New St. George Campus
This corner has helped this neighborhood for 125 years. Now, we're taking our turn.
Wayside Christian Mission has purchased the former St. George campus at 1809 Standard Avenue, where Standard meets Dixie Highway in Park Hill.
This corner has been a church, a school, and a kitchen. People have come here for help since 1898. We intend to keep it that way.
Eight veterans live on the campus today. They were here before we arrived, and they are staying.
An aerial look at Wayside's new addition: the St. George Campus at
809 Standard Avenue (where Standard meets Dixie Highway in Park Hill).
A corner with a long habit of showing up.
In 1897, working families in this neighborhood started a parish. The next year they put up a small frame church, a house for the priest, and a one-room school.
The neighborhood grew, and the parish grew with it. In 1910 they dedicated the brick church that still stands on the corner, designed by Louisville architect Frederick Erhart. A three-story school followed in 1923, with a cafeteria and a stage in the basement. A gymnasium and six more classrooms came in 1947. A convent in 1959.
Then there is the part almost nobody believes the first time they hear it.
In October 1937, the railroad replaced the neighborhood's street-level crossings with underpasses. So the parish lifted the church off its foundation, turned it to face a different direction, and moved it to Standard Avenue. The congregation waited out the winter before their church sat on solid ground again.
Wayside COO, Nina Moseley, visits the new campus to evaluate needs and opportunities.
They did not abandon the corner. They moved the building and stayed.
In 1982 the National Park Service added St. George to the National Register of Historic Places.
The parish closed in 1995, a few years short of its hundredth birthday. But the work here did not stop.
The Lord's Kitchen stays open.
Since 1988, The Lord's Kitchen has served hot meals on this property every day of the year. Thanksgiving. Christmas. Every ordinary Tuesday in between. Thousands of meals, one plate at a time.
Evangel World Prayer Center has carried that work for decades. Wayside is keeping it going.
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If you come here to eat, keep coming.
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If you volunteer here, we would be glad to have you stay.
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If you have given to support this kitchen, your gift is still doing the same thing it has always done.
Nothing about the meals changes.
The Lord's Kitchen, located on the St. George campus, will continue to serve hot meals to those in need.
Room for recovery, and room for veterans.
Wayside has run addiction recovery programs for decades, and we house veterans through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Louisville VA Medical Center. Both programs need what this campus has: room.
Eight veterans already live here. More people in recovery and more veterans will follow.
We are still walking the buildings and learning what each one needs. We have not set a schedule or a number, and we would rather say that plainly than guess. As those decisions get made, we will say so here.
If you are a veteran who needs help, call 502-996-1888 or click to visit waysidechristianmission.org/vets.
If you or someone you love needs recovery help, call 502-584-3711.
Taking care of a landmark.
This historic 115-year-old building will need several restoration efforts including the bell tower and cupola.
[Photo: Nyttend, via Wikimedia Commons]
The prominent bell tower and cupola will get the restoration they need.
A 115-year-old building asks something of whoever owns it.
We plan to restore the bell tower and the cupola, the green copper dome you can see from blocks away. The paint is failing and the copper has weathered. It is the first thing anyone notices about this corner, and it ought to look cared for.
There is other work to do. Roofs, systems, decades of ordinary wear across several buildings. We are taking it in order and doing it properly.
This is a National Register landmark. It was built by people who did not have much and gave anyway. We would like to hand it to the next hundred years in better shape than we found it.
What this means for Park Hill.
Wayside wants to bring a positive spirit and hope to the Park Hill neighborhood. [Photo: Google Maps]
We did not buy a building in an empty field. We bought a campus of buildings on somebody's block.
An occupied campus is better for a neighborhood than an empty one. Lights on at night. Grounds kept up. Repairs made instead of deferred. People coming and going who have a reason to be there and a stake in how the place looks.
Wayside has run a hotel, a cafe, and a thrift store in this city, and we know that what happens inside a building shows up on the sidewalk outside it. We would like what shows up on Standard Avenue to be worth having nearby.
We would rather hear from you than have you wonder. If something on this property needs attention, or if you just want to know what we are up to, call us. We will tell you what we know.
Wayside Christian Mission St. George Campus, 1809 Standard Avenue, Louisville, KY 40210
Questions about the campus: 502-584-3711
Veterans services: 502-996-1888
All other Wayside programs: 502-584-3711
waysidechristianmission.org
For 125 years, somebody on this corner has been feeding people, teaching children, and opening a door to whoever knocked. We are not the first to do this work here. We are taking our turn.