History
The building was completed in 1894 when the block of Fourth Street it is located on was still residential, but the business district was spreading south towards Broadway. Within a few decades, Fourth Street north of Broadway would become Louisville, and Kentucky's, dominant commercial district. Recognizing a trend, Alonzo J. Ross, a local grocer and entrepreneur, purchased the lot in 1893 and commissioned the building.
When it first opened it was billed as "first metropolitan apartment house". At the time, local papers praised the building for importing the style and elegance of apartment buildings in cities like Chicago.
Ross sold the building in 1901 to Theophilus Conrad, but continued to operate a grocery on the first floor until 1904. Conrad owned several local apartment buildings, including St. James Apartments in Old Louisville. The Rossmore was renamed the Raleigh Apartments for a brief time in the 1920s, but by 1923 it was listed as the Berkeley Hotel.
It was deemed historically significant in 1978 as an example of the Chicago school of architecture, as well as being one of the oldest buildings at the time in the Fourth Street commercial district.
Read more about this topic: Rossmore Apartment House
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