The campus is adjacent to the Olmstead designed Cherokee Park and features several historic buildings, giving the campus an aura of old southern elegance.
This interesting history is from the official website for
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
"More than 150 years old, Louisville Seminary has been building up the Body of Christ in a tradition rooted in Scripture and the Reformed tradition while developing innovative ways to respond to contemporary society's needs.
Its heritage stems from two seminaries founded by two branches of the Presbyterian Church. In 1853, Danville Theological Seminary welcomed its first students in Danville, Kentucky. In 1893, the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary was founded in Louisville. But in 1901, the seminaries in Danville and Louisville were united. For 60 years, the Seminary ministered to the Louisville community from its downtown home at First and Broadway. During the 1937 flood after most of the city was evacuated, some Seminary faculty and administrators stayed behind to shelter refugees trapped by the flood waters. The institution housed nearly 500 servicemen during World War II, and Seminary enrollment surged with veterans retiring from the military after the war.
In April of 1963, spring hailed the rebirth of the Seminary in a new location on Alta Vista Road. The campus is surrounded by historic Cherokee Park with easy access to the City's system of highways. Rebirth came for the Presbyterian Church as well when the northern and southern streams reunited in 1983 after 122 years of separation. The Seminary welcomed the national offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to the city of Louisville in the summer of 1987. That same year the Seminary purchased the historic Gardencourt mansion and proceeded with renovations that later received an award for historic preservation. This mansion now provides classrooms, faculty offices, and community meeting space on the Seminary campus."
The Wikipedia article for Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary adds some more historical details:
"Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), located in Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of ten official PC(USA) seminaries.
Though now located in Louisville, Kentucky, it was founded in 1853 in Danville, Kentucky (the site is now Centre College). Though it thrived in its early years, the Civil War took a great toll and by 1870 there were only 6 students enrolled, and as few as one professor at times, requiring classes to be taught by the faculty of Centre College.
In 1893, a seminary opened in Louisville, operating out of Sunday School rooms in Second Presbyterian Church at Second and Broadway, with 31 students and six professors initially, and an endowment of $104,000. Longtime treasurer W.T. Grant died in 1901 and left his entire $300,000 estate to the seminary, which helped finance construction of a new Gothic-style Campus.
In 1901, the still-struggling Danville seminary merged with the Louisville one. Because of the merger, it was the lone institution supported simultaneously by the northern and southern branches of the modern Presbyterian Church (USA). Faculty and students have been drawn from both denominations. The two branches, which split during the Civil War, were reunited in 1983.
In the 1950s, Interstate 65 was planned to be constructed within a few feet of the seminary building. This led to a move in 1963 to a new campus off of Alta Vista Road, in the Cherokee-Seneca neighborhood. The old Gothic-style buildings eventually became the campus of Jefferson Community College, which is now a part of Jefferson Community and Technical College. The Seminary would eventually acquire the Gardencourt Mansion, and integrate it into the adjacent campus."