Form No. 10-300 NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS NAME ISTORIC Louisville Trust Building AND/OR COMMON Old Louisville Trust Building (Jefferson County Police Headquarters and Offices) LOCATION _NOT FOR PUBLICATION CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Louisville . _ VICINITY OF 03 & 04 STATE CODE COUNTY CODE Kentucky 021 Jefferson 111 CLASSIFICATION CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE —DISTRICT ^PUBLIC ^OCCUPIED _AGRICULTURE —MUSEUM .XBUILDING(S) —PRIVATE —UNOCCUPIED —COMMERCIAL —PARK —STRUCTURE —BOTH —WORK IN PROGRESS —EDUCATIONAL —PRIVATE RESIDENCE —SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE —ENTERTAINMENT —RELIGIOUS —OBJECT —IN PROCESS —YES: RESTRICTED ^GOVERNMENT —SCIENTIFIC —BEING CONSIDERED X.YES: UNRESTRICTED —INDUSTRIAL —TRANSPORTATION _NO —MILITARY —OTHER: OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME Jefferson County Public Governmental Center Corporation STREET & NUMBER Jefferson County Courthouse CITY, TOWN Louisville VICINITY OF COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS.ETc. jefferson County Courthouse Jefferson Street CITY, TOWN STATE Louisville Kentucky REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS Brown-Doherty Survey DATE 1960 —FEDERAL ._STATE —COUNTY ^.LOCAL DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS Bridwell Art Library (University of Louisville) CITY, TOWN STATE Louisville Kentucky (continued) DESCRIPTION CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE —EXCELLENT _DETERIORATED —UNALTERED X.ORIGINALSITE . _RUINS X.ALTERED —MOVED DATE ——————— —FAIR ' _ UNEXPOSED DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE The former Louisville Trust Bank Building is located on the southwest corner of Fifth and Market Streets in downtown Louisville. Market Street which received its name legitimately from its 19th-century use is the second major east-west thoroughfare south of the Ohio River; Main Street is to the north (see the National Register nomi­ nation form for the West Main Street Historic District, listed on March 22, 1974; its boundaries are currently being extended eastward). The south side of the block on which the old Louisville Trust Building is located is the site of the important Greek Revival Jefferson County Courthouse (1835-58, designed by Gideon Shryock, completed by Albert Fink; listed on the Register on April 10, 1972). Connected to the Courthouse by a second- story bridge tester Courthouse Place, which runs east-west across the center of the block is the old Courthouse Annex (probably designed by McDonald and Dodd and erected in the mid-1890s) with the 20th-century Fiscal Court Building west of it. The north central portion of the block facing Market Street is occupied by the former Ben Snyder's Department Store building; this is a handsome turn-of-the century brick structure probably designed by Clarke & Loomis. The Louisville Trust Building is surrounded on the south and west by the former First National Bank Building with its Adamesque brick facades on Court Place, 5th and Main Streets. Diagonally across the intersection from the old Louisville Trust Building is the new high-rise First National Bank Building with a plaza on the corner. The remainder of the intersection and much of nearby 5th and Market Streets has turn-of-the century commercial structures (eventually to be nominated to the Register as a district). Thus, the Louisville Trust Building does not stand in isolation, but retains its intended urban context of civic, legal, financial, and commercial structures, whether 19th- or 20th-century in date. In fact, the tower of the 1890s building is usually seen against either that of the 25-story Citizens' Fidelity Bank building a block to the south with its concrete-aggregate-panelled and finned surface, designed by Weldon Beckett, or the 35-story dark metal and glass surface of the First National Bank Building designed by Harrison and Abramowitz to the northwest. The 1891 building more than holds its own in mass, texture, and color against either of them, and provides a most welcome contrast in detail, particularly the picturesque composition of the corner tower and turret. The old Louisville Trust Building consists of a seven-story main block with a square tower rising one story above the main cornice and an octagonal turret above that. (continued) 0] SIGNIFICANCE PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOW —PREHISTORIC _ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC —COMMUNITY PLANNING —LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE —RELIGION _1400-1499 _ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC —CONSERVATION —LAW —SCIENCE —1500-1599 —AGRICULTURE —ECONOMICS —LITERATURE —SCULPTURE —1600-1699 XJ\RCHITECTURE —EDUCATION —MILITARY —SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN —1700-1799 _ART X-ENGINEERING —MUSIC —THEATER X.1800-1899 XCOMMERCE —EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT —PHILOSOPHY —TRANSPORTATION —1900- —COMMUNICATIONS —INDUSTRY —POLITICS/GOVERNMENT —OTHER (SPECIFY) —INVENTION SPECIFIC DATES «ttttBEfl/ARCH ITECT 1889-1891 Mason Maury and William J. Dodd STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Louisville Trust Bank Building is the largest and finest of Louisville's (i. e. Kentucky's) surviving Chicago-style high-rise office buildings. It represents the major collaboration of two of Louisville's most talented turn-of-the-century architects, Mason Maury and W. J. Dodd. Although Dodd had earlier worked in Chicago with two of the founders of the famous "Chicago School," Major William LeBaron Jenney and ,Solon . S£oBeiman* the exterior appearance of the building seems to have been directly inspired by both the late works of H. H. Richardson and the early masterworks of Louis Sullivan, two of the giants of American and indeed modern architecture. Yet, whatever its immediate sources, the design of the Louisville Trust Building has a character and coherence of its own. In spite of the subtle and varied elaboration of what Newcomb called the "robust lithic facades," to reflect (or possibly compensate for) the structure's then-unprecedented height and amount of usable office space, the overall form is bold, supple, and clear. The building was from the outset a powerful proclamation of the stability yet modernity, lavish yet controlled resources, community pride yet corporate com­ petitiveness of the private financial institution it long represented. Now part of the magnificent Jefferson County-Louisville civic complex dominated by the nearby ComstftteaBe and City Hall, the building has been effectively adapted for public use. Construction of the original Louisville Trust Building began as the city ended its eleventh decade of continuous settlement. During that span, the city had grown from a crude trading village to a virtual metropolis. Its hegemony in the Falls of the Ohio region was long established and a prominent position in the commerce and industry of the Midwest and South secure. As the place itself evolved, so too did the size and demeanor of its architecture. Commercial building needs, once dictated by the simple mercantile arrangement of goods, now demanded provision for a plethora of new and complex uses. Such a need one which required the performance of a great many participants within a limited amount of urban acreage was shared by the legal and financial community in the last quarter of the 19th century. Its business was conducted, in a great measure, in (continued) QMAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES Art Work of Louisville, 1903. Brown, Theodore M. "Introduction to Louisville Architecture," Louisville, Free Public Library, 1960. _________________________________________________(continued) ^GEOGRAPHICAL DATA ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY than 1 UTM REFERENCES A L_LLll i4i2J3»4t6i5iQj Bl . I I ZONE EASTING NORTHING ZONE EASTING NORTHING Cl . III. I . I I . I t I • . I Pi ,' I I I . I . I I i" I i I . I 1 VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION Property Valuation Administrator's City District 3, Block 14-E, Lot 12 as recorded December 1, 1969, in the Jefferson County Clerk's Deed Book 4319, page 147. LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES STATE CODE COUNTY ', CODE STATE CODE CODE FORM PREPARED BY NAME/TITLE Douglas L. Stern, Research Assistant/Walter E. Langsam, Architectural Historian ORGANIZATION ———————————————————————————————_ DATE Louisville Landmarks Commission/Kentucky Heritage Commission April 1975 STREET & NUMBER TELEPHONE 530 West Jefferson Street/104 Bridge Street ________(502)589-4230/(5Q2) 564-4452 CITY OR TOWN '~~ ~ T .rtn i s vi 1 le / V raaikfort___- ________________ THE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS: NATIONAL:_ STATE__ LOCAL__ As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. TITLE State Historic Preservation Officer DATE i GPO 892.453 Form No. 10-300a (Rev. 10-74) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM Louisville Trust Building CONTINUATION SHEET________________ITEM NUMBER 7____PAGE \__________________ The number of bays on both sides seems almost deliberately blurred, but the north facade on Market Street is approximately half as wide as that on 5th. There is a small three-story addition west of the main block on Market, with continuous lintel and treat­ ment of the first story, but slightly diminutive proportions on the two upper stories. This addition is not shown on views as late.