Remember Stewart's Dry Goods? Revisit the downtown Louisville of 70 years ago

Today, you might nosh on Sicilian meatballs and a slice of New York cheesecake in that very same building for more than 10 times that price.

From 1893 to 1979, Louisville’s Levy Brothers department store operated within the iconic Richardsonian Romanesque-style structure with its ornate arched windows and regal, pointed tower. That downtown building still stands today and lives on as Louisville’s Old Spaghetti Factory.

The rise of the American suburbs in the mid-20th century bludgeoned downtown department store culture nationwide. For our grandparents, shopping was a social outing complete with elaborate window displays, crystal tea rooms and fleets of service people eager to elegantly gift wrap your packages or help you find the perfect fit.

With the rise of e-commerce, it's hard to imagine that culture of shopping now.

But in the days leading up to Christmas, I tried.

With a little help from The Courier Journal archives, a Louisville business directory from 1955 at the Filson Historical Society and Google Maps, I set out to see downtown Louisville as it was 70 years ago.  

Why 1955, you might ask? Two reasons.  

First, the mid-50s seemed like the beginning of the end. The migration to the suburbs began largely after World War II. Suburban shopping malls steadily gained popularity in the 1960s. Mall St. Matthews, for example, opened in 1962.  

And second, the "Back to the Future" series ranks high on my list of favorite movies. So, when I think about going back in time, my brain naturally goes to 1955.

As I started digging through ads and addresses, I learned quickly that several of these once iconic buildings had less happy endings than Levy Brothers department store's metamorphosis into the Old Spaghetti Factory.  

No one is noshing on meatballs at the former Martin Rosenberger’s at 525 W. Market St., even if they may stop there enroute to nearby Vincenzo’s at 150 S. Fifth St.

1950. Levy Bros. store. From the Barry Bingham, Jr. Courier-Journal Photograph Collection at the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.

During Christmas week 1955, Rosenberger’s was trying to woo in last minute shoppers with a Courier Journal ad for “fancy towel sets” starting at $1, printed pillowcases at $1.18 for a pair or “Kiddie’s pin-ups" featuring Walt Disney characters, nursery and western characters for $2.29.  

But 70 years later, that building is long gone. Today, it’s a parking lot.  

Lewis jewelers and department store at 331 S. Fourth St. had a similar fate to Rosenberger’s. Now it’s a parking garage just to the east of the Hyatt Regency Louisville, 320 W. Jefferson St., but back in 1955 the store had a whammy of a deal for any couple looking for a holiday engagement. Seventy years ago, Lewis advertised a free radio with the purchase of any diamond ring starting at $49.

The store also offered free gifts for children who visited Santa. Plus, its Toyland was stocked with “Schwinn Bicycles! Dolls! Games! Lionel electric trains! And any other kind of Christmas toy!,” according to an ad that ran that December in The Courier Journal.

You won’t find Santa at the the old Lewis site, though, unless he’s looking for a place to park his sleigh. 

The old Waterman’s Department Store at 448-454 S. Preston St. is still part of the holiday rush, but in a much less festive way. Back in 1955, the store sold tricycles for $3.98, baby dolls for $2.98 and a 32-piece dinner set with 22k gold trim for $5.98.

I couldn't pinpoint exactly where Waterman’s operated, but it appears to be somewhere near what’s now an on-ramp to Interstate 65, where the knot of interstates cuts through downtown at Preston Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard. Meaning, there's plenty of hustle and bustle over there, but it’s more about getting from Point A to B, than piling gifts under the tree.

Bacon’s downtown. July 25th, 1952. 322 W. Market St. From the Barry Bingham, Jr. Courier-Journal Photograph Collection at the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.

OK, but enough about traffic and parking.

I really enjoy downtown Louisville, and the more I flipped through old photos of these buildings, the more I recognized a few of them. While all of the remaining structures offer different services or wares than 70 years ago, some of them can certainly fit into your modern holiday with a little imagination.

One of my favorite department store remodels in Louisville is the old Stewart's Dry Goods Company at 501 S. 4th St., which is now the Embassy Suites by Hilton Downtown Louisville. Sure, visitors aren’t buying gifts there, but maybe parents are enjoying a much-needed holiday date night away from the kids. Or perhaps, your roommates from college have decided to forgo gifts this year and instead planned a weekend getaway for a much needed catch-up.  

The old Stewart's was once home to a high-end, white-glove-style restaurant called the Orchid Room. The restaurant, of course, is gone, but the hotel features a stunning, textured orchid wall that nods to this piece of Louisville history. While the Embassy Suite’s nightly complimentary happy hour at the hotel certainly isn’t white-glove, it is a nice, service-forward perk.

Remarkably, I actually have purchased Christmas gifts at what was once Lord’s Jewelers at 631 S. Fourth St. But no, I wasn’t shopping for an heirloom silverware set for $56.50 to “make her eyes shine like stars,” as a December 1955 ad in The Courier Journal suggests. Instead, I was picking up bourbon truffles for my parents from Art Eatables.

Stewart’s downtown Luncheonette. Published April 15, 1978. From the Barry Bingham, Jr. Courier-Journal Photograph Collection at the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.

Much of the shopping culture in Louisville in the mid-1950s centered around S. Fourth Street. That’s part of the reason that the Louisville Galleria opened there in the early 1980, and once that failed, it was redeveloped into the Fourth Street Live entertainment district in the early 2000s.

In the mix of all that re-imagination, it’s worth noting, too, that there’s a lingering piece of Louisville’s department store history in the complex. Nowadays, visitors certainly aren’t shopping for clothes, hats, shoes or china in the old Kaufman Straus building at 427-437 S. Fourth St., but they may be enjoying a drink, a meal or a game of bowling or skee-ball at the Sports and Social Club.

Of course, not every destination gets a second life. Large developments gobbled up some of these historic structures.

Back in 1955, Bacon’s department store at 330-334 W. Market St. had all the hottest toys, including Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head for $2. That childhood classic was relatively new in the mid-1950s. Mr. Potato head debuted in 1952, and it was the first toy ever advertised on television, according to The Strong National Museum of Play.

As much as I tried, I couldn’t figure out exactly where the old Burdorf’s at 413 W. Market St. used to be. That address doesn’t seem to exist anymore.  

But if I had to guess, it’s somewhere within Derby City Gaming, which opened in 2024 and takes up most of that block. Staring at the ads for Burdorf’s this almost seemed fitting. I would need to wager my entire holiday budget on a longshot and win to be able to afford a gift from Burdorf's today.

An ad in the Courier Journal suggested buying a lamp for $49.50, a candelabra for $19.50 and a Syroco Clock for $30 as possible gifts to fill out your Christmas list. When I plugged those figures into an inflation calculator, they came back as $602.16, $237.21 and $364.94, respectively.

I had a similar thought as I spotted an ad for Byck’s at 532 S. Fourth St., which has since been converted into the Byck’s Lofts with a Walgreens on the ground level. Back in 1955, a department store was touting its Chanel No. 5 fragrance for $20 an ounce and an alligator handbag for $49.95.  

Byck’s, too, was well outside my budget.

November 8th, 1967. The newly designed play area in Byck Brothers & Co., a women’s and children’s apparel store at 532 S. Fourth, has a rocking horse; a moon-like globe hangs from the ceiling; distorting mirrors and other especially built play equipment provide a fun atmosphere. Published December 3, 1967. From the Barry Bingham, Jr. Courier-Journal Photograph Collection at the University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.

But I digress.

What I learned more than anything during this thought experiment is less about candelabras, parking garages and meatballs, and more about how the echoes of Louisville’s past exist around us.

Even though shopping is never going to look the way it did in 1955 again, some of the structures of that era have lived on through preservation efforts. I've worked in downtown Louisville for nearly eight years, and I’ve passed so many of these golden age buildings or the lots where they once stood, without ever realizing what they were.  

But since I started this a few weeks ago, I’ve grown to recognize the architecture. I think about families leaving the old Levy Brothers building with a tower of gift-wrapped packages instead of a takeout container of leftover pasta from the Old Spaghetti Factory. I wonder how many husbands bought jewelry from Lord’s Jewelers at 631 S. Fourth St., and then, returned years later to that same spot to surprise their wife with truffles.  

The elegant trim on the Sports and Social Club in Fourth Street Live always seemed unusually ornate for a sports bar, but now I know why. That building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is part of the fabric of downtown and Louisville’s history.

Once you take a step back and really soak it all in, it's impossible not to see Louisville as it was in 1955. And it’s much easier to imagine how your grandparents might have shopped for the holidays in downtown Louisville.

Reach Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Menderski at [email protected].