Old Jeffersonville Historic District

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Old Jeffersonville Historic District
(U.S. Registered Historic District)
20th Century Masonic Temple
Location:	Jeffersonville, Indiana
Area:	2030 acres (8.2 km²)
Architect:	Loomis,Arthur; et al.
Architectural style(s):	Late 19th And 20th century Revivals, Bungalow/craftsman, Late Victorian
Added to NRHP:	October 06, 1987
NRHP Reference#:	87001461 [1]
Governing body:	Various

The Old Jeffersonville Historic District is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The area is "roughly bounded" by Court Avenue at the North, Graham Street on the east, the Ohio River at the south, and Interstate 65 at the west.^[2] In total, the district has 2,030 acres (8.2 km²), 500 buildings, 6 structures, and 11 objects.^[3] Several banks are located in the historic buildings in the district. The now defunct Steamboat Days Festival, held on the second weekend in September, would be held on Spring Street and the waterfront. Jeffersonville's largest fire wiped out a block in the historical district on January 11, 2004 which destroyed the original Horner's Novelty store.^[4]

Important buildings in the district include:

• Carnegie Library of Warder Park, one of many built throughout Indiana in the early 20th Century.
• Old Masonic Temple on Spring Street, just north of Court Avenue. Built in the early 20th Century, it has a majestic marble staircase. One of the local lodges, Clark #40, built a new temple on the grounds of Jefferson General Hospital, and all the affiliated bodies in Jeffersonville moved there,
• Grisamore House, also on the National Register, is formerly the local office of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, which moved next door to the...
• Willey-Allhands House, the current regional office for the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, which was moved here from its former location closer to Clark Memorial Hospital
• Schimpff's Confectionery, world famous for its candies, especially its red hots and Modjelskas.
• Horner's Novelty, long-time commercial supplier of party supplies and costumes

Contents 1 History 2 Streets 3 Gallery 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] History

Jeffersonville is just above the Falls of the Ohio, the only natural barrier along the Ohio River. Jeffersonville also has the deepest harbor of any nearby town. Most major streets in the district go from northeast to southwest, with the major exception of the northwest-southeast Spring Street, the primary commercial corridor.^[5]

The first settlement in what became Jeffersonville was in 1786 at Finney, near the present day Big Four Bridge. In June of 1802 Lieutenant Isaac Bowman had 150 acres (0.61 km²) given to him as part of Clark's Grant to five trustees to layout a town in a plan created by Thomas Jefferson at the behest of Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison; Jefferson was the current United States President and Harrison would become President in 1841. It was an important distribution center during the Civil War for the Union Army, as three railroads connected to Jeffersonville and because it had the Ohio River at a safer location than Louisville, to which the Ohio River was at its rear. In its heyday, Jeffersonville was the United States' leading center of steamboat production, due largely to its excellent harbor, said to be the deepest in the surrounding area. Many of those living in the district would work at the Howard Shipyards, which would eventually become Jeffboat. The town gained its first railroad in 1852, connecting to Columbus, Indiana, and with the opening of the Fourteenth Street Bridge in 1870, became a railroad center.^[6]

Most of the buildings still standing in the district were built after 1870. Most of the businesses along Spring Street reflect Italianate styles. The Gothic Revival churches reflect the large immigrations from Ireland and Germany that came during the time period. The residential buildings are of American Four Square, bungalows, and shotguns.^[7]

[edit] Streets

Spring Street, a typical commercial 19th century corridor, is the primary road of the district. Most buildings along Spring Street are Italianate and eclectic Victorian, two to three stories tall, with brick being the most common building material. The 100 block, the closest to the Ohio River, has seen the most demolition, still has the Old Strauss Hotel at the corner of Riverside Drive, a three-story Italianate hostelry with a corbeled cornice and arched windows. The 200 block is mostly Italianate, with the most notable buildings being the old Elk's Club structure (a three-story highly decorated glazed brick building) and the Bensinger's Building (a 1920's commercial building of pressed brick and crenelated parapet). The 300 block has more diverse architecture, with an 1800s Masonic Temple, the LaRose Theatre (a 1920's orange glazed brick structure with terra cotta trim, Horner's Novelty (which had to be rebuilt after the worst fire in Jeffersonville's history), and the famous Schimpff's Confectionery, a candy store that opened in 1891 that now features a small candy museum. The 400 block has more Italianate structures, but its most important building is the 1907 Citizens National Bank Building, which is stone Classical Revival with large eagles for adornment, and the regional office for the local Boy Scouts of America council. The 500 block, which has Warder Park of its east side, features a Classical Revival Masonic Temple used for most of the 20th Century.^[8]

At the southeast end of Spring Street is Riverside Drive. Riverside Drive, allows for some of the most scenic views of the Ohio River, which is just below the drive, and the eastern Louisville shoreline, due to the shoreline seeing very few alterations compared to other sections of the Ohio River near Louisville. Houseboats are docked along the south side of Riverside Drive. The north side of Riverside Drive has a variety of architectural styles, and is largely residential. Unlike the other prominent streets, Riverside drive is outside the floodwall, which was built two feet higher than the height the Ohio River flood of 1937.^[9]

The next street Spring Street crosses is Market Street. Largely residential, its 200 block is has many vacant areas, but the 300-500 blocks features many shotgun houses. As Market Streets proceeds eastward out of the district, it becomes known as Utica Pike near the Howard Steamboat Museum and connects Jeffersonville with Utica, Indiana.^[10]

The next street to the north is Chestnut Street. The 200 block of West Chestnut features old supports for the Big Four Bridge. The 100 block of West Chestnut features the Grisamore House, which was separately placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The 100 block of East Chestnut features many houses built around 1900. The 200 block of East Chestnut is filled with bungalows. The 300 block of East Chestnut features St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church, a Spanish-flavored neo-Baroque structure with a Moorish-styled rectory. The 400 block features the Gothic Revival style First Presbyterian Church (with lancet windows and belltower, and a typical Works Progress Administration Art Modern school whose cruciform plan has a stuccoed facade and metal casement windows.^[11]

The next street to the north is Maple Street. The 100 block of West Maple Street is dominated by parking lots and a funeral home. The 100 block of East Maple features the Old Towne Grocery, originally built in the 1920s as a Krogers, and later an A&P, across from Hockeyman's, a collectibles store. The 200 block of East Maple Street is mostly residential, with four large Victorian houses and the large office building for the Indiana Bell Telephone Company. The 300-800 blocks of East Maple are residential, with a few Gothic-Revival churches, and are mostly American Four-Square in construction.^[12]

Finally, there is Court Avenue, of which parts are part of the historic district and others, having seen new construction, are not part of the district; only the 100 West, 100 East, and 700-900 East Blocks of Court Avenue are in the district. This allows Warder Park and for eastern residential areas, but not the current Jeffersonville Township Public Library and the Clark County Courthouse.^[13]

[edit] Gallery

Spring Street of the Historic District	Schimpff's Confectionery	Grisamore House	Warder Park
Willey-Allhands House	Fire in 2004 that destroyed Horner's

[edit] See also

• List of attractions and events in Louisville
• New Albany Downtown Historic District
• Old Clarksville Site

[edit] External links

• Historic Landmarks Foundation dedicates new Jeffersonville office — News story from October 2004
• Downtown Jeffersonville Historic Sites
• Aerial View at Wikimapia

[edit] References