833. A Snowy Day in Louisville - the view from First and Main

Photo by SamHunterPhoto

Downtown Louisville earlier today, looking west on Main Street. This is the point from which Louisville's addresses are numbered. The view is west on West Main Street. To the right is north on North First Street. At the bottom-center-left is southbound South First Street and at the bottom right corner is looking back eastbound on East Main Street.

All of these points begin as the 100 block with even numbers on the west and south sides and odd numbers on the east and north sides. Most, but not all, of Louisville's streets conform to this numbering system.

The north-south divide extends westward along Main Street to the Ohio River (including some blocks where Main doesn't exist and streets divide in the middle of a block). It extends eastward back to the railroad crossing where E. Main becomes Mellwood Avenue, then follows the CSX Railroad Old Road subdivision to Frankfort Avenue, then follows Frankfort Avenue and Shelbyville Road to the county line.

The east-west divide extends northward on First Street, in theory, to the Ohio River, although River Road not does comport to the system. It extends southward on First Street to the old City Limits line at Southside Drive and Strawberry Lane, where it then becomes irregular, sometimes following the CSX Railroad mainline, while at other times following Third Street Road, and at other times following the CSX Railroad Henderson subdivision line.

The most obvious bastardization of the block numbering system is the 100 block of Outer Loop, which runs for just over one mile, from Third Street Road to just east of New Cut Road. There are also several streets which skip large sets of blocks. Dixie Highway skips the 5400-6400 blocks. The west side of Preston Highway skips the 3500-3900 blocks. Shelbyville Road skips the 5100-7300 blocks. Westport Road skips the 4900-7300 blocks. Highland Avenue skips the 1600-1900 blocks. Taylorsville Road skips the 4800-8900 blocks. Mellwood Avenue skips the 2000-2100 blocks. There are several others.

Finally, for many years a road existed connecting W. Manslick Road with New Cut Road in the Fairdale area. It had been built by the Commonwealth when the Jefferson Freeway, later known as the Snyder Freeway, came through in the late 1970s. There were no developed properties fronting on it and it went unnamed and unaddressed for many years. Eventually, it was developed with warehousing and later a hotel. That posed a problem - what to call it. It seamlessly went from New Cut to unnamed to W. Manslick. Lord knows we didn't need yet another Manslick Road in Jefferson County and New Cut jutted off to the south where it met - you may have guessed - one of our several Manslicks. Eventually the Fiscal Court changed the name of the New Cut which jutted to the south to Old New Cut and let the road continuing south toward Fairdale be known as New Cut.

Someday I'll talk about Old Shep.

© Jeff Noble, Louisville, Kentucky, January 6, 2022.