Summary of Project

The Pearl Street Infill Revitalization Project is renewing a dilapidated half-block of Pearl Street in Historic Downtown Jeffersonville. This great reuse project entails the nonprofit downtown revitalization organization, Jeffersonville Main Street Inc., relocating four historic residential structures and one storage structure to a nearby vacant lot located at the northwest corner of Pearl and Maple Streets in Historic Downtown Jeffersonville’s Rose Hill Neighborhood. The five structures were relocated to make way for the development of a new park space in downtown called Big Four Station.

To accomplish this challenging project, Jeffersonville Main Street partnered with Indiana Landmarks, the statewide historic preservation foundation. This project is transforming an unused, blighted, asphalt parking lot surrounded by a chain link fence into a vibrant part of the downtown district. The houses have all been given new addresses: 216 W. Market Street became 403 Pearl Street, 218 W. Market Street became 405 Pearl Street, 222 W. Market Street became 401 Pearl Street, and 229 Pearl Street became 407 Pearl Street. The accessory structure was behind 222 W. Market Street and has been relocated behind the house at 401 Pearl Street. In lieu of razing the structures and sending them to the landfill, the Jeffersonville Redevelopment Commission agreed to convey them to Jeffersonville Main Street if the nonprofit group removed the structures from the path of the planned Big Four Station Park. Jeffersonville Main Street is receiving funding for this project through a grant from the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology that was the result of a settlement of the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.

The project has involved relocating the five buildings and placement of the structures on new permanent foundations and exterior rehabilitation to strengthen and enhance their architectural integrity and to further revitalization efforts in Downtown Jeffersonville. The 222 W. Market Street house (now 401 Pearl Street) is the new permanent office of Jeffersonville Main Street. The remaining properties are being renovated and leased by Jeffersonville Main Street to small businesses.