 the city at the falls of the Ohio River, known to the world for its horse racing, baseball bats, and bourbon. It is a city of simple pleasures, but also a complex character whose varied influences have given it a unique personality. The self-proclaimed Gateway to the South, Louisville is ringed by such distinctly different neighbors as St. Louis, Nashville, Indianapolis, and Columbus. Its economy is varied too, rooted in agriculture, but trading in the currency of river commerce and manufacturing. And its fortunes have ebbed and flowed like the river. Louisville was born in the darkest days of the American Revolution. It was begun as a military operation to establish a defensive fort at the falls of the Ohio. But there were moms and kids and one African-American slave that came under the leadership of George Rogers Clark in 1778 and planted the beginning of the settlement here. The city was named for the French ruler, Louis the 16th, in gratitude for French assistance during the American Revolution. In the ensuing years, German and Irish immigrants, along with Africans, both enslaved and free, followed in the footsteps of the French, all enriching Louisville with their varied cultures. But it was in the 1920s that Louisville really came into its own. In the first two decades of the 20th century, blossoming in the 1920s, there was a substantial increase in industry. There was a growth in population. There was a growth in prosperity. Louisville became something of a Southern industrial city. Well, the growth of industry in the 1920s focused around automobiles, and of course automobile meant Ford automobile fabrication, but it also meant producing automobile parts that was related more broadly to the automobile industry. In the 1920s, 153 new manufacturing plants geared up for business. This prosperity gave rise to a growing downtown. The center of commerce was once anchored at the mighty Ohio River, but now it flowed away from the waterfront. Broadway became the heart of the city, fashionable, bustling, the place to be. In 1925, the elegant ground theater opened its doors, equal to almost any stage in New York. Union Station was not new, but it now brought train loads of travelers to Louisville, both for business and pleasure. The old 1858 federal building could no longer serve this growing city. Louisville needed a new post office, courthouse and custom house. And it had to be worthy of Louisville's newly cosmopolitan image. The city decided on a neo-classical structure, modeled after the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. But the stock market crash of October 29th, 1929, and the ensuing Great Depression threatened to dash those plans. As the depression ground on, it seemed Louisville's prosperity had stalled, and with it, plans for a grand federal building to grace the splendid avenue at the heart of downtown. Spirits and morale suffered, and construction projects folded, but somehow the dream survived. The building conceived in the best of times survived the worst. In the shadow of the depression, under the supervision of James A. Weckmore, Treasury Department Architects drew up plans for the new post office and custom house. At 601 West Broadway, between 6th and 7th streets, an entire city block of small brick homes and storefronts made way for the new federal building. That building, just in terms of its sheer size, a block by a narrow block. So it's a square, a block square size building. It is massive. It says, from the tradition, with its American eagles on the front, with its shields on the front, with its columns on the front, it says, this people will not be moved. This government is here to stay. The $2.8 million structure was a building of substance framed in steel and concrete with an exterior of Bedford Limestone finished with Corinthian columns, a copper roof, and bronze accents. For Louisville residents, it was a sign of resilience. Amidst the depths of the depression, Louisville had found a glimmering ray of hope. So when you came to 1932 and you could cut a ribbon in the bad times on a brand spanking new hot dog building, that was part of an encouragement, a hope. Maybe things are okay. The citizens of Louisville had no doubt the city would know good times again when they stepped inside that majestic building. The first floor lobby welcomed and delighted them with its marble floors and walls set off by brass post boxes and accents. We have original artwork in the building that was done by Frank Weathers Long, who is a Kentucky resident. He's from Berea, Kentucky. Commissioned in 1935 under the Public Works Act, Long's 10 murals celebrate Kentucky life. The paintings portray Kentuckians at work and play, enjoying equestrian sports, delivering mail, farming, trading on the Ohio River, and mining. But the building that brought such bright hope to Louisville residents was in for some dark times. Winter, 1937, the Ohio River. Louisville's commercial life blood was hemorrhaging. The Ohio River is wide at Louisville, about three-fourths of a mile wide because it's just above the rapids. During that great flood of January, February, 1937, the Ohio River swelled to be 12 miles wide on both the Indiana shore and the Kentucky shore. The building became surrounded by floodwaters, so it's cold, it's dark, and it's isolated, standing as a monument on top of the water. It was the worst flood in the city's history, and to residents, it seemed like it would never end. But it did, and if the city needed cheering up in May of 1937 at Churchill Downs, they got it. War Admiral won the Kentucky Derby and then captured horse racing's greatest glory, the Triple Crown. By 1938, Louisville prepared for an architectural feat that would be no less impressive. Architects and engineers began adding a sixth floor to the post office and custom house. Workers cut the 2.5 million pound roof free of the building and used 600 jacks to raise the roof one sixteenth of an inch at a time, lifting it 11 feet, six inches in all, to create an additional story. As the building expanded to meet the needs of a growing population, so did its ties to the lives of Louisville's residents. I have ties with that building, and with the postal service, if I had become a postman, I would have been third generation. My grandfather was 50 years, my dad was 40 years in the postal service, and my dad's last job as a postal supervisor was in that building. And so I frequently visited the building. And I remember as a kid, when we would come to the federal courthouse, when I wasn't even really aware of it being a courthouse so much as being the post office. And we would mail letters, get stamps, and so there's a huge part of our community that feels connected to the building in that way. Many cases decided in these courtrooms would reach far beyond the walls of the building. Landmark decision for desegregation and busing was decided here by Judge Ballantyne back in the early 70s. And that created quite a lot of racial tension. And obviously we got past that, it strengthened our community because of it. There was a very large Hell's Angels trial here with numerous defendants and created quite a big stir in the community because it was such a security nightmare and it got a lot of media coverage. As another who brought up one of the great upsets. Muhammad Ali, as Cassius Clay filed his civil case here against the Selective Service Board seeking injunctive relief because of his religious beliefs. Thousands of people have become citizens of the United States in this building. By the mid 1980s, half a century of memory survived but the building itself was fading fast. I went on the court in 1986 and actually back then the building was a little, getting a little long in the tooth. When I first became involved with the Snyder building it hadn't been renovated in ages. You could tell that it was an absolutely beautiful building but really needed a little updating. We really thought that this building was so beautiful that we didn't want to leave it and go into a more modern structure that would be pretty generic. It looks like a government building inside and out and we wanted to stay here if we could. This building is my baby. It just gives you a feel like you did just step back into the 30s. We could have asked for a new courthouse but we believed that it was more important for the community and for our facilities to preserve what we had. Would the Louisville Federal Building suffer the same fate as so many historic buildings and be abandoned? Its supporters were dedicated to making sure that didn't happen. Congress appropriated $22.7 million for renovations and in 1986 the building was renamed the Jean Snyder Courthouse and Custom House in honor of Representative Marion Jean Snyder a Kentucky native who represented his home state in the US Congress for more than two decades. The building had a new lease on life. In the lobby, the post boxes, intake windows, tables, brass work, and marble flooring were restored and new light fixtures installed. We have pictures from old newspaper articles of old postal customers gathered around these tables and it looks exactly the same today. So that is one of the things that we pride ourselves in with GSA is retaining a lot of the historical features in that building. And on the first floor, to maintain those beautiful features and yet now it's usable space with social security on one side and the clerk's office on the other, I think they're amazed at how the space has been adapted to more of a modern use. There's tremendous design features in here, especially in the plaster work. And so one of our goals was to try and make the place dignified but to highlight some of the features that were built into the building that had been essentially hidden for a number of years. We renovated the courtroom, moved away the drapes and found absolutely beautiful stone archways. And when you look at that courtroom today, it just jumps right out at ya. One of the interesting challenges that we had in doing a lot of renovations over in the Snyder Courthouse is integrating the security and the technology while trying to bring everything back to its original historic nature. We were able to enhance the technology but I think if you walk in and look at the courtrooms today, it looks like a courtroom from the 30s and you really don't notice a lot of the new technology in there. Judges' chambers were also renovated to seamlessly blend old with new. Renovated six-floor office space brought new tenants, including Senator Mitch McConnell. One of the interesting things that we did was in the law library on the second floor that the courts still use today. It's an absolutely beautiful area. The dedication of the building supporters paid off. In 1999, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and success built on success. We're so proud of everything that General Services Administration and the clients in the building have done to improve the look and the feel of the courthouse. We entered it into a building competition. It's Building Owners and Managers Association. We won historical international building of the year, 1999 and 2000. I've spent 33 years of my life in this building and when I'm gone and this building remains, I would be very proud to know that my grandchildren or my great-grandchildren would visit its halls or pass through here and say, my grandmother used to work in that building or maybe someone else's grandchild will say, my grandfather became an American citizen in that building. And when we maintain and care for beautiful historic buildings like this, we're not only preserving the marble and stone, but we're preserving a heritage that belongs to me and to all those who've made it pass through these halls.