jeffersontown) | 93 | $15,709,825 | $168,923 | $157,000 | 96.32% | 64 | 836 |
| 08 (DglasHls/Hurstbrn/Mdltwn/Anchrg/StMatt) | 65 | $18,479,921 | $284,306 | $266,000 | 99.51% | 82 | 739 |
| 09 (Anchrg/Glenview/Lyndn/Prospect) | 92 | $26,023,261 | $282,862 | $227,750 | 95.50% | 72 | 807 |
| 635 | $111,972,789 | $176,335 | 6195 |
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