Louisville, KY (Louisville Business First) - The basement of Louisville Gardens is part tomb and part shrine.
Using flashlights and watching our steps during a recent tour, staff photographer Christopher Fryer and I unearthed relics from the 113-year-old building’s past: Tattered wrestling-ring ropes, out-of-date concessions equipment, pieces from old stages and even a well-preserved basketball hard court used during the halcyon days of the American Basketball Association's Kentucky Colonels.
The dank and musty underpinning of the historic venue off West Muhammad Ali Boulevard and Armory Place serves as storage for a structure that has welcomed everyone from Elvis Presley and Prince to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and former U.S. President Harry Truman.
PHOTOS: Louisville Gardens
Inside the main halls of the 6,000-seat venue, time has no meaning as yellowed Coca-Cola and Budweiser banners remain displayed. Chairs where guests watched so many performances remain tethered to the floor.
A light film of dust blankets every inch of the place — from armrests to guardrails — and the bowl of the venue has become a morgue for vintage office equipment: Filing cabinets, desks and chairs splayed out in numerous rows. (Check out photos from now and through history in the attached photo gallery).
Mark Zoeller, Louisville Metro Government’s assistant director of facilities and project management, said the city has held onto so many artifacts from the Gardens’ past because it wants them to have a place in any redevelopment.
“The city will want a developer to incorporate [these things] into the new venue,” he said.
For 10 years, the massive building — which takes up an entire city block — has sat vacant. But neither the city nor its residents have given up on its return to glory, even as the building continues to deteriorate.
