The Oldest Things In Louisville

By LEO Weekly Staff on Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 9:56 pm

While not every business, building or other notable Louisville fixture has lasted since our city was founded nearly 250 years ago, there are some who have stood the test of time. Check out our list of the oldest (continuously operating or living) places and things that Louisville has to offer.

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Oldest Hotel: The Seelbach Hilton

500 S 4th St. Opened: 1905
This luxury downtown hotel was one of the filming locations for the movie “The Insider,” and it also has a “speakeasy” bowling alley called Pin + Proof.
Photo via SeelbachHiltonHotel/Facebook

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Oldest Bar: The Mellwood Tavern

1801 Brownsboro Rd, Louisville, KY 40206 Opened: 1885
Mellwood Tavern, which opened in 1885, bills itself as “the longest continually operated tavern in Louisville.” Its 137-year history includes several name changes and a stint as a speakeasy during Prohibition. Now, though, Mellwood Tavern serves live music, drinks, and food — their specialty is fried chicken.
Photo via Google Street View

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Oldest Park: Baxter Square

301 S 12th St. Founded: 1880
There’s kind of a morbid history to Louisville’s first public park: it was also originally Louisville’s first cemetery. The space now includes a basketball court, a playground, and a “sprayground.”
Photo via Google Street View

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Oldest (non-pedestrian, non-railway) Bridge: George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge/Second Street Bridge

Address: Second Street Opened: 1929
Although the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge (also called the Second Street Bridge) is technically not the oldest Louisville bridge overall — that honor belongs to the Fourteenth Street Bridge, which opened in 1870 — it is the oldest bridge that’s accessible to drivers, versus just pedestrians or trains.
Photo via Louisville Tourism

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Oldest Zoo Animal: Dot the Aldabra Tortoise

1100 Trevilian Way Born: 1936
Out of the more than 1,000 animals who call the Zoo their home, Dot the Aldabra tortoise takes home the honor of being the oldest. She’ll turn 86 this June, making her about middle-aged in Aldabra tortoise years.
Photo provided by the Louisville Zoo

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Oldest Private School: Presentation Academy

861 S. 4th Street Founded: 1893
Louisville has many Catholic schools, but Presentation (often known simply as Pres) is the oldest. The all-girls school’s mascot is a top hat.
Photo via Google Street View

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Oldest Art Museum: The Speed Art Museum

2035 S 3rd St. Opened: 1927
The expansive collection at the Speed dates back centuries, but the Speed itself — which is also the oldest art museum in the state — is a few years away from its 100th birthday.
Photo via Louisville Tourism

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Cave Hill Cemetery

701 Baxter Avenue Chartered: 1848
That said, the oldest cemetery that is still a fully operational cemetery is the gorgeous, sprawling Cave Hill Cemetery, which many Louisvillians know as the final resting place of Muhammad Ali, Colonel Sanders and George Rogers Clark.
Photo via cavehillcemetery_arboretum/Instagram

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Oldest Public High School: Louisville Male High School

4409 Preston Hwy Opened: 1856
The school we now know as duPont Manual opened as the all-female counterpart to its now-rival, Male, but Male is only one of the two to keep its name, although both are now coed. Although it saddens this Manual grad to say so, the honor of Oldest Public High School has to go to Male pretty much automatically.
Photo via Google Street View

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Oldest College Building: UofL’s Honors House

2211 S First Street Walk, Louisville, KY 40208 Founded in 1900
Obviously, the oldest college in Louisville is UofL, which was founded as the Jefferson Seminary in 1798, and its oldest building is the Honors House, which (as you’d expect) houses the Honors Program’s offices and a classroom.
Photo via Catherine Brown

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Oldest Church: Christ Church Cathedral

421 S 2nd St Building completed: 1824
This gorgeous building is home to an Episcopal congregation and is part of the National Register of Historic Places.
Photo via ChristChurchLouKY/Facebook

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Oldest Business: Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs

400 West Market Street, Ste. 2000 Opened: 1812
This law firm has operated for more than two centuries, making it the oldest continuously-run business in Louisville. It’s just a few years older than big local names like Louisville Stoneware, Merkley Kendrick, and LG&E, according to the 2003 book “Going on 200: Century-Old Businesses in Kentucky.” Lawyers who have worked there include a former mayor of Louisville and a former governor of Kentucky.
Photo via wyattfirm/Facebook

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Oldest Tree in the Parks System: The Bald Cypress Tree

1024 Thruston Ave. Sprouted: 1817 or earlier
Bald cypress trees have extraordinary longevity — as long as 600 years, in fact — so it’s no surprise that the oldest tree in the Metro Parks would be one of them. In fact, Louisville founder George Rogers Clark (who, in fact, was also the brother of William Clark, as in Lewis and Clark) would likely have seen this tree during his lifetime because his parents’ original home was located on the site of what used to be their plantation, Mulberry Hill. The tree is now protected by a fence.
Photo via Louisville Metro Parks

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Oldest Neighborhood (besides Downtown): Portland

Founded: 1811
Although Portland was originally its own distinct settlement founded near the turn of the 19th century, Louisville annexed it in the 1850s. Some of its past residents include John James Audubon and Pee Wee Reese.
Photo via portlandlouisville/Instagram

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Oldest Government Building: Louisville Metro Hall

527 W Jefferson St. Opened: 1842
Whoever wins the upcoming mayoral election will get a new office in Louisville Metro Hall, which is also the home of the Jefferson County Clerk's Office.
Photo via MayorGregFischer/Facebook

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Oldest Indoor Mall: Mall St. Matthews

5000 Shelbyville Rd. Opened: 1962
This hotspot of first jobs and Friday night friend hangouts was the first indoor commercial mall to open in Louisville. Shout-out to everyone who remembers the now-gone giant chess board.
Photo via Danielle Grady

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Oldest Hometown Heroes Banner: Muhammad Ali

3rd Street and River Road, facing the river Put up: 2002
The city’s Hometown Heroes banners have honored many famous Louisvillians, including Jennifer Lawrence and Diane Sawyer, but the first belonged to none other than “The Greatest,” Muhammad Ali himself. His banner hangs on an LG&E building between the Yum! Center and the Galt House. It faces the Ohio River, where the Olympic champion Ali once tossed his gold medal after being refused service at a segregated restaurant.
Photo via the Hometown Heroes website

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Oldest Airport: Bowman Field

3345 Roger E. Schupp St. Established: 1919
Although the Muhammad Ali International Airport (aka Standiford Field) is now the main hub for flights into and out of Louisville, that wasn’t always the case — Bowman Field was our first commercial airport. Did you know it was also in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger”?
Photo via Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport

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Oldest Synagogue: The Temple

5101 US-42 Founded: 1843
The Temple (Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom) is not only the oldest of its kind in Louisville, but also the oldest in Kentucky.
Photo from Youtube screenshot

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