1473 St. James Court (Kate Shindler Avery)
Residence of Kate Shindler Avery from 1893-1898
Known as the Pink Palace, this building was initially designed and constructed in 1891 as the “Saint James Court Casino," a gentleman’s club featuring gambling women, who were kept on the second floor. This accounts for the somewhat unusual layout of the building with a large balcony overlooking the front rooms. However, George C. Avery and his new wife, Kate Shindler Avery, purchased the building and made it their home from 1893-1898. G. H. Wilson bought the home from the Averys and lived there for many years before the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) made it a headquarters in the 1920s. It is rumored that they were the ones to paint the building pink at that time. The WCTU were extremely active in several women’s initiatives, including women’s voting rights, and many of their members (including Kate Avery) were also members of the Equal Rights Association. As the name suggests, they were primarily concerned with “temperance” or stopping the influence of alcohol on families. They were a main driver in the move for Prohibition.
Kate Jewett married into one of the more prominent families in Louisville on January 7, 1891. Her husband, George Avery, was the secretary and president of his family's business, B. F. Avery Co., which manufactured plows and other farm implements. His mother was the noted suffragist Susan Look Avery. All of the Avery daughters were involved with their mother in the woman’s movement in some fashion and daughter-in-law Kate fit right in, joining the Woman’s Club of Louisville in 1891. Kate served as WCL treasurer from 1896-1897, second vice president from 1901-1902, president from 1904-1906, first vice president from 1906-1908, and took another term as president from 1908-1910.
Kate was a regular delegate from the Woman’s Club of Louisville to the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, where she was elected President in 1902. In 1904 she served as President of the Louisville Women’s Emergency Club, the forerunner of the local chapter of the Red Cross, and was a Director of the Associated Charities of Louisville in 1916. During World War I, Kate was Chairwoman of the Women’s Division of the Council of National Defense. She was an early member of the Louisville Equal Rights Association (LERA) along with her mother-in-law Susan Look Avery, who is credited as its founder. Founded in 1889, LERA and its successor Louisville Suffrage Association was known for its work getting the Kentucky school suffrage issue passed in 1910, where the right for women to vote in school board elections was granted again (after being taken away) and of course getting the right to vote in general elections in 1920. Kate was known as one of the most prominent club women of the state, having distinguished herself both as a leader and a speaker.