Louisville Trip III

3. A brief trip to Louisville's downtown revealed a few interesting things. I wanted to drive by the Presbyterian Church (USA) headquarters, since Louisville had coaxed that denomination's leaders to relocate there about 15 years ago. The digs aren't very impressive; they seemingly are on land that might have once been owned (or still is owned?) by Humana; the building is plain and relatively removed from the rest of the downtown. It made me wonder what kind of thought went into the decision to relocate and whether the building indeed is a positive place for people of faith to be expressing their ministries. Well, of more interest to me was a sign standing at 4th and Muhammad Ali (formerly Walnut). At first I drove by it and saw something about "Thomas Merton," and I knew I had to return to it. It was the location, the sign tells us, of an overwhelmingly powerful vision Merton had in March 1958, a vision that led him away from his cloistered Trappist existence into a life of engagement with the world and sympathy with social reform. It was, in my judgment, his "pre-60s" Sixties vision. This web site talks about the two "versions" of this vision, related in two of his subsequent works. Indeed, until I decided to "spend an hour" on Merton, I never knew the account of his death by electrocution, narrated by author John Howard Griffin, here.

While downtown, I decided to venture into the Seelback Hilton hotel. I had heard from someone that F. Scott Fitzgerald, a favorite author of my girlfriend's son, either did some writing there or had often visited there. It is a very distinguished hotel, one of the oldest in the city, and I picked up a multi-page history of this hotel and the brothers Seelbach, who built this "example of lavish turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts Baroque architectural style" in 1905. The brochure says, "In 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald immortalized the hotel in his novel, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald referred to The Seelbach when his characters, Tom Buchanan and Daisy, were marrried in Louisville." Fitzgerald was stationed at nearby Fort Knox, and he came to the hotel for "bourbon and cigars" when he was off duty. This page tells more about how another Louisville character, whom Fitzgerald met at the hotel, who became the inspiration for Jay Gatsby in the same book. Attention to details--and the world opens.

4 and 5. Well, if you are in Louisville, you might as well get another state under your belt, and so we headed off to Southern IN on Sunday afternoon. It is a short drive across the mighty Ohio River to reach Clarksville and New Albany IN. An ice cream at a faux Queen Anne home allowed a spacious view of the Louisville downtown. It was such a romantic setting--the still river, delicious ice cream, quiet city, only broken by the occasional shriek of a child or passing automobile. We headed for the museum at the Falls of the Ohio, but got there too late to enter; yet it provided time for learning about George Rogers Clark, after whom Clarksville was named, and to venture briefly into New Albany, where we discovered the Culbertson's mansion, a fine example of Second Empire home construction, built by the richest man in Indiana in the late 1860s. I think I began to develop a romantic vision (hm..maybe this is something that I am susceptible to..) about the life of George Rogers Clark. After all, he made his mark in the world by capturing Kaskaskia in 1778 and Vincennes in 1779, thus halting the influence of the British in Southern IN/IL and eventually leading, as the story goes, to the cession of the Northwest Territory to the US shortly thereafter. After the war he was granted more than 100,000 acres by the VA legislature (KY was not a state until 1792--15th state) and VA claimed land South of the Ohio River, in gratitude for his service to the country. But most of the land was North of the Ohio River; does this mean that VA also claimed that land? In any case, He first set up on "Mulberry Hill" around Louisville in 1785, moving to a cabin in Indiana at the Falls of the Ohio in 1803, only to return to Locust Grove, then South of Louisville and the home of his sister and her husband, in 1809. He died at Locust Grove in 1818.

I confess that at first I looked Clark's life with a rose-eyed view. I envisioned him living his life in his cabin within view of the Falls of the Ohio for those six years, rising every morning to greet the day, engaging in deep thought about rivers and America's destiny, enjoying the fulness of a life which had contributed to the definition of the American dream. But this simply wasn't true. He moved to Indiana, apparently, to escape creditors. He was destitute because he had problems with alcohol and, apparently, wasn't able to plan too well about his life and resources. And, when he decided to live with his sister and husband at Locust Grove in 1809 it was because he had had a stroke, perhaps induced by an alcohol-driven fall into the fire at his cabin. In any case, his life seemed to end with Clark as a mere shadow of his former self. Perhaps, as Orson Welles discovered, too much success too early in life, "before its time," might not be good for you. Clark was also the brother of William Clark, of Lewis & Clark fame, and the first stories of that great expedition were narrated in the Locust Grove cabin late in 1806 when the Lewis & Clark expedition disbanded.

Which leads to one final word--about Locust Grove. We visited there on a hot Monday afternoon, where I saw my first Kentucky coffeetree on the trip (it used to be the state tree, but for some inexplicable reason the Tulip Tree is now the state tree. The latter is common in many states; whereas the fluttering leaves of the coffeetree only grace a few) and saw the federal-style 1790 home where George Rogers Clark spent his last days. The brochure I picked up there says nothing about his debts or his alcoholism. Minor oversights, I am sure. In any case, a return visit might be indicated, since I learned that the gardens at the home are "historical gardens," which seek to grow the same kinds of plants that would have been grown in the late 18th century. If there is anything more interesting to me than historical homes it is historical gardens.

Thus ended the first leg of our trip, to Louisville. We headed South to the Bernheim Arboretum on Tuesday morning, June 30.

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