Mercury Ballroom, 1928
This building was constructed in 1928 as office space for Wright & Taylor, Inc., distributers of Old Charter Bourbon Whiskey. The Old Charter Distillery was located across the street on the northwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut.
During the prohibition era and through the late 1960s, the building housed a variety of small commercial businesses and has been vacant for nearly three decades. This historic building, added to the National Register of Historic places in 1984, started a new future as the Mercury Ballroom in April 2014.
The significance of the Wright-Taylor Building lies in its beautifully crafted use of architectural terra cotta in the Tudor-Gothic motif. Strategically located in the Louisville Historic Theatre District, the Wright-Taylor building was a marvel in its day for its imaginative use of stylistic motifs and variety of color, and remains a rare local example of Tudor-Gothic architecture.
