Commodore Apartment Building
National Register of Historic Places

Commodore Apartment Building

Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky
Listed
April 28, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82002709

About this property

The Commodore Apartment Building, also called Commodore Apartments, is a luxury condominium complex located in Louisville, Kentucky's Bonnycastle neighborhood. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 11-story 120 ft (37 m) high rise Commodore Apartment Building was opened in 1929 and designed by the architectural firm of Joseph & Joseph in 1928. The architects designed four other buildings in the Louisville area including the Republic Building (1916) and the Elsby (1918) in New Albany, Indiana. The building is located near Cherokee Park. The building is built on land that was once owned by Isaac Everett, one of the founders of the Galt House. Everett purchased about 150 acres (0.61 km2) of land for $25,000 (USD). The land then was used to build himself a mansion. The estate passed down to his daughter Harriet, who later married and became Harriet Bonnycastle. After her husband's death, she donated land to Louisville to build Cherokee Park to spur future developments in 1891. Harriet would sell parcels of land for over the next twenty years and eventually in the late 1920s the Commodore Apartments went up. After surviving the Great Depression, and continuing as a luxury apartment building, it was sold for $650,000 and restored for another $125,000 in 1978 by Louisville native, actor and entrepreneur Roger Davis. Davis sold the Commodore in 1980 for $1,000,000 to Jack MacDonald of Acre Realty, Chicago which converted the Commodore from an apartment building to a condominium complex of 59 units. The building's passenger elevators are among the few remaining that require an elevator operator. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 29, 1982. List of Registered Historic Places in Jefferson County, Kentucky

Location

2140 Bonnycastle Ave.
Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky
38.23272, -85.70065

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Native Heritage
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Nearby Historic Sites

Rose Hill
Early Republic
0.3 mi
Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church
Industrial
0.4 mi
Schuster Building
Industrial
0.5 mi
Castleman, John B., Monument (Additional Documentation)
Listed
0.5 mi
Saint Francis of Assisi Complex
Pre Contact
0.5 mi

Nearby Battles

Morgan's Raid into Indiana
1863Civil War
5.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Commodore Apartment Building listed on the National Register?

Commodore Apartment Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1982.

What type of historic resource is Commodore Apartment Building?

Commodore Apartment Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Commodore Apartment Building?

The period of significance for Commodore Apartment Building is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Commodore Apartment Building?

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