The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Ivey Watkins Cousins Negative Collection

Title

Ivey Watkins Cousins Negative Collection

Subject

Louisville (Ky.)
Demolition
Buildings
Construction

Description

Ivey W. Cousins, a native of Danville, Va., retired as a leaf tobacco buyer and dealer in 1944 and moved to Louisville, Ky. While living in his adopted city, he ran the Louisville Service Club's hobby shop and taught woodworking, became an assistant curator at the Louisville Free Public Library's museum, and began taking photographs of Louisville scenes. The collection contains only negatives and few have been printed. His photographs recorded street scenes and buildings primarily in downtown Louisville from Broadway north to Main street, and on the main north-south streets in this area. There are some photographs on Third and Fourth Streets in the Old Louisville residential area. Many of the scenes photographed no longer exist because of urban renewal, construction of expressways, and expansion of the medical center/hospital complex east of the central business district.

Creator

Cousins, Ivey W. (1897-1973)

Source

Ivey Watkins Cousins Negative Collection

Date

1959-1960

Rights

This image is issued by The Filson Historical Society. Property rights in the collection belong to The Filson Historical Society. The user is responsible for copyright issues. Permission for use of this image for ANY reason should be obtained by contacting Filson's Curator of Collections via research@filsonhistorical.org.

Format

black-and-white negatives

Collection Items

  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/iwc_0703_t.jpg

    Reproduction of a negative by Ivey Watksins Cousins (1898-1973). It captures the joy of young Black boys playing with a pet dog in a northwestern view of East Broadway and South Jackson Street in Louisville, Kentucky. A native of Danville, Virginia, Ivey Watkins Cousins moved to Louisville in 1944. He held numerous jobs over the years, working as a tobacco dealer, photographer, machine-shop instructor, manager of the USO Shop, and Curator of the Louisville Library Museum. In 1959, he began photographing houses and structures being demolished to make way for I-65. After viewing the images, the Filson Club Board of Directors gave Cousins $25 to buy film for his project. This is one of the few images in which Cousins photographs people.
  • IWC_1369_t_BW.jpg

    View of sidewalk goods and a mule wagon at 118 East Market Street. The wagon has junk and car tires.
  • IWC_1259_t_BW.jpg

    View of the bridge arch and the Ohio River at North 2nd (Second) Street and River Road. A number of cars a waiting at a stoplight.
  • IWC_0952_t_BW-11.jpg

    View of a Drug Store at 2000 Portland Ave in 1959. The original log book from I.W. Cousins reads "E.G. Switzer Drug Store 2000 Portland Ave." A sign on the window says "Katzmann's" and is listed in the city directory in 1959.
  • IWC_0882_t_BW.jpg

    View of a partially torn down house on East Gray Street. The house was torn down as part of the I-65 construction project.
  • IWC_0881_t_BW.jpg

    View of the southeastern corner of the street at South 1st (First) Street and East Gray Street. The image depicts several buildings being demolished for the construction of I-65.
  • IWC_0782_t_BW.jpg

    Eastern view of the south side of the Ohio River looking toward the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge [Second Street Bridge].
  • IWC_0776_t_BW.jpg

    View of an old home at Billy Goat Strut Alley and 110 South Preston Street.
  • IWC_0764_t_BW.jpg

    View of Male High School at South Brook Street and East Breckinridge Street. Properties across the street were raised for Interstate 65.
  • IWC_0734_t.jpg

    View of the street at West Broadway and Armory Place. Liberty National Bank and Trust Company building and The Courier-Journal, The Louisville Times, and WHAS building are in the frame.
  • IWC_0631_t.jpg

    View of the street at East Broadway and Barret Avenue with OK Storage building on the right.
  • IWC_0630_t.jpg

    View of Beargrass Creek north of East Broadway. Ballard Mills is in the distance.
  • IWC_0491_t.jpg

    Demolition view of the stone house, door, 924 South 4th (Fourth) Street. [Cousins notes that this is a Henry Whitestone home].
  • IWC_0447_t.jpg

    Northeast corner of South 4th (Fourth) and West Chestnut Streets including the Louisville Gas and Electric Company building.
  • IWC_0444.jpg

    View to the north of the street at 629 South 4th (Fourth) Street with the Loew's and United Artists theatre. [Loew's is now the Louisville Palace.]
  • IWC_0416_t.jpg

    Louisville Apothecary window display including drug jars and a painting of a model store at 337 West Broadway.
  • IWC_0384_t.jpg

    North northeast view of Louisville from the top floor of the Columbia Building at the northwest corner of North 4th (Fourth) Street and West Main Street. The Ohio River and George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge [Second Street Bridge] right frame.
  • IWC_0343_t.jpg

    View of the Louisville Service Club at 824 South 4th (Fourth) Street [now part of Spalding University)
  • IWC_0313_t.jpg

    East view of the boat landing and the Coast Guard station at West River Road and North 6th (Sixth) Street.
  • IWC_0297_t.jpg

    View of square dancers in front of the Greyhound Bus Station on Broadway and South 4th (Fourth) Street, probably part of the Pegasus Parade.

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