8,000 - 1,000 BCE
Evidence of indigenous hunter-gatherer groups exists in this area.
A Brief History
of The Hillside
1,000 BCE - 200 CE
Itinerant bands periodically settled, began farming practices, and traded with others.
900 - 1750
The Cherokee, Osage, and Shawnee peoples created permanent agricultural communities across the region.
1778 - 1780
European colonizers floating down the Ohio River came upon the Devonian-age fossil beds at the Falls and needed to portage. That stopover prompted the beginning of the city of Louisville.
1792
Native Americans were displaced through force and treaty. The Commonwealth of Kentucky became part of the United States.
1861
On the southern bank of the Ohio, immigrant populations expanded outward from the riverside. To the east and on higher ground, German expatriates developed Phoenix Hill Park at this location and formed a community around it.
1866
Gottfried Miller and partners established their premier city brewery and made this overlook its terraced pleasure garden. The Phoenix Hill Brewery offered social activities in numerous buildings spanning a city block: ranging from eating and drinking, to dancing and performing, roller skating and bowling, orating and gambling, and six-day bicycle racing. Cake walks and indoor baseball games reportedly made their city debuts here. This center of neighborhood enrichment drew national politicians, popular musicians, and renowned entertainers.
1919
The Prohibition Act caused the facility to close.
1937
The front of the hill was substantially reduced and taken for fill. The community used the material for sandbags against the flood which rose to the base of the promontory and inundated the city below.
1950s
After World War II, the Phoenix Hill neighborhood, like others in the city, experienced suburban white flight, and many of the homes were neglected or abandoned. Eventually, decades-long efforts at revitalization and renewal were initiated. The Receveur Construction Company built this Quonset Hut for material and equipment storage. In 1941, The U.S Navy planned a prefabricated building, based on the British Nissen Hut deployed during the first World War, for expanding outposts. Called a Quonset Hut after the base of operations at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, these simple, shippable, and versatile enclosures were assembled and disassembled worldwide. The model represented here is the final iteration of the design as contracted to the Stran-Steel Corporation, fabricators of the unique framework that made construction more efficient.
2000 - Present
Leslie and James Millar renovated the Quonset Hut into a year-round structure. The Quonset Hut currently houses a print shop and gallery.
See more of the renovation.
About Us
Leslie Millar
Education
- (ABD for the PhD) in English, University of Georgia, (Comprehensive Exams, 1998)
- MA in English, University of New Mexico, 1993
- MA from The Writing Seminars, Johns Hopkins University, 1989
- BA in English, Vanderbilt University, 1988
Leslie Millar is a Louisville native who has resided in Cherokee Triangle for over twenty-five years. Millar taught Freshman Composition and English Literature at the University of Louisville from 1989 to 1991 and from 2009 to 2017. Leslie and her husband James own and operate the Quonset Hut, a fine art press, gallery, and event space.
Millar has acted as a board member/trustee for numerous community organizations including: the ACLU of Kentucky, Cherokee Triangle Association, Highland Presbyterian Weekday School, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC), Masterson Equestrian Trust, and Sarabande Books. Millar is a founding board member of Squallis Puppeteers and ARTxFM WXOX 97.1 FM. Millar chaired the Annual Fund Campaign at Louisville Collegiate School and the Capital Campaign at KMAC.
Millar has been active with the Speed Art Museum, serving as Chair of the New Art Collectors (Contemporary Group) from 2007-2019. She has also served on the Board of Governors and Collections Committee at the Speed.
James Millar
James Millar calls Kentucky home. A printer, Millar has worked collectively (on public art projects), collaboratively (with artists and writers), and professionally (for others). He produces eponymously (for himself), pseudonymously (as Quonset Hut, for one), and anonymously. Millar embodies the latter as an optimism that enables day-to-day life in a small town, as an affirmation of our common humanity, and as a ready spirit of volunteerism for exciting ideas like art.
The Hut In the Press
- Phoenix Hill’s Quonset Hut Evolves to Full-Time Event Space by Michael L. Jones for Louisville Business First, April 14, 2025