If you head for Col. Sanders grave down East Broadway and then turn south a mile or so before you get there, you'll find yourself in the Smoketown neighborhood of Louisville. With the end of the Civil War and slavery in 1865, thousands of African Americans moved to Louisville, and Smoketown was one of the areas they settled in.
Today it's the last remaining of the neighborhoods settled primarily by African Americans here in Louisville. When I moved to the city back at the height of the Dubya years, Smoketown was one of those neighborhoods that'd get you stopped, searched, and interrogated by LMPD just for being pale and wandering through. Side note, sometimes the 'dumb hillbilly' stereotype comes in handy.
Gentrification has been nibbling around the edges for a while now and the cops don't seem to pay nearly as much mind to a hick from the sticks these days.
Recently did a bit of wandering there, had intended to get some golden hour shots of the Smoketown arch, but attempted it on a day that was cloudy enough there was no golden hour. The gloom went well with the derelict buildings, ended up just shifting focus to them.
Should probably point out that these photos aren't representative of Smoketown, which is mostly shotgun houses, but does do a fair job as a metaphor for the neglect the city shows to neighborhoods like this.
Have been eyeballing these slowly disintegrating buildings for years, "Need to get back here and take photos" has been on my fixin' to list for way too long.
Spotted a new brewery amidst the fenced off old buildings and no trespassing signs, so you know the hipsters can't be far behind. Or whatever Gen Z calls their equivalent.
Discovered Graffiti Alley while out wandering, complete with 'Police Line Do Not Cross' tape floating in the center channel.
Going to have to go back with something wider than the 70-200mm that these were taken with. Some other day though, hivebuzz let me know that today is my 8th Hive birthday, which makes me a senior citizen in crypto years.
