Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/300717
4 6 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.14 WHAT'S TRENDING? 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 TOTAL SALES: 15,128 AVG. PRICE: $173,723 2012 2007 2013 TOTAL SALES: 12,691 AVG. PRICE: $171,975 TOTAL SALES: 15,050 AVG. PRICE: $180,111 Annual Sales of Single-Family Homes Stories by Amy Talbott (In Jefferson and surrounding counties) Let's face it: Beechmont is low on the list of cool neighbor- hoods. When somebody comes to Louisville, nobody says, "Oh, I have to show you Beechmont." When I tell people that I live there, the likely response is, "Where the hell is Beechmont?" If you don't know, my neighborhood's rough boundar- ies are Second Street and Taylor Boulevard to the east and west and the Watterson Expressway and Iroquois Park to the north and south. Te center of the neighborhood is the commercial strip of Woodlawn Avenue that runs between Tird Street and Southern Parkway. If the rest of Louisville knows the neighborhood at all, it's as the place to get good Vietnamese food. When my boyfriend Jeremy and I started looking for a house in early 2013, I didn't think we'd end up here. But Jeremy, who grew up in Pleasure Ridge Park, wanted to look at the houses of Southern Parkway, just south of the Wat- terson. South. Of the Watterson. Tat was a big deal for me. When we saw the 1916 bungalow near the Iroquois Library, though, we fell in love. Since we moved here, I've met two other couples who are close to our ages (28 and 26). Katie Carter moved here with her husband Chris Otts in August 2012. Tey were looking for a three-bedroom house near a park. John Wardlaw and his wife Meghan moved here in July. At frst John wanted to buy a house in Oldham County where he grew up, but Meghan fell in love with a house on Southern Parkway. I'm not sure if this is unique to Louisville, but it's kind of funny how a little part of the city can become such a big deal when you live there. A little over a year after we moved here, I sat in a meeting talking about how to bring more cofee shops, restaurants and stores to the South End. It was a meeting for the Louisville Independent Business Alliance's new "Keep South Louisville Weird" campaign, which could be alternatively titled "Make the South End Cool." Te things that are already cool about the neighborhood: the paths on Southern Parkway for walkers, runners and bikers; the diversity (within walking distance of my house — pho, camel meat and a Cuban grocery store); and reasonable home prices. Te not-so-cool: that empty space that used to be a post ofce on Woodlawn, that building on the corner that used to be a bank, the eyesore of a car repair shop on the corner of Southern Parkway and Woodlawn. So, yeah, we're not the Highlands. But I'm not sure any- one really wants us to be. I was at the Peppermint Lounge bar, near Vietnam Kitchen in Iroquois Plaza, with some people from the neighborhood a few weeks ago, and a guy with a legitimate, non-ironic mullet walked in. He looked like he ruled the place. I must admit, that's one of the things I've come to fnd charming about this neighborhood. Buying Into Beechmont <$100K - $200K $200K - $400K $400K - $1 MILLION + 8,924 11,030 10,376 3,067 3,252 3,792 700 846 882 HOMES SOLD 38-49 Real Estate.indd 46 4/21/14 9:21 AM