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In 1879, Nawatny earned $4,392 by selling 44 lots and half lots in 36 transactions. He earned an <br />additional $3,600 between January 1 and August 20, 1880, by selling an additional 27 properties <br />in 22 transactions. While some deeds were filed within two months of the transaction, others <br />were not filed for up to two years, perhaps because it took that long for some people to pay off <br />the full cost of their new properties. After making his money founding Louisville, Nawatny <br />rapidly moved on; he and his wife purchased a new residence in Denver in April 1880 (Lindquist <br />2010:13). <br />Over time, many of the original town's residential buildings were replaced by commercial <br />buildings as Main Street became a business district. Of the residences that remain within the <br />original town plat, the oldest appears to be the former Austin-Niehoff House at 717 Main Street, <br />now used as the office of the Louisville Parks and Recreation Department. German immigrants <br />and coal miner, Amelia and Charles Niehoff, were some of the first people to purchase a lot from <br />Louis Nawatny, in 1879. Their house began as a one -room dugout for them and their four <br />children around 1879. Around 1880, they constructed a simple, two -room, National -type frame <br />house above the dugout (Figure 9). They also purchased an adjacent lot in 1885. Between 1880 <br />and 1914, the family constructed numerous additions, with a final one added in 1951 (Humphries <br />Poli Architects 2014). Many other examples of similarly simple National -type houses remain <br />within the original town. <br />Figure 9. Austin-Niehoff House, ca. 1895 to 1900 (photo credit: LHM). <br />In 1895, portions of Louisville within and east of the original town began to sink up to six feet <br />due to mine subsidence. Several buildings were damaged substantially, including the Niehoff <br />House. While those constructed of wood could be repaired, a large brick building that was <br />damaged during the subsidence ultimately had to be demolished. As a result, from that time on, <br />most late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century buildings in Louisville were constructed <br />of wood, not brick (Humphries Poli Architects 2014:2.2). <br />23 <br />