Interview with Audrey A. Wright, April 27, 1982

Partial Transcript: April 27, 1982. Audrey Wright interviewed by Andrea McElderry at her home in the Highlands, Louisville, KY.

Partial Transcript: About building the house. Bought a second lot. House built around 1904.

Partial Transcript: Father born in England. His family moved to Texas. Family lost all their money because of a bad contract. Father took a job with the post office. Transferred to Louisville.

Partial Transcript: Wright's memories of moving into the house.

Partial Transcript: First houses near Baxter, mostly brick houses. St. Brigid's church [at Hepburn & Baxter] built after those houses; present church relatively new. Wright house closer to Barrett Ave.

Partial Transcript: When father first came to Louisville, Highland Ave was the city limit [one block west of Hepburn]. Streetcar turned around at Highland. Later extended line to Castlewood.

Partial Transcript: Took streetcar to sled on hill on Castlewood. Tyler Park too crowded with rough kids.

Partial Transcript: Area where Medical Arts Building was a dairy farm. Dahlia Farm where Summit Avenue is now, developed by Mengels, man with the furniture and lumber company in 1920s.

Keywords: Dahlia Farm; Medical Arts Building; Mengels

Partial Transcript: Great place to pick wildflowers. Man-made ice storage caves across from St. Louis cemetery. Barrett Ave cut down a lot when paved it to Castlewood. Sometimes took a shortcut through the cemetery on way home from school.

Partial Transcript: Her first day at Lucia School. Parents expected her to be independent so went by herself unlike other students.Amazed that many students cried. Walked to school. Once nuns at St. Brigid's took them in during a storm.

Partial Transcript: Grocery store on the point. Streetcar horse barn northwest corner of Highland and Baxter [Walgreens in 2017]. Children drank from the horse fountain. Walgreens small, auto parts store next to it.

Partial Transcript: Bardstown Rd paved but doesn't remember with what. No dirt roads.Lucia "well populated [with houses].

Partial Transcript: Went to school with children from GPOH and later taught them at Lucia [Bloom] School. Clothes all made from same fabric so children could be "picked out." When taught there around 1950, clothes just like other children.

Partial Transcript: Two year program at Louisville Normal. Was Breckenridge School at Breckenridge and Broadway in 1982. Free tuition because not paid for teaching. Rotated to schools for 8 weeks at a time. Wright was fully responsible for of a class at Isaac Shelby school on Mary St. Estimates 10 classes taken care of "that way." Well supervised.

Partial Transcript: Can't remember not being able to read. Father read to his children. Made up stories about "wang-doodles" (monkeys) to teach her brothers.

Partial Transcript: Bloom School in 1950s. First taught at Roberts School at Clay and Market. in 1930s. Culture shock. Had never know such people existed. Haymarket. Very poor, had sores, lice. Bought ties for the boys. Was imposing her culture.

Keywords: Bloom School

Partial Transcript: All the schools closed except Roberts including Catholic schools, school at Jefferson & Chestnut. Mercer school used Roberts. Double shifts, 6 days a week. Her shift 8-12; Mercer shift 12-4. Had to move out all of their materials.

Partial Transcript: No water in Hepburn. Brother has trouble getting home. Change in immediate Hepburn area took place after World War II, not because of flood. Devastating effect on friends in West End.

Partial Transcript: "So much better" than Roberts School. Asked for a transfer. Class size 35 instead of 75. City didn't allow squatters under K & I bridge after flood so had "real nice people." Families sent children to school regularly. Transferred a lot; liked variety.

Partial Transcript: .Went to GPOH about a problem with a boy in her class. Tells story. Children there were mainly unwanted. Hardest time for children was at night. Staff lived there and later had 8 hour shifts. Doesn't know who supported the home but thinks German groups in town.

Partial Transcript: Doesn't know if Germans supported the home. Talks about German music organizations in Louisville. Quintet Club.

Partial Transcript: Foster care were replacing orphanages. Trees in back where children played. Stone wall from nearby quarry.

Partial Transcript: Work and stone quarry near Lexington Road and Payne Street.All the houses and curbing in her neighborhood have stone foundations.

Partial Transcript: A&P Store store moved from close to Bloom School. Taught some of the children of the clerks.

Partial Transcript: Confectionaries: Ehrmann's Bakery; Brown and Tabler at Morton and Baxter; Carters where the bank building is at Mid-City Mall and Longest. (A liquor store in 2017). Ehrmann's between Grinstead and Elwood "on west side of the street. Ehrmann's ice cream, chewing gum

Keywords: Brown and Tabler; Carter's; Ehrmann's Bakery

Partial Transcript: Played mainly with children on Hepburn. Hepburn was the only asphalt paved street. Children came there to skate. First she had wooden skates, then steel and finally ball bearing.

Partial Transcript: Brothers made costumes from crepe paper and decorated their bicycles to be in parade and prizes. Children rode in trucks in parade. People decorated property with flags, bunting and set off fireworks. Fireworks at Tyler Park, a big event. Financed by donations.

Partial Transcript: Went to see plays. Roy Merkin (sp?) put on plays at night on west side of park. Describes setting for plays. No stage.

Partial Transcript: Easter egg hunts; played school in Seelbach's carriage house; hopscotch, jump rope, hide and seek.

Partial Transcript: Cherokee Park was very far. She and a friend afraid would get lost going to see a friend on Willow Ave so dropped dandelions along the way. Only time in Cherokee Park was for her father's lodge picnic. Describes.

Partial Transcript: Two theaters, on open air, on Bardstown Rd between Grinstead and Highland. Movies flicked; Live piano in one.

Partial Transcript: Fathers' had a certain whistle to call children home. Street lights on every corner. Thinks they were carbon. Describes men changing the lights. had "granitoid" (crushed granite) sidewalks. Early morning, dead bugs under the lights.

Partial Transcript: Wright had a job. Father had a job at the post office. Her mother had money bank that closed in 1929.

Partial Transcript: People moved out. New residents "not as desirable." Houses broken into apartments Many people on Hepburn built on Windsor Place, a restricted development.

Partial Transcript: Describes restrictions: house must set back certain amt of feet; no industry; phone wire all in alleys; 2 fire plugs on every block.

Partial Transcript: The French consul; a man with the German bank; the Seelbach's; Miss Karen Beauregard, a music supervisor.

Partial Transcript: To Windsor Pl after WWI: The Frishner's [sp ?]; the Schuff's [sp?]; Dr. Carter. Seelbach's moved to "the hotel" and then to Castlewood. Thinks houses on Windsor too close together. Architect D.H. Murphy designed many of the houses; lived on street. Names some other people on Windsor

Partial Transcript: Houses being converted back to one family homes. After WWII, at one point Wright couldn't stand the neighborhood and wanted to leave. Her father wouldn't move.

Partial Transcript: Ice and milk delivered. Stone-lined refrigerator. Card in window specified how much ice needed.Children got up in ice wagons for broken bits of ice. Stove in house long before mother died in 1939. Thermostat still working.