Saving ‘Whiskey Row’

The (Louisville) Courier-Journal: Preservationists often lament the destruction of historic buildings to make way for parking garages.

So it seems fitting that money from the sale of two downtown parking structures could help save a string of beloved, historic buildings on West Main Street known as “Whiskey Row.”

The multi-storied former warehouses, some with the city’s famed cast-iron storefronts, are so named because they once housed “the thriving center of Louisville’s whiskey economy,” according to Louisville’s Filson Historical Society.

Months of struggle and an increasingly urgent drive to save the five adjoining buildings from destruction or collapse got a boost with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s pledge to come up with the additional $1 million a group of investors says it needs to stabilize the buildings and get them ready for development.

Meanwhile, the money has given Louisville officials, who until recently seemed lukewarm about kicking in any money for Whiskey Row, a way to chip in on the preservation costs which have risen to about $7 million.