The House That Stood Alone

Life is fragile, life is fleeting and life will end. This is a fact that each of must face and it is inevitable that no matter how we try change will occur. In the bible the book of James 4:14 declares,” You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

My family and I moved into the west end of Louisville in 1966, we were among the first black families to buy property in this area of the city. My parents bought a home in the 500 block of south western parkway, The west end at the time was an area that was predominantly white. There were a few black families in the neighborhood, but foremost part it was still a white conclave. However, as a child in the second grade this didn’t matter much in my limited view of the world.

In short order I had made many friends in my new world and many of them didn’t have the same pigment. That was never a problem, we played and enjoyed the things that all the same games and things. But time moved on and things did change for us, it was not a racial change it was a change in the physical appearance of our neighborhood.
The Jefferson county school system needed to build new schools and the west end was slated to get some new schools. There was a plot selected for one of the new schools and it was located down the street from my home. It would entail the demolition of a number of homes that were located on south western parkway.

I as a child was not privy to the nature of the transactions that occurred but the results I am very clear of the results. The 500 block of the parkway was to be cleared for the new school and most of the home owners at the time agreed and sold their homes. I had a number of childhood friends who lived in that block and I watched as the packed up and moved away.

But there was one family that refused to give up their dream home and they fought and they stayed. That was the Elmore family and their home has stood as a testament to the fact that a man’s home is his castle and eminent domain has its limits.
So when I read in the paper today, that the school system had finally acquired the property after nearly fifty years of trying without success. I knew that there would not be any fanfair; there would probably not be any real notice that there will be a change in the landscape of the parkway.

The late reverend A.J. Elmore was a friend and his wife Mrs. Ann Elmore was my English teacher in high school. I played with and grew up with their children in a time when it was a village that raised the kids of our neighborhood. I know from personal experience that they were proud of the fact that they held on to their home and raised their children in the place that they had selected. The government and the powers that be could not move them, they fought and won the right to stay in the home that they had worked for and God was with them.

So when I read that the school system plans to demolish their home it felt as though another part of my childhood was being destroyed. But the bible I think says it best, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

They will eventually demolish the home but the principle will live on in the hearts of many of the house that stood alone on the Parkway.