Timeline: How Louisville Collegiate School has expanded within its historic neighborhood
Over the past 100 years, Louisville Collegiate School's footprint has grown more than six times its original size within Cherokee Triangle.
The private school now takes up 6.5 acres along Glenmary Avenue, with about 777 students and 150 faculty filling its buildings.
Here's a timeline of the school's expansion, using information from Courier Journal archives.
For subscribers:Inside the 50-year fight between a prestigious private school and its Louisville neighbors
1915: Collegiate opens in Old Louisville
Louisville Collegiate initially opened as an all-girls school within a home on Ormsby Avenue. It was founded by William Speed and his wife, Virginia, with prominent board members including U.S. Senator Frederic Sackett.
1927: Collegiate moves to Cherokee Triangle
Within 10 years, Collegiate had outgrown its first building. In June 1925, William Speed announced a donation of $100,000 to build a new campus on Glenmary Avenue. And in 1927, students moved in.
The following year, 19 Louisvillians donated five additional lots to the school for a future expansion.
1977: Collegiate demolishes Victorian home
One of the first contested demolitions by the school took place in 1977, when Collegiate proposed razing a Victorian home built in 1890 to put in more parking.
Collegiate had purchased the home on Grinstead Drive seven years earlier in an effort to "protect the neighborhood" after it was zoned commercially. But the school did not "care to be in the real estate business," principal Nancy Kussrow said. And the home was beyond repair.
In April, Louisville's Historic Landmarks and Preservation Districts Commission rejected the school's application. But a technicality later let Collegiate proceed. The house was razed that December.
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1999: Neighbors ramp up fight against Collegiate
Between 1981 and 1985, Collegiate demolished five more homes. And in 1993, it proposed tearing down two additional homes to again add parking, this time along Ray Avenue.
The landmarks commission denied the school a permit to raze the buildings. But Collegiate had already drawn the ire of some neighbors, who formed the Glenmary Neighborhood Association in 1998.
Over the next year, the group sent letters to Collegiate parents, asking them to stop future expansions. Residents began parking their cars outside school board members' homes, to show what they dealt with on a daily basis. And during Kentucky Derby weekend, they flew a banner over Churchill Downs, calling on Collegiate to split its campus.
More:Louisville Collegiate School plan to tear down nearby apartments has residents up in arms
2004: Collegiate opens first phase of $18 million expansion
Despite neighborhood pushback, Collegiate eventually received permission to demolish the Ray Avenue homes after arguing it would cost too much to rehabilitate them.
In 2002, the school broke ground on the first phase of an $18 million expansion, which shifted parking to land where the homes once stood and added new upper school classrooms, along with a gymnasium. Work was completed in 2004.
2019: Collegiate opens new dining hall, arts building
Following a five-year capital campaign, Collegiate opened a new addition with a dining hall and spaces for its arts programs. According to Louisville Business First, the expansion cost about $14 million.
2022: Collegiate proposes demolishing Yorktown Apartments
After purchasing the 48-unit apartment complex in 2015, Collegiate proposed tearing down the buildings to make way for a 56-space parking lot.
The Cherokee Triangle Architectural Review Committee denied the request Wednesday.
Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at bloosemore@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4646 or on Twitter @bloosemore.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: How Louisville Collegiate School has expanded within this neighborhood
