8 former gas stations transform into bars, restaurants and shops in Louisville

In the summer of 2022, a rundown and out-of-use auto shop in Jeffersontown was given new life and repurposed into Above the Dirt Garden Shop.

The plant shop, which sells houseplants, non-invasive and native landscaping, and offers gardening classes, is located just off the Gaslight Square in the heart of J-Town, an area saturated with automotive-related businesses.

Paula Henson, the owner of Above the Dirt Garden Shop, says the space used to be a Shell gas station in the 1950s and 1960s, then it was converted into a BP full serve before being made into a U-Haul facility, then a Brakeway and then a locally owned car repair shop.

Henson's vision for the property derailed from its history as a service station and repair shop.

"There are a ton of car businesses in J-Town, so taking a car-focused store and adding a bunch of green plants ... it’s been a great spot," Henson said. "J-Town was in favor and really supportive of the commercial building changing the services it offered."

Henson's plant shop isn't the only business in the Louisville area capitalizing on property that once was a gas station or auto repair shop. Around the metro, several other businesses have repurposed gas stations and small auto shops into new endeavors.

Savannah Darr, the Historic Preservation Officer for Louisville Metro, previously told the Courier Journal that adaptive reuse, "the idea that you have a historic building that's no longer being used for the purpose that it was built for and finding a new use for that," is nothing new. Across Louisville, at least a handful of churches have also been claimed by adaptive reuse in recent years, bringing the metro breweries, restaurants, film studios, and more.

Darr previously noted that adaptive reuse tends to follow trends when developers and business owners search for sights to repurpose, and gas stations or old auto repair shops are trendy, both locally and nationally.

"People find the things that they connect to whether it's a beautiful, architecturally designed ornate church building, or a sort of more modern gas station," Darr said. "And it's those sorts of connections that people make that drive these trends of adaptive reuse."

Here’s a list of eight gas stations and auto repair shops that have been repurposed into businesses around the Louisville area.

Above the Dirt Garden Shop

10104 Taylorsville Road, abovethedirtgardenshop.com

The plant shop, known for its focus on houseplants, and landscaping, also offers gardening classes. As part of the company's non-invasive and native landscaping it offers in the spring, summer and fall, it sells vegetable starts, fruit trees and shrubs, annuals, mums, pumpkins, and poinsettias. Henson said the focus on native plants allows consumers to shop at Above the Dirt Garden Shop and not worry about potentially harming the environment while trying to beautify their houses.

Full Stop Station

1132 E. St. Catherine St., fullstopstation.com

Located in Germantown in the former Haddad's Auto Service, this business still serves as a fueling station but focuses on providing filling meals and delicious coffee to consumers. The convenience shop, which opened in 2018, specializes in sustainable products, like locally grown food, all of which come from Kentucky or Cincinnati. The business also holds events like poetry nights.

Garage Bar

700 E. Market St.,garageonmarket.com

Garage Bar is known for its Neapolitan-style pizza and a blend of Southern and Italian cuisine that takes advantage of local ingredients, the Courier Journal previously reported. The bar serves draft and bottled craft beers, Kentucky Bourbons, seasonal cocktails, and wine to go with its pizzas, salads and small plates. The indoor-outdoor bar spot features artwork that pays homage to the building's heritage as an auto shop. The sculpture moves two full-sized automobiles slowly into each other, simulating a head-on car crash.

Highlands Bar & Grill Louisville

2280 Bardstown Road

The Highlands Bar & Grill opened earlier this year in the shuttered Diamond Station, a neighborhood bar on Bardstown Road. The bar underwent a major renovation, which included redoing the bathrooms and the back bar and bar top, reworking all the beer lines to keep the tap chilled, painting the interior, completing some rewiring and adding new lighting, restructuring the kitchen and adding a service window. The team also did some exterior work on the siding and gutters. Now, the bar serves traditional bar food and appetizers.

The Hub

2235 Frankfort Ave., facebook.com/hublouisville

Located in the heart of the Clifton neighborhood in the former River City Tire Property, The Hub brings guests a luxurious outdoor patio space to enjoy its restaurant-bar vibe. The venue boasts house-made cocktails, local craft beers on draft, and wine. To eat, guests can show up for brunch and try anything from loaded breakfast tots to a burger to French toast casserole. And come back for dinner to see a bougie spin on some bar food classics.

Red Hog Restaurant & Butcher Shop

2622 Frankfort Ave., redhogartisanmeat.com

Red Hog Restaurant & Butcher Shop is a craft butcher shop with a focus on meats that have been sourced from local farms. Meats can be purchased cooked, cured, or as cuts both from the butcher shop and in the restaurant. Kit Garrett of Blue Dog Bakery & Cafe just down the street is the owner of Red Hog.

"The retail shop stocks a selection of fresh cuts of beef, pork, chicken and lamb, as well as tasty house-made treats from these animals," according to the business's website. "Red Hog also features a rotating selection of artisanal cheeses, Blue Dog bread, prepared foods, items off the rotisserie, and a limited array of complementary grocery items, like pickles, olive oil, mustards, vinegars and relishes."

Red Hot Roasters

1399 Lexington Road, redhotroasters.com

A small batch coffee roaster found in the former Old Standard Auto Garage, the local coffee company sells handcrafted coffees, seasonal specialties, and freshly baked goodies. The location on Lexington Road, which used to be an auto shop, still fancies cars with its drive-thru window for the coffee lover on the go.

ShopBar

950 Barret Ave., shopbarlouisville.com

For 99 years, the ShopBar location functioned as an auto shop or service station in some capacity, but now it serves the community as a garage-style bar with a large outdoor patio and a boutique with an antique vibe just next door, the Courier Journal previously reported. ShopBar opened in 2019 and fills its customers up with cocktails, bubbles, wine, beer and seltzers and also offers a rotation of local food trucks daily.

Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Repurposed gas stations in Louisville: Garage Bar, ShopBar, The Hub