[2][3] It is also unique in that a majority of its structures are made of brick, and the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of residential homes with stained glass windows in the U.S.[3] Many of the buildings are in the Victorian era styles of Romanesque Revival, Queen Anne, or Italianate, and many blocks have had few or no buildings razed.

Following revitalization efforts and gentrification, Old Louisville is currently home to a diverse population with a high concentration of students and young professionals.

[10] The land south of Broadway that became Old Louisville was annexed by the city in 1868, as a part of larger expansion efforts.

A year later, architect Gideon Shryock called the area "a growing and beautiful suburban locality".

[11] Development continued as lots were sold southward to present day Oak Street, about a third of the way between Broadway and the House of Refuge.

It was held on 45 acres (180,000 m2) at the heart of Old Louisville, where St. James Court and Central Park (originally Dupont Square) would eventually be located, and included a 600 by 900-foot (270 m) enclosed exhibition building.

[13][14] During the 1880s, after the exposition ended, the area between Oak and Hill Streets rapidly developed and became one of the city's most fashionable neighborhoods.

This included one of Old Louisville's most famous sections, St. James Court, developed starting in 1890 and envisioned as a haven for the upper class, and was completely occupied by 1905.

[16] Described as "the epitome of Victorian eclecticism", the area included houses in such styles as Venetian, Colonial, Gothic and others.

[17] From 1890 to 1905 the area was home to the Amphitheatre Auditorium, which claimed the second largest stage in the United States and showcased many of the day's best actors.

The structure, located at the corner of 4th and Hill Streets, was razed after its owner William Norton Jr.

[18] Another form of entertainment in the area was baseball, with the game first being played by 1860 and an early ballpark at Fourth and Ormsby emerging after the Civil War.

[citation needed] The gradual abandonment of Old Louisville by the wealthy was a reflection of changing lifestyles brought on by technology.

Because of the relatively high wages offered by manufacturing jobs, servants were no longer affordable to all but the wealthiest families by the mid-20th century.

[21] In the interwar period, many of the neighborhood's old mansions were hastily converted into apartments to house the growing labor supply, a practice encouraged by the federal government at the time through low-interest loans.

However, after World War II, with the housing shortage solved by large-scale suburban development affordable to the middle class, vacancy rates in Old Louisville surged.

[23] During the 1960s many low income residents downtown who were displaced as a result of urban renewal moved into the newly converted apartments, especially on the north side of the neighborhood.

[24] The very term Old Louisville, first becoming associated with the area in the 1940s, had mostly negative connotations initially, as historian Samuel W. Thomas put it, "In an Era where architectural styles were changing dramatically, old meant out of fashion".

The area of 6th and Hill Streets in the neighborhood was the setting of the best selling novel Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch by Louisvillian Alice Hegan Rice.

Today there is a non-profit counseling and services center, named Cabbage Patch Settlement House for the novel, on 6th Street at Magnolia Avenue, which serves children of low-income families.

Originally, the neighborhood extended all the way to Broadway on the north, Attwood Street on the south, and Floyd Street on the East; but the northern part was mostly razed for parking lots and light industry, the southern area between Attwood and Avery Streets (now Cardinal Blvd) was razed when the University of Louisville doubled the size of its main campus, and I-65 was built through the area in the 1960s, which created a physical barrier between it and Shelby Park neighborhood.

This specific building was completed in 1897 and one of its first residents was William H. Wathen, M.D., an eminent medical educator in Louisville from a family of successful distillers.

[citation needed] After years of decline with abandoned buildings and high elderly populations, the demographics of Old Louisville began to change noticeably in the 1990s.

New residents were not just college students using the area as housing, but also young professionals who wanted to live in Old Louisville.

The Courier-Journal's Velocity weekly has reported the area as a hip, emerging center of culture in Louisville.

This change is reflected in numerous coffeehouses, restaurants and bars opening in Old Louisville in the 1990s and early 2000s targeting at the younger crowd.