LOUISVILLE, Ky. — They’ve stood throughout time – America at war, tornadoes, snowstorms, but they were not made for tragedy.
“They now take on eternal springtime. They suggest beauty and tradition and the blossoming of beginnings and new beginnings,” historian Tom Owen said.
The Twin Spires at Churchill Downs tower over triumph.
The first Kentucky Derby was in 1875 but we didn’t have the Twin Spires or the Grandstand where the Grandstand was built in 1895.
WHAS11 asked the 84 year old Owen, Louisville’s most famous historian, to unlock the mystery of who thought of the Spires?
“There were new owners of Churchill Downs and there was a new day coming,” Owen said. “The Spires were kind of an architectural after thought. I’m suggesting to you that they were not a big deal in 1895.”
D.X. Murphy, the firm that built the Grandstand and the Spires was actively building other remarkable structures across the city at the same time.
“They surely must have been the busiest architectural firm in town,” Owen said.
The firm also built the Jefferson Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library at 17th and West Jefferson Street and St. Patrick’s School at 15th and West Market Street.
“So the Spires were only 18 years old, brand new when they came down to this area and built this library,” Doug Proffitt asked Owen.
Owen replied, “I’m telling you, this firm – they did an unbelievable number of projects. Yes, the library in 1913.
If the Spires were an afterthought, how did they become so world famous?
“I believe this building could very likely be the inspiration of Joseph Baldez’s Twin Spires at Churchill Downs,” Owen said.
Was the Louisville Trust Building at 5th and Market in downtown Louisville the spark for the Spires? Who was Joseph Dominic Baldez?
“He’s a Louisville kid. He lives with his family at 23 or 24 years of age at 20th and Grand in the California neighborhood,” Owen explained.
Baldez went to St. X and was hired on, not as an architect, but a draftsman by D.X. Murphy.
“We also believe that Baldez learned just basic construction skills from his dad who was the carpenter,” Owen said.
The D.X. Murphy office was located across the street from it during construction and was finished two years before the Spires were built.
“Literally under his nose, because all during construction and immediately after completion, Baldez saw the Louisville Trust Building,” Owen said.
The original architect drawings of the Spires are preserved today by architecture firm Luckett & Farley. D.X. Murphy is listed, but Baldez is not mentioned on the plans.
The Spires have tall, but thin windows, under the curved archways.
“There is the inspiration of the spires of the spires with the octagonal windows around it. Then look at all of the rounded arches both on the top of the tower and the second level of the tower,” Owen described. “And you see the same rounded arches embodied in both the Grandstand and the Twin Spires. I’m telling you, the graceful inspiration for Joseph Baldez likely according to me at least, and some others, was the Louisville Trust Building.”
Some other examples by D.X. Murphy before the Spires – Presentation Academy, the turret on top of the Frazier History Museum.
There had to be a reason for the Twin Spires, more than just an afterthought.
“If you notice, its hard to have a pretty Grandstand. It takes some decoration,” Owen said. “He suggested that they were pleasantly attractive but that they were not architecturally significant.”
Ironically, Baldez would never visit Churchill Downs on its biggest day.
“He loved to go to the races, but never went on Derby Day because he was fretful that the heavy loads of all of those fans in the Grandstand might cause a railing to fall off and people would get hurt,” Owen explained.
Proffitt replied, “But he designed it!”
“Yes, he designed it, but he was 24 years old,” Owen said.
As we gear up to celebrate 150 years of the Kentucky Derby, we honor 130 years of the Spires.
It would be none other than Matt Winn, the president of Churchill Downs, who made the Derby world famous who summed up the Spires the best to their creator.
“Matt Winn later said to Joe, ‘Joe when you die, those Twin Spires will endure and will never be removed as a tribute to you’,” Owen said.
►Contact reporter Doug Proffitt at dproffitt@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@WHAS11Doug) and Facebook.
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