929 Parkview St History - Laserfiche WebLink

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In 1949, Genaro and Aldovina Madonna conveyed Lots 7, 8, and 9, Block 2, to their son Joe Madonna and his wife, Irene Barbara Denning Madonna (1925-2020). She was an English "war bride" whom Joe Madonna had met in World War II and had brought back to live in Louisville. A small article in the Sept. 29, 1949 Louisville Times noted that Joe Madonna was building a home at the Parkview location and that it was going up rapidly. He completed the house in 1952. In 1953, Genaro and Aldovina also conveyed ownership of Lots 10, 11, 12, and 13, Block 2 (to the east of the house at 929 Parkview) to Joe and Irene Barbara Madonna. Joe Madonna was a community leader in the 1950 when Louisville transformed itself after the coal mining era ended. Louisville Times articles from the 1950s document his extensive involvement in community improvements. In recognition of his contributions, the Louisville Historical Commission selected Madonna to posthumously receive the 2017 Pioneer Award. As part of his public service for which he is remembered, he served on the Louisville Planning Commission. In the 1950s, he worked as a building contractor and is remembered as having been the foreman of the building department at Steinbaugh's. He was the contractor who remodeled the buildings that became Colacci's Restaurant (now the Empire) at 816 Main Street. He was also one of the developers of the nearby Bella Vista subdivision in the late 1950s and early 1960s as one of the four partners in the S & M Corporation. (Louisville Times advertisements for the Bella Vista lots gave 929 Parkview as the address of S & M Corporation.) The streets in Bella Vista were named for the wives of the developers; the street named for Irene Barbara Madonna is Barbara Street. The following aerial view from the 1940s (cropped from a photo from the Carnegie Branch Library for Local History) shows the large garden where 929 Parkview is now located to the west of 421 County, which is in the middle of the photo, and shows four houses all in a row on the west side of County Rd. (a fifth house was moved from the location). Also visible is the area where the Acme railroad spur crossed just to the north of 421 County. The Louisville Grain Elevator can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of the photo. 3