“Look up,” is Susan Foley’s advice for appreciating the architecture of the historic buildings on Main Street in downtown Louisville. “At street level you are looking at store fronts or the fronts of offices,” she says, “so you really do not see the original architecture of the buildings. It is best to look up and then down the street to get the full effect of wonderful architectural details.”
The long time history teacher, occasional downtown tour guide, and coordinator for the Main Street Oral History Project has a passion for the buildings in this particular part of the city and the stories and lives they have housed inside their walls.
From 2004 to 2008 she conducted seventy-one interviews with people who have intimate knowledge of the historic buildings downtown. Her journey to the homes of the grandchildren of Main Street business owners, to executive offices and occasionally to the buildings themselves to gather these stories, not only captured an inordinate amount of history about the architecture of the city, but wove an oral tapestry of the social history that illustrates more than just iron facades and cornice stones.
The Main Street Oral History Project was started by the Main Street Association in 2004 at the National Historic Preservation Conference. During the convention volunteers, including Foley, recorded 23 thirty-minute interviews with people associated with Main Street’s history. The results were very engaging, but it was clear that the well of information ran much deeper than what could be covered in a mere thirty minutes. The board green-lighted a more in-depth project and Foley was hired on as a contract employee to conduct the full-length interviews.
“The original goal,” said Foley, “was to gather information about the buildings and their architecture. We found out a lot of social history though, which was very interesting.” She learned quickly that while a script was helpful, being flexible and following an interesting tangent provided a much more colorful interview.
“I soon began asking everyone if their parents or grandparents were first generation Americans and where their family had come from,” she said.
In March of 2006 Foley interviewed Arthur Lerman of Lerman Brother’s Department Stores, whose headquarters occupied 522-524 West Main Street from 1936 to the late 1980’s when the building was leased out to other tenants. The family sold it in 2005. Foley was particularly moved by the tale of his father, Nathan Lerman’s, journey to the United States from Russia just before the Russian Revolution began.
“He had no papers because his father for some reason just never recorded his birth, so he became, I guess, a non-person,” Lerman said. “His life was in jeopardy so he did what many immigrants at that time did—he took the train to Siberia and walked across China hiding in the daytime and walking at night. He caught a Japanese fishing vessel and landed in Seattle. Then because of his brother, Phillip, in Cincinnati, he came to Cincinnati, and he had a lot of odd jobs.”
Foley found her subjects in a number of ways. Many leads already existed from the initial interviews done for the National Historic Preservation Conference. Research was done on the buildings previous owners and more recent owners were contacted to see what their relationship to the buildings were. Some people were approached cold and others had introductions from other interviewees.
Many people were very excited to reminisce about their time on Main Street and others became unexpectedly emotional, the stories of times gone by striking a sentimental chord. Still others refused to speak with her entirely.
“I think some people are fearful of hearing their own voice,” said Foley.
Two people who did agree to speak with her were Richard and Cynthia Weller, whose family owned 127 West Main Street, which housed the Burwinkle-Hendershot Company for nearly 65 years.
The interview was conducted at the building, which was built in 1870, just after the Civil War. Foley recollected climbing the ancient, narrow stairs in her business attire. “You thought, well I could just fall right though,” she said. Despite the dilapidated building, Foley was charmed by the history.
She encouraged Richard Weller to speak more about the plans that were found for electrification of the building in 1889.
“Back at that time, Thomas Edison’s office was diagonally across the corner of 2nd and Main,” said Weller. “His offices were on the south side of Main west of 2nd Street. L&N [Railroad] people, as I found out later, believe that these drawings were made by one of Thomas Edison’s employees, and that his people may have been involved in the original electrification of this building. A few of the…old knob and spool type electrical junctions still exist in some parts of the building.”
Foley concluded the project in January of 2008, marking four years of recording the history of Main Street. She captured the voices and stories of some of the city’s most influential people, some of which are no longer with us.
In a fifty-eight minute interview, Actors Theatre’s Alexander “Sandy” Speer talked with Foley about the inception of Actors and how it played an integral role in the revitalization of down town. Mr. Speer died in January 2011.
“There were two theatres that merged that became Actors Theatre of Louisville,” Speer said. “Actors, Inc. which was started by a man by the name of Ewell Cornett…They opened a summer season in 1964 in that theatre. Meanwhile, Richard Block was forming a company called Theatre Louisville…They were just raising money and trying to start a theatre, but had not actually performed a play yet. The two boards of directors looked at each other and said ‘Louisville is not big enough for one theatre, let alone two,’ and they decided to merge. Actors, Inc. and Theatre Louisville became Actors Theatre of Louisville, and that was in the early spring of ‘64.”
After Foley’s interview work was complete all of the interviews were transcribed and are available to the public in both audio and written format at the University Archives and Records Center at the University of Louisville and at the Kentucky Oral History Commission in Frankfort.
What the future holds for this treasure trove is unclear. With the addition of photographs collected by Foley throughout her interviews, there is the possibility of turning them into a book. The Main Street Association has a more immediate plan to incorporate these stories into presentations about the history of Main Street buildings available in an app for smart phones and tablets.
The Association is still trying to secure funding for the project, but Main Street Association President, Laurie Ann Roberts, is excited about the prospect. “It wouldn’t be used only for tourism, but also for education purposes,” said Roberts. “Architecture students, for example, could download the app and learn about the buildings as they walk around the city.”
Each presentation would include a short film telling the history of the building that would include facts about the building and the oral histories collected by Foley.
– Sara Jones Rust
*All excerpts from the interviews of the Main Street Oral History project courtesy of University Archives and Records Center at the University of Louisville.
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