Come join us in celebrating the creativity
of our historic Louisville neighborhood
Saturday, September 9th
11am to 5pm
We’ll have Lytle and 17th streets closed off to cars between LVA and the Tim Faulkner gallery. There will be bike tours, exhibits and international events planned along Portland Avenue and Northwestern Parkway from the warehouse district at 15th St to the Dolfinger Building at 25th St. Bring your family and your appetite for food, inspiration, diversity and fun!
The event will span our richly historic neighborhood with three main nautically-dubbed activity pods.
STARBOARD
Beginning in Portland’s East Warehouse District, we’ll start with the STARBOARD SIDE.
ARRIVING BY CAR? Enter through the Core Design gate at 1612 Portland Avenue, park in the rear lot and step out onto Lytle Street, which will be closed to cars between the Tim Faulkner Gallery (1512 Portland Ave) and the Louisville Visual Art (1538 Lyle Ave) campus.
ARRIVING BY BIKE? Bike travel is recommended, not only as a way to get to PAHF (we’re less than a mile from downtown!), but as a means to tour our entire neighborhood. There will be bike parking racks at all three pods.
At the Tim Faulkner Gallery, UofL will install their 14’x30′ Owsley Brown II Portable Planetarium inside the back venue area, for stargazers young and old to enjoy. Across the car-free street, LVA will host their annual juried art competition, as well as craft booths, vendors and face painting in the parking lot & grassy tree-shaded area to the west of their gallery. The middle of Lytle St will be popping off with the 2nd Annual Cornhole Cup, food trucks and bike tours departing regularly.
GET ON THE BUS! If you aren’t a cyclist, you can climb aboard Love City’s Love Bus (after eating some of their classic fish fry fare) and take a trip down Portland Avenue, but don’t miss the activities in the new Louisville Grows Healthy House! While you’re at it, pick up some fresh produce/baked goods at Lots of Food, see a fabric dyeing demo at Anchal’s dyeScape and drop by The Table Cafe for a snack.
Connected to the Table is the Promise Church, which is another must-see location along the route. They’ll be hosting the Portland Anchor “Louisville’s oldest neighborhood newspaper” retrospective exhibit, where you can view poster-sized cover prints from all 43 years of our beloved local publication. Author Jim Higdon will be hosting a Q&A about his upcoming Portland history book, and the Anchor founder/former longtime Home of the Innocents director Gordon Brown will say a few words. Our buddy Gill Holland will help introduce the guest speakers.
If you are a cyclist, pedal across Portland Ave to the Falls Art Foundry, where both front and back garage doors will be open for you to ride directly through their warehouse. Watch these talented artists create an increasingly rare form of sculpture with a hot metal pouring demonstration.
THE BOW
GO WEST. Continue pedaling/Love Bussing/walking west down Portland Avenue and you’ll soon be at the second activity pod we’re calling THE BOW: the grounds of our community’s gorgeous antebellum cornerstone – The US Marine Hospital. Established in 1845 and located behind the Family Health Center (FHC) at 2215 Portland Ave, the US Marine is a show-stopper. While most of the stately building is still awaiting rehabilitation, there are several pristine rooms on the ground floor that will be open to the public. FHC will provide light refreshments and several local musicians will perform while guests wait their turn to ride on an actual horse buggy, courtesy of Louisville Horse Trams.
PORT SIDE
The 10-passenger buggy will travel around a short loop down Portland Ave to 25th St, and then up to 2500 Montgomery St for passenger unloading at our neighborhood’s second-most significant antebellum building, The Dolfinger. We’ve named this area PORT SIDE, the 3rd and final activity pod.
For guests on bike or on foot, don’t miss several key locations along the Portland Avenue route from the Marine to the Dolfinger: Local artist Bob Cheever will be demonstrating glass blowing and other activities in front of the renovation-in-progress 1870s farmhouse at 2302 Portland Ave. Next door is the Portland Museum, which will be open for tours and a special letterpress demonstration by concert poster designer Brad Vetter. Finally, stop off for a healthy snack at Farm to Fork (2425 Portland Ave), our neighborhood’s newest locally-sourced cafe. Take a right on 25th, and you’re a block away from the Dolfinger!
The Dolfinger will be home to many activities hosted by the diverse group of tenants in the building.
Starting at 11, there’s a meditation room session by Interfaith Paths to Peace. After calming your inner self, get ready to celebrate with Squallis Puppeteers, World Affairs Council, Sister Cities, the Crane House dancers, a bourbon tasting, scavenger hunts and open studios with the world renown artist tenants upstairs (including Anchal Project, an award-winning quilt & accessories designer/manufacturer that “empowers women through design”). Witness the unveiling of the building’s new Kentucky Historical Marker out front and its new huge parking lot sundial out back.
If that’s not all quite enough for you, local author Brenda Duffey has put together a detailed walking tour of the oldest section of Portland, just south of the former Portland Wharf area on Rudd Avenue and Northwestern Parkway. This self-guided tour begins only a few blocks west of the Dolfinger – where Brenda attended school as a child. Soak in a little history about the surrounding Italianate architecture and the Squire Earick house, built in 1815 and believed to be the oldest wood-framed structure in Kentucky still standing. Among many other points of interest along the way, see our Beaux-Arts style Portland Branch Library and our historic spiritual and social center, Good Shepherd Catholic Church (formerly the Church of Our Lady), founded in 1839.
If you’re bicycling the route, you can hop on scenic Northwestern Parkway (one block north of the Dolfinger) and ride back east to STARBOARD SIDE by way of a beer tasting hosted by Against The Grain’s brewery at 1800 Northwestern Pkwy. Only four more blocks and you’ll be back on Lytle St, right where you began.
Thanks for spending the day with us here in Portland. As always, we invite you to “come for the history, stay for the future”!
All performances are FREE and open to the public. Limited seating will be available at most locations, but guests are encouraged to bring their own chairs. Handicapped parking is available as well as parking for bicycles at most locations.
