I. WILLIS COLE HOUSE
STORY BY NORA COLE
HISTORY
I. Willis Cole was the editor and sole owner and publisher of the weekly race newspaper, The Louisville Leader from 1917 until his death in 1950. On June 16, 1923, he purchased the house at 2317 West Muhammed Ali Boulevard, formerly West Walnut Street, from a widow, Hattie L. Shafer. The deed, which Mrs. Shafer had held since 1905, describes the property as being in “Ferguson’s West End addition”. The house was purchased for $3,350.00.
2317 West Walnut Street became the home of Cole and his second wife, Rosa Evelyn Long Cole, four children from his first marriage to Katherine Walker, and their three month old son, Aaron Lattimore. After his death, Cole’s widow lived in the house until the early 1980’s. Although a historical highway marker was dedicated and installed in front of the house in September1997, as well as refurbished and reinstalled in the spring of 2017, the house was demolished in October 2017.
PHOTOS
