4th Street Theater District
DOWNTOWN, LOUISVILLE, KY
Louisville’s Cultural & Creative Main Street
4th Street is the historic main street of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In its prime, it was anchored by Stewart’s Dry Goods Company, J.C. Penney, multiple grand theaters, and the iconic Brown Hotel and the Seelbach Hotel.
The Seelbach designed in the French Renaissance style opened in 1905 and hosted numerous celebrities, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, who took inspiration from the Seelbach for a hotel in The Great Gatsby.
The Brown Hotel opened in 1923 and has welcomed the Duke of Windsor, Harry Truman, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Young, Joan Crawford, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, George H. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Theaters include: the Palace Theater with over 2,000 seats; the 900-seat Ohio Theater, which was built in 1941; and the adjacent Kentucky Theatre which was built in 1925 and had 1,200 seats, but was renovated into gourmet food, wine, and florist shop.
J. Richard Hill & Co. conducted extensive market research, sales and rent feasibility studies, and redevelopment strategies which were formulated in vivid vision plan of a fully revitalized 4th Street.
Lesson Learned
“Second tier city downtowns with aging districts present multiple opportunities for the creative redevelopment of a neighborhood and there are often more districts with opportunities than the market will support.”