East Broadway Row

The Louisville Preservation Fund – now Vital Sites – was established as a 501(c)(3) in 2014 as a revolving fund focused on historic properties in Louisville. East Broadway Row is our first major project, and its success will serve as a demonstration vehicle for future revolving fund projects. We leveraged resources from private developers, private landowners, and nonprofits to formulate a creative solution for the reuse and preservation of these historic structures. We launched the project in October 2017. View photos from our media event held October 9th, 2017. View photos from our Hard Hat Tour event held March 3, 2018. The first 2 houses were listed for sale in fall 2018. As of May 2019, all 5 houses had been sold to new families. Our first project is complete! See more photos from East Broadway Row on our Instagram page!

In October 2019, the East Broadway Row project was awarded the David L. Morgan Excellence in Kentucky Historic Preservation Tax Credit for Residential Properties. Thank you for this honor, Preservation Kentucky! See all the 2019 winners here.

East Broadway Row includes five ca. 1890 shotgun houses on East Broadway near the intersection with Baxter Avenue. The houses were donated to our organization in November 2016. Shotgun houses were a very popular house type in the southern United States, particularly from the end of the American Civil War until the 1920s, and there is a large concentration across the city. The Encyclopedia of Louisville states that these houses are “tangible reminders of solidly built, attractive, late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century worker housing. They remain one of our most viable and adaptable local house types.” All five houses were vacant and previously used as offices, for storage, or as residences. They were all rehabilitated and sold.

As part of the historic renovation, we worked with the Kentucky State Historic Preservation Office to ensure architectural details are preserved according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and utilized state historic tax credits as an incentive for prospective homebuyers. All five houses were certified! Revitalizing vacant properties maintains the character of the neighborhood and streetscape, brings residents back to the community, and recognizes the value of these historic houses.

After completion of this project, Vital Sites will have a basic operating procedure to replicate this model on similar undervalued and at-risk historic structures. East Broadway Row will serve as an example of how developers can work cooperatively with property owners and nonprofits to ensure preservation of historic properties in our community.