Then and Now
During the construction of Camp Zachary Taylor, contractors operated on a policy to destroy any obstruction that they could not dispose of economically. While barns and outbuildings were universally destroyed, some of the farm houses that were on the camp site were saved for various purposes. At least seven of these homes still stand today.
4211 Poplar Level Road
Purchased by the US Government from Katherine Dahl, this home housed Camp Commander Major General Harry Hale. Today it is for sale.
3001 Greenup Road
Dr. James C. Mitchell leased and then sold his home and property for the Camp, but its distinctive frame remains in the neighborhood behind George Rogers Clark Park.
3823 Glenside Place and 1700 Marwood Drive
Brothers William and Joseph Crawford owned adjoining farms off Poplar Level Road before World War I, and both had to make way for the camp. Today their farmhouses sit streets apart in a residential area between Poplar Level and Illinois Avenue.
1215 Hess Lane
Behind Battery E of the 6th Regiment Field Artillery Replacement stands the former home of Herman Kurz, a Louisville grocer. You can see the house on Hess Lane today.
3760 Illinois Avenue
Supposedly the home of early Jefferson County settler Elizabeth Prather, the Ben Boerste house is across Illinois Avenue from the Louisville Nature Center’s parking lot.
940 French Avenue
S. Bodley sold this home and property for the Camp; in 1921, some of the property was repurchased by Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston and given to the city of Louisville as George Rogers Clark Park. This house remained in the residential area.