Advertisement
football Edit

Coffee: Floyd Street is hopping

It's amazing what a major investment will do for a dying piece of real estate.
Take Floyd Street south of Eastern Parkway for example. After the L&N's South Louisville repair yards closed in 1990 there was very little activity along Floyd especially after the airport relocated all the residents of the Highland Park neighborhood. Except for a few businesses operating during the day, not many people ventured down Floyd Street especially at night and on weekends.
Advertisement
How times have changed.
Usually in the summer, things get kind of quiet after school dismisses and the students no longer park next to the stadium.
This summer it has been like the 50s on 4th Street: The soccer stadium has created a buzz of activity on the site of a former empty parking lot which was once the darkened Kentucky Macaroni Company. And there is much more going on. Like most summers football players come and go to the football complex to improve their skills for the upcoming season but the parking lot seems fuller this off-season.
Football players are not the only athletes present as others run up and down Floyd Street to improve their conditioning. They are joined by staffers and coaches that are busy trying to curb their weight or lesson the chance of cardio problems.
Lately we have been entertained as the Street Rods checked in across the street for their annual 'show-off' at the Fairgrounds. This week the PJCS parking lot is being used to park spectators of the PGA event at Valhalla. Seems like a long way to bus people, but that's the plan.
Improvements are going on all around as a new banner was erected on the side of PJCS right across from our office and utility work has been all summer on Floyd Street.
The new denizens of the buildings near Louisville Sports News have added an atmosphere of hustle and bustle.
Behind us in the same building is a tattoo shop and Montrell Jones' conditioning center for young athletes. Next door is the Creativi-Tee a shop that customizes lettering on shirts and the Cavern, an eclectic art studio.
On the corner of Boxley is the 80 under 80 Club that refers to Al Parrish and his geezer brigade. They can be found at home on most days doing some minor project with four supervisors and one laborer. Add in the day care center across Boxley and it makes for a busy area five days a week.
But Floyd Street will truly come alive and will be teeming with people as fans arrive for the first football game on September 1. That day Floyd Street and the environs around the stadium will become the fifth largest city in the state of Kentucky. I can't wait.
Many thanks to CardX and HiStepper for straightening me out on the history of the silos. The silos in the picture with Ruth and Gehrig are not the Solae silos now being demolished. They were built by Mr. Thomson but were located on Brook Street where the Yum! Practice center now stands and were demolished in the early 70'. We are still trying to determine when and by whom the Solae silos were built. Thanks also to Al Parrish for pointing out that two silos were removed in 2000 and the decorative brink wall was erected when the stadium was built in the late 90's.
Advertisement