The following is the historical overview of Colonial Gardens through the years presented by Stefanie and Rosemary at the Landmark Hearing for Colonial Gardens.

The reason we are here tonight is to determine the fate of a beer garden- Colonial Gardens. I bet there are a lot of people in this room who are not familiar with the term beer garden.

The dictionary defines it as an outdoor tavern or an outdoor area adjoining a tavern where liquor is served.

Many times these beer gardens included live entertainment.

Beer Gardens were abundant in Louisville in the early 1900s. Fountain Ferry had a very popular beer garden- I never had the opportunity to experience it first hand because it was no longer in existence by the time I was born but I remember the magical stories told by my Grandparents and Great Grandparents- dressing in their fine clothes, having dinner and cocktails, the dancing and live entertainment, all under the starry sky.

Beer gardens were particularly popular in Louisville’s South End. As a matter of fact, Iroquois Park and the multiple beer gardens along New Cut Road once defined Louisville’s South End as the entertainment Mecca of the city of Louisville. You see, at the time, the South End was not developed- there were very few homes and businesses. The South End was a great escape from the heat and noise of the city, to the shade of the park and the entertainment of the beer gardens.

If you went back in time about 80 years and took a walk down New Cut Road, let’s say you started just about at the corner of Southern Parkway and New Cut – you would have been at (see Sanborn Map)

• Summers Park. Summer’s Park was popular beer garden. It had fine dining, a dance hall and live entertainment. It operated May 1^st through October 1^st, yearly. It’s not there today.
• If you traveled south on New Cut to Kenwood Drive, you came to Senning’s Park- today known as Colonial Gardens. Another popular beer garden with fine dining and live entertainment but this one had a bonus- it included a zoo, as a matter of fact it was Louisville’s first zoo- I’ll talk more about that in just a minute.
• f you traveled just a little further south on New Cut, you would arrive at Iroquois Gardens, yes; another popular beer garden with fine dining that boasted such acts as Jayne Mansfield, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman. It’s not here today either. However, if you go to the Iroquois Gardens apartments and walk to the pool, it will give you a good idea as to where the bandstand stood that once housed the great acts that I mentioned.

But like I said in the beginning, we are here today to talk about the fate of Colonial Gardens so I am going to talk a little bit about the history of Colonial Gardens- which was originally developed as Senning’s Park.

The Fred and Minnie Senning were married March 8, 1877- I remember that date because it is my birthday.

As the street car reached out to the South End and the Grand Boulevard, today known as Southern Parkway, reached out to Iroquois Park, the Senning’s, being the entrepreneurs that they were, decided to head south as well. They settled at the corner of New Cut Road and Kenwood Drive where they constructed Senning’s Park in 1902. Fred and Minnie operated a successful beer garden, fine dining establishment for many years.

Around 1920, Fred and Minnie went to spend some time in Germany. They turned operation of Senning’s Park over to their son, Bill Senning. Bill took the beer garden to an all new level; he opened a zoo on the premises.

When Rosemary and I first started researching the book A View from the Top, the Neighborhoods of Iroquois Park and Kenwood Hill, we talked to a lot of the “kids” who grew up in the neighborhood while Senning’s Park was a thriving establishment.

Bill Taffel lived at 500 Kenwood Drive- you probably know the house, big 3 story brick house across the street from DeSales High School. Bill remembered being on the sleeping porch on warm summer nights and listening to the lions roar at Senning’s Park. Mr. Taffel raised pigeons at that same house and speculates that the pigeons that hang out at Colonial Gardens today are probably decedents of his pigeons.

One of the highlights of researching the book was coming across a newspaper interview w/Bill Senning Jr. (son of Bill Senning, zoo operator) from the 1980s. The article talked about the menagerie of animals that occupied Senning’s Park- there were lions, tigers and bears and noted that due to Mr. Senning’s successes and failures with the animals over the years, the James Graham Brown Foundation consulted with him as they prepared to develop the current Louisville Zoo. If you are interested, you can go down to the University of Louisville Photographic Archives and find copies of Mr. Senning’s correspondence with other zoos and exotic animal collectors as he was acquiring additions to the zoo.

The article mentioned that Bill Senning was in his 60s at the time of the interview and living in Lubbock, Texas. We wondered if he was still there in 2006? With modern technology at our fingertips, we Googled Bill Senning in Lubbock, Texas and one match popped up on the computer screen. We decided to see if it was “our” Bill Senning. I got an answering machine with a young woman’s voice. I started leaving a detailed message about who I was and the project I was working on and the fact that I was taking a chance to see if they were the same Senning’s that once operated Senning’s Park in Louisville, KY. About that time, an excited young woman picked up the phone and said her Grandfather was Bill Senning Jr. His father operated Senning’s Park in Louisville, Kentucky.

Bill Senning Jr. was a wealth of information. He filled in a lot of the gaps in history. Yes, the Senning’s family did live on the premises. They lived upstairs in the Colonial Gardens building that exists today.

Bill is a great story teller. One of the favorite attractions was Jimmy the Bear. On a particularly hot day, park goers fed Jimmy the Bear so much ice-cream that he passed out. The park management had to throw a bucket of water on poor Jimmy to revive him.

And for those of you who are wondering what they did with the alligators and other cold blooded reptiles during the winter? Well they stored them in the basement of the Colonial Gardens building, of course.

During its heyday, the popularity of Senning’s Park prompted the Louisville Street Railway Company to add cars to their service to Third Street and New Cut Road. For Memorial Day alone, the park prepared to serve 8,000-10,000 people.

During the Depression, Senning’s Park fell on hard times. The animals were expensive to care for and feed. Bill Senning could no longer afford to maintain the operation. Fred and Minnie returned from Germany and resumed operation of the park. Bill Senning Jr. recalled how scary the depression was. He spoke of well educated people who could not find jobs coming to the door of Senning’s Park in the middle of the night asking for food. Fred and Minnie continued to operate a successful beer garden until Fred’s death in 1939.

Senning’s Park was sold to BA Watson for $15,000. At that time, the famous columns were added to the façade and the name was changed to Colonial Bar and Grill. During the 1940s, it hosted big band entertainment, dancing and a full service restaurant.

During the early 1950s, Colonial Gardens was purchased by Herm Schmid and although the Colonial Gardens was operated by the Bryant family for over 40 years, the property has remained in the Schmid family until this day.

Throughout the years, local history has dictated that famous acts played at Colonial Gardens-

• Elvis Presley- in town for show at Armory made his way to Colonial Gardens in the middle of the night for impromptu performance.
• Jerry Lee Lewis- Played on pink baby grand piano. The story was never confirmed but years later, a pink baby grand, turned on its side was found in a closet on the second floor.
• Billy Crash Craddock and even Angie Humphrey- the local weather girl played the stage at Colonial Gardens.

To some people this building is special because they met their spouse there or it is the place they went on their first date.

I met a woman over the weekend who told me she had a tape of her grandmother talking about drinking her first cola at Senning’s Park and another who told me her husband proposed to her at Colonial Gardens.

So many times, this building has morphed into what it has needed to be to contribute to our community. I do not think those of us in this room have different goals, just a different way at looking to achieve the goal. Before we throw away our first zoo, our last beer garden, let’s fully explore the possibility of it once again contributing to our community.