Beechmont Neighborhood Association

Colonial Gardens closes

Closing

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Local/Regional » Neighborhoods » News Item Wednesday, July 09, 2003

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Colonial Gardens closes its doors
South End spot saw full range of music
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By BILL PIKE
bpike@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


BY SAM UPSHAW JR., THE C-J
Club operator John Bryant said dwindling crowds and late nights took their toll after 20 years.




COURIER-JOURNAL FILE PHOTO
In September 1946, customers at Colonial Gardens could expect to be entertained by big band music in the building at New Cut Road and Kenwood Drive.



BY SAM UPSHAW JR., THE C-J
The fate of the building and its furnishings has not been decided.
Colonial Gardens, the South End nightspot that was home to different kinds of music for about 60 years, closed late last month on an appropriate note for a country-music and classic rock venue.

"We played `Heartbreak Hotel,' `Jailhouse Rock' and `Great Balls of Fire,'" said Mark "Slick" Ware, a guitarist with the Dalton band.

John Bryant, who leased the building at New Cut Road and Kenwood Drive, called it quits after running Colonial Gardens for 20 years. Dwindling crowds and late nights took their toll, Bryant said.

"I've been doing it too long," said Bryant, who took over the business in 1983 from his father, Wilburn "Curly" Bryant. "I'm tired of 12- and 15-hour days and not getting home until 6 in the morning." Colonial Gardens was open until 2 a.m. on Thursdays and 4 a.m. weekends.

John Stout — who manages the property for its owner, the estate of Carl Schmid — said he knew of no plans for the property. "But it's a wonderful old place," Stout said.

A capacity-plus crowd of about 600 packed Colonial Gardens on its last night.

"It was so full you couldn't move," said Mike Guynn, who worked there as a bouncer and bartender for 18 years. "It was the biggest crowd I've ever seen. There was a lot of crying."

Guynn, one of about a dozen employees, said regular customers were like family. "They walked in, and you knew where they would sit and what they wanted to drink," he said.

The size of the crowd recalled Colonial Gardens' glory days in the 1960s and '70s, when it was one of Louisville's hot spots.

"That's when it had its heyday, when the bar scene was rock 'n' roll. We had capacity crowds seven days a week," said Bryant, a former Louisville Police Department motorcycle officer who plans a new career selling Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

But tastes changed.

Country music largely replaced rock at Colonial Gardens after the urban-cowboy fad hit during the late '70s. Crowds were big at first, but they gradually grew smaller, especially after tougher drunken-driving laws took effect in the late 1980s.

"Places like Colonial Gardens are a thing of the past," Ware said.


The Colonial Gardens building was constructed in 1921 as part of Senning's Park, which included a small zoo and was a popular spot for dining, dancing, picnics and rallies.


"I think there was a lion there," said Waltferd Scheppelman, who grew up in the area. "You could hear him roar."


At the time, New Cut Road was a dirt road with two lanes and few houses, said Scheppelman, who now lives in Clarksville, Ind. The zoo also included leopards, deer, alligators and bears, according to "The Louisville Encyclopedia."

The Senning family sold the park and zoo for $15,000 in 1940 to B.A. Watson. Watson closed the zoo and renamed the property Colonial Gardens Restaurant and Grill. "Back in those days, it was more of an evening club, with a full-service restaurant," Bryant said.

During the 1940s and '50s, big bands played there. Woody Willis recalled dancing there with his wife, Janet, for the first time in the early 1950s.

"It was called a teen bar," Willis said. "It was only for teens. It was nonalcoholic. It was mostly South End teenagers then."

Crowds were big, well-behaved and well-dressed. Boys wore pressed blue jeans and saddle or white buck shoes, Willis said. Girls wore dresses, full skirts and Capezio shoes, Janet Willis said.

"Capezios were similar to ballet shoes," she said. "Rich girls had really good ones. Girls without money had copies."

Favorite songs included those by Joni James and Theresa Brewer's "Till I Waltz Again With You." Favorite dances were the jitterbug, waltz and the rat dance. "I remember meeting a lot of people and having a real good time," Woody Willis said. "Colonial Gardens is one of my best memories."

By the '60s, rock replaced big-band music, and the crowds were bigger. Local bands, such as the Trendels, the Carnations, and Cosmo and the Counts, turned Colonial Gardens into one of Louisville's hottest spots — even on weeknights.

"There were times when you wondered if they could get another person in there. It was the place to go," said Ed Holsclaw, who worked there briefly as a bouncer in 1961 or '62. "It was mostly younger people, mostly working-class kids from the South End, but you had people from all over the city, too."

A dress code, whether formal or informal, endured until the early 1980s, according to Norma Marrett, a Colonial Gardens regular. "When John's dad had it, they had dress rules. You could not come in wearing shorts or tennis shoes. Shirts had to have collars. Women wore dresses."

John Bryant's motorcycle friends changed the standards after he took over. "They came in with bandanas on their heads and whatever," Marrett said. "But they were OK."

A new dress code was posted by the door: "The wearing of motorcycle colors will not be permitted. No tank tops. Dress shorts only. Dress shirts only."

Tastes in dancing also changed in the early '80s, Marrett said. "I liked the rat-race dance and the jitterbug." he said, describing the rat race as "little short steps all around the dance floor."

The two-step became the new favorite dance.

"That's about all people want to dance anymore," said Marrett, who had a regular table for about 20 years. "I liked that table because I could see the whole place. It was a good place, with good people."

Bryant said he will miss his customers, but not the headaches of running a business.

"The people who came in got to be my friends. We had people who met each other in here and got married," he said. "Some of them split up and came back, looking for somebody new. I don't know where they will go now."



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