The Baxter Avenue Elevated Train Station was located along 1.6 miles (8500 feet) of elevated train line which was constructed from April 1936 to October 1937 (The Great Flood delayed its construction). The station building itself sat on this elevated line about 500 feet east of the Baxter Avenue & East Liberty Street intersection (near Lexington Road).
The estimated total cost for the project was $1.5 million, this expense being borne primarily by the Federal Government, but also by the L&N Railroad and the City of Louisville.
The station proper was 76 feet long and 18 feet wide and its design harmonized with that of the viaduct in general. Flanking it on either side was a train shed [passenger platform canopy], with a total length of 500 feet and a width of 31 feet. Made of steel, with a concrete roof, covered with composition roofing. The platform was 900 feet long. Ample parking space was available under and alongside the station. The tracks at this location were spread to permit the construction of the station and the sheds, and trains pass on either side of these; northbound trains on the south side and southbound trains on the north side.
The station was demolished on July 30, 2009. The train shed (overhead canopy) remains in place, but now with a gap where the station building used to exist.
All the ramps and stairways are now blocked with concrete walls.The area under the tracks has become home to multiple homeless people and is the common place for the nearby homeless camp to dispose of their trash.
This is a photograph of the station in its glory.
Photo Credit: Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company records - University of Louisville Archives & Records Center
To think, a station once stood right there, between those two sections.
