LOUISILLE, KY. (WDRB)--For years it has been considered one of the deadliest places in Metro Louisville.  But that is no longer the case in Smoketown's Sheppard Square Housing Projects.

Tuesday afternoon, some old friends spent the day telling stories, reminiscing and taking lots of pictures there.  "My family moved in here in April of 1950 and stayed here until November of 1975," says James Russell, former Sheppard Square Neighbor.

Russell is surrounded by family and friends who came back for one last look at the old neighborhood.

"We got together and called some friends and said lets go up here and walk through and take some pictures of the old apartment and reminisce a little bit."

It is bittersweet because all of them grew up in Sheppard Square when it was still considered a safe place to live, but now it's time to say goodbye.

"It was a true village; every parent was a real parent.  All the friends--the friends you see behind me we've been friends for 50 years."

Over the years the place has been notorious for crime and violence, and it was even named one of the worse places to live in a national survey.  "When I first heard that it hurt me, it hurt to the heart."

"It definitely has been a tough neighborhood," says Lawrence Wilbon, with The Presbyterian Community Center.

Wilbon is program director of the nearby community center.  Among other things, his goal is to protect kids and seniors from violence, but it's not always easy to hide.

"Back in the summer there was a shooting and a couple of our kids were walking by and actually saw the remains of the individuals that were a part of that shooting," says Wilbon.

But these days the crime and shootings have stopped and most of the apartments are vacant.

"Well we started with 270 families and there's only 30 left," says Tim Barry, Executive Director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority.

Barry says the place is being torn down to make way for mixed income housing; it has worked in other neighborhoods and Barry believes it will work here.  "Park Duvall is obviously over the last decade or so over its inception has done very very well," says Barry.

And as James Russell and his friends take one last stroll through Sheppard Square they hope Barry is right.  "It would be nice you know because I have grandchildren and you know it might be their home area one day," says Russell.

Crews will start to demolish the place in the next few months, and the rebuilding process will start shortly thereafter.