University of Louisville - Thoroughbred Yearbook (Louisville, KY)

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The Norton family had been active in the Baptist Church since William Norton, ori- ginally a Quaker, joined the Russelville Baptist Church. The Norton family con- tinued as benefactors to the seminary and eventually set up a scholarship fund. On Christmas Day, 1937, Lucie Norton died. Mattie Norton, the only sur- viving child of George Norton, outlived her by nine years, dying in 1946 at the age of eighty-three. One of the wealthiest women in Louisville, she lett an estate of nearly $1.5 million in real estate, invest- ments, cash, and jewels. Her will, how- ever, made no disposition of the Garden- court Estate. Because of Mattie's interest in music and in the University of Louisville, Mat- tie's benificiaries presented U of L with the estate to be used for the School of Music. At that time the land was valued at $3,000 per acre, and the house at $125,000 - a total value of $167,000. U of L music students and faculty were delighted to move from the school's former location in the Reynold's Building at Third and Eastern Parkway. Garden- court proved to be an excellent site for the school, and very little remodeling was needed to convert the rooms into class- rooms and studios. The U of L School of Music remained at Gardencourt for twenty-three years, until it moved to its present location at Shelby Campus in 1969 Offices of the U of L Urban Studies Center, the Demographic Center, and the Metroversity now occupy the second and third floors of Gardencourt. A dance studio at the rear ot the home houses the music school's preparatory dance depart- ment. And the carriage house, once built for the Norton carriages and automobile, is now occupied by the Kentucky Opera Association. The chauffer's apartments upstairs have been converted into studios for U of L artist-in-residence Lee Luvisi. The mansion's first floor remains largely unchanged, retaining many of the original paintings, furnishings, and much of the decor. Now seventy years old, Gardencourt stands in isolated beauty; a memorial to one of Louisville's leading families and to an era of Kentucky history.