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Schnitzelburg was once defined by a trolley loop connecting it with Downtown and beyond. The one-way tracks followed the route described in the amazing graphic above from Shelby Street onto Burnett Avenue to Texas Avenue, rounding on to Goss Avenue before heading North again on Shelby. In her 2011-book Louisville’s Germantown & Schnitzelburg, Lisa Pisterman noted that while Germantown’s borders have moved over time, “the boundaries of Schnitzelburg have always been defined by the trolley loop that circled the community,” demonstrating how important the trolley once was for the community.

In fact, the trolley loop is in many ways the reason Schnitzelburg exists. The neighborhood grew rapidly as a streetcar suburb of Louisville after the loop opened in 1891, but the route was closed sometime after World War II and the tracks and cobblestones were torn out or paved over. The loop route was generally preserved in the 1961 route 11 of the Louisville Transit Company, but the loop doesn’t exactly exist as a modern TARC route. Bus service to the area is largely defined by route 43, which passes through the area on its way to the farther suburbs.

Today Germantown and Schnitzelburg are as lively as ever, but imagine life along the Schnitzelburg Loop if it existed today. Could some modern version of the loop connecting to the Medical Center, Nulu, Downtown, and beyond via the Logan and Shelby street corridor help create a better city?

More information on Germantown & Schnitzelburg on Facebook and on this blog.

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