Waggener High School - RingBrothersHistory.com

The Voice of St. Matthews, January 12, 1956: Not Altogether Suburban After 1955St. Matthews Not Altogether Suburban After 1955In October, the Greater Louisville First federal Savings and Loan Association opened its sixth branch office in a new buildingat 4510 Shelbyville Road.But the biggest commercial building news of the year was the grand opening of The Shelbyville Road Plaza on November29. Under construction for nearly a year, 23 of the 27 stores were ready by grand opening day, and thousands of peoplepoured into the new shopping center.Eighteen County policemen were hard-pressed to maintain a smooth flow of traffic into and out of the center. At 7 p.m. thecars were lined up from the entrance of the Plaza on Shelbyville Road to Hubbards Lane, almost one mile to the west.The Plaza businessmen elected dynamic young William McAuley, manager of the W. T. Grant store, as president of theirmerchants’ Association.The Plaza was developed by Ralph Bierbaum on a 34-acre site leased from R. W. Marshall for $25,000 a year for 99 years.There was parking for 1,500 to 2,000 cars, with reserve room in the back for more.Downtown St. Matthews merchants, only too aware of the growing shortage of parking space around their stores, eyed thenew center with some concern. In an attempt to meet the challenge presented by the Plaza and by the growing traffic problem,they organized the St. Matthew Business Association and elected Richard Wheeler of Canary Cottage chairman.That took place in August. Two months earlier, 60 St. Matthews businessmen launched a drive to promote shopping in St.Matthews, agreeing to run 10 full-page ads, one every three weeks, in The Voice. By the end of the year, about 200 businessmenhad joined the Business Association.The Plaza, of course did not paralyze other business activity. The same month it opened, the bank of Louisville brokeground for a $40,000 building next door. Commonwealth Life Insurance and Jones Apothecary were scheduled to move inwith branches. And in December, Sanders Cleaners announced it was putting up a $50,000 addition to its St. MatthewsAvenue plant and office.The president of the Kentucky Real Estate Association, Michael O’Dea, had issued a solemn warning in April. He said in aspeech before the St. Matthews Rotary Club that the St. Matthews business district would “suffer tremendously” in the nextfew years unless off-street parking facilities were provided. He predicted St. Matthews would continue to grow eastwardalong Shelbyville Road, and that Middletown, and the area between St. Matthews and Middletown, would be “the thrivingarea” unless St. Matthews businessmen took “special precautions.”With new businesses, including the giant Plaza, going up along Shelbyville Road, his warning did not go unheeded.Several local and business groups came up with proposals to climate traffic congestion, increase safety and provide parking.Mayor Noland got these groups together into a Safety and Traffic Advisory Council, headed by John Ratteman, localfuneral director.The State Highway Department in July produced a plan to improve traffic flow through St. Matthews. The plan, amongother things, called for making St. Matthews one-way north between Frankfort Avenue and Westport Road and to makeWestport Road one way between St. Matthews Avenue and Chenoweth Lane.Local businessmen pointed out somewhat acidly, that the plan would only aggravate the problem by throwing more trafficonto one of the most congested corners in St. Matthews, the one at Chenoweth Lane and Westport Road.The Business Association’s traffic committee, headed by Norman Ackerman of Sears, recommended that left turns be restoredoff Frankfort Avenue into Chenoweth and Breckenridge Lane, that a traffic light be installed at Lexington Road andBauer Avenue for safety, and that the speed limit be lowered here to 35 miles per hour and enforced. These recommendationswere passed on to City, County and state authorities.So far nothing has been done, and downtown St. Matthews is still struggling with its rush-hour and Saturday traffic problem.The businessmen know their future prosperity depends on solving it, and Mr. Ackerman’s committee is scheduled tomake further reports and recommendations.The last big news story of the business year was the Court of Appeals decision in December allowing Sears-Roebuck tobuild a store on the north side of Shelbyville Road, east of Browns Lane. Sears had announced earlier that it intended tobuild a $1 million store there with parking for 1,000 cars, and the Chamber of Commerce estimated the store would attract3,000 customers a day to the St. Matthews area.There were three other bits of interesting business news:The Duncan Motor Company, 126 Breckenridge Lane, in March announced that henceforth it would handle the DeSoto-Plymouth line of new cars, and was dropping its Studebaker franchise making it the first DeSoto-Plymouth agency in St.Matthews.