Last weekend, the Society of Urban Perambulators (SoUP) held a walking tour of Downtown New Albany. The city’s core is riddled with historic architecture and important locations from the past. At the same time the city has put in a lot of work to modernize their streetscapes, with Jeff Speck (Author of Walkable City, Co-founder of Speck-Dempsey) leading the effort; this evidently created a model for Louisville to follow when the city brought on Speck for our downtown roadway reconfiguration.
This event was made possible by some amazing field guides. We were joined by New Albany Planning Director Scott Wood , Jacob Resch of Resch Property Group, Jerry Finn of Friends of Town Clock Church, County Historian David Barksdale, and New Albany Tavern owner Dan Borsch. We were also assisted with setting up the event by New Albany Main Street. They all deserve a massive thanks, especially as this was our most well attended event in Southern Indiana.
The tour group met at the Coffee Crossing on Main Street. This was located right next to our first stop, which was the city hall. While we were not able to go inside, Scott Wood went over the extensive history of the structure and discussed the recent redesign on Main Street.
One of New Albany’s oldest buildings, the former warehouse recently went through extensive renovations to become New Albany’s seat of government. The structure is so old that it was built without any in-ground foundations, so a lot of work had to be put in to bring it up to modern safety standards.
Formerly a four-lane one-way street, Main is now a two-lane two-way street littered with new trees, bioswales, bump-outs, and seating areas. The roadway was once controlled by the state, but Indiana relinquished control back to New Albany. The street also includes new design features that are becoming more and more common over here in Louisville, primarily reverse angle parking and all-way stops.
Right down the street from city hall is the historic Town Clock Church. Here we were joined by Jerry Finn, who is on the board of Friend of Town Clock Church. He gave us all a tour of the property while going through the detailed history of the property, which played a pivotal role on the underground railroad in Indiana.
The church is an active congregation, so it is also known as Second Baptist Church. Jerry Finn and Friends of Town Clock Church have spent many years fixing up the building, which had significant structural issues that accumulated over its 150+ year history. While largely fixed up now, the organization still accepts donations for continued repairs and programming.
Market Street a block away is also home to a variety of historic properties, of which we were able to tour two. The first is the former location of Pints & Union, soon to be the new New Albany Tavern. This property was renovated by Resch Property Group and the business will be operated by Dan Borsch, so we had two guides for this location. The location basically had to be rebuilt from the ground up when it was renovated by Resch. Much of the original wooden structure was falling apart and needed to be replaced, but the design has largely remained the same.
Across the street was another Resch property, a former Woolworths that is now home to some offices and an apartment. The building is anchored by New Washington State Bank on the first floor, which was sadly closed during our tour. The second floor is occupied by Schad Law, which we were able to take a look at.
Down the street on Pearl is probably the biggest historic property in New Albany, the Elsby. This is arguably the largest development project in the city at the moment, and is being led by Resch’s company as well. The historic bank and office building is in the early stages of being fixed up into a boutique hotel, featuring a restaurant, downstairs lounge/speakeasy, and bourbon tasting room.
Much of the first floor has been preserved, with much of the original ceiling and flooring still in great condition. The first floor was also home to the bank’s vault, which sits in the middle of the space.
Once again, a huge thank you to our field guides and of course all the folks who attended. The Society of Urban Perambulators seeks to give unique perspectives into urban planning and design by exploring neighborhoods around Louisville. A handful of these events are held each year. If you would like to participate, please join our facebook group or just keep an eye on this website for announcements. We hope to see everyone at another SoUP event very soon!
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