Though the main parts of this Louisville house are long gone in flood and city reconstruction, a facade is well maintained and preserved to this day for a historical reason.

Christian Heigold was a stonemason and a new immigrant from Germany in 1850s. He came to this new world with great hope but faced cruel reality of anti-immigrant populists. Local newspaper was controlled by xenophobic Know Nothign Party and constantly attacked German and Irish immigrants in Louisville. A riot unavoidably happened in 1855, in which Protestant mob attacked immigrant business and homes and killed 22 people.

Heigold put great effort in building his house in a patriotic way as you can see from its decoration depicting then president James Buchanan and founding father George Washington. Words like “Hail to the City of Louisville” and “The Union Forever” only made the irony even more obvious considering how these new comers were treated.

More and more immigrants went away to more welcoming cities like Chicago but Heigold house stood and defended its claim. This part of Heigold house survived flood and city planning, residing near to its original place, symbolizing an age of struggle and hope of new comers.