Saturday, April 11, 2009

College Hill Property Sales, First Quarter 2009

Address Sale Date Sale Price Assessed Value Price vs Assess. New Owner Prior Owner   Property Number
5509 Belmont Ave 01/02/2009 $448,000 $1,135,000 -$687,000 Bayview Loan Servicing Ll Emrich Jon & Karl Com. 234-0003-0011-00
8121 Daly Rd 02/25/2009 $120,000 $303,220 -$183,220 Cba 2004-1 Ohio Holdings Llc Hitchcock Bertha Com. 247-0005-0312-00
1714 Cedar Ave 01/16/2009 $57,750 $212,620 -$154,870 Access Property Managemen Llc Gunn Sheila R Com. 233-0002-0001-00
1184 Homeside Ave 02/26/2009 $20,000 $165,000 -$145,000 Gundling Cortland Us Bank National Association Tr Com. 235-0003-0007-00
6519 Teakwood Ct 03/09/2009 $13,000 $142,400 -$129,400 Jones Bonnie L Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development Res. 247-0006-0157-00
1607 Larmon Ct 02/10/2009 $38,900 $148,280 -$109,380 Sherrod Theodore T New York Tr Bank Of The Res. 234-0003-0059-00
1738 Cedar Ave 03/27/2009 $60,000 $168,780 -$108,780 Homesales Inc Wright Gwendolyn Tr Res. 229-0004-0035-00
1184 Homeside Ave 02/17/2009 $60,000 $165,000 -$105,000 Us Bank National Association Tr Serjanyan Hasmik Com. 235-0003-0007-00
1532 Hollywood Ave 03/04/2009 $85,000 $182,280 -$97,280 Hockney Timothy S & Angela M Calendine Kristine Tr Res. 247-0001-0198-00
1153 Groesbeck Rd 02/02/2009 $27,500 $113,680 -$86,180 Ertel James Jr & Gayle Sutton Funding Llc Res. 236-0003-0028-00
2204 Kipling Ave 02/24/2009 $13,500 $93,300 -$79,800 R E Schweitzer Construction Company Skoczen Paul Res. 228-0002-0088-00
6003 Connecticut Ct 01/15/2009 $27,500 $106,230 -$78,730 Darnell Matt Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development Res. 228-0002-0117-00
6083 Pawnee Dr 03/12/2009 $30,900 $108,290 -$77,390 Waldon Gregory I & Sylvia Ib Property Holdings Llc Res. 229-0001-0083-00
1544 Ambrose Ave 01/21/2009 $16,700 $92,700 -$76,000 Cad Investment Group Llc Powers Troy Res. 233-0003-0146-00
1127 Cedar Ave 03/09/2009 $5,000 $78,400 -$73,400 Hayes Genia Tr Grant Georgianna Res. 236-0002-0040-00
6046 Budmar Ave 03/31/2009 $90,000 $159,950 -$69,950 Aurora Loan Services Llc Saade Properties Ltd Com. 233-0001-0108-00
7620 Bitteroot Ln 02/11/2009 $43,000 $111,520 -$68,520 Jeter Reginald Secretary Of Housing & Urban Development Res. 247-0005-0041-00
7870 Daly Rd 03/02/2009 $29,000 $95,260 -$66,260 Wade James Hsbc Mortgage Services Inc Res. 247-0005-0083-00
1544 Ambrose Ave 01/28/2009 $26,500 $92,700 -$66,200 Nguyen Quy & Chi Pham Cad Investment Group Llc Res. 233-0003-0146-00
1165 Lynnebrook Dr 02/13/2009 $18,000 $81,340 -$63,340 3 C Investments Inc Federal National Mortgage Association Res. 236-0002-0249-00
1172 Mosswood Ct 02/09/2009 $67,000 $130,340 -$63,340 Childs Natasha L Us Bank National Association Tr Res. 247-0005-0428-00
6708 Plantation Wy 01/05/2009 $90,000 $151,700 -$61,700 Newman Bobby Lynn U S Bank National Association Tr Res. 247-0007-0247-00
6041 Lantana Ave 03/30/2009 $16,000 $77,220 -$61,220 Foster Sandy Jr New York  Bank Of The Res. 235-0001-0046-00
6361 Meis Ave 02/03/2009 $64,000 $125,000 -$61,000 Bank Of New York Tr The Housley Theodore Res. 246-0002-0048-00
6046 Capri Dr 03/04/2009 $37,900 $97,000 -$59,100 Kennedy Thomas & Joyce Federal Natioanl Mortgage Association Res. 237-0001-0120-00
7850 Daly Rd 03/02/2009 $29,500 $88,200 -$58,700 Reith Scott Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development The Res. 247-0005-0081-00
1188 Toluca Ct 03/24/2009 $30,000 $87,500 -$57,500 Renaissance Men Propertie Llc Federal National Mortgage Association Res. 236-0001-0207-00
1059 Elda Ln 01/20/2009 $13,000 $70,170 -$57,170 Jacobs David Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Res. 236-0001-0187-00
1197 Lynnebrook Dr 03/26/2009 $56,000 $112,700 -$56,700 Federal National Mortgage Association Gates Marcus D Res. 236-0002-0256-00
1153 Groesbeck Rd 02/02/2009 $60,000 $113,680 -$53,680 Sutton Funding Llc Crawford Ronda Res. 236-0003-0028-00
1602 Larmon Ct 02/20/2009 $89,000 $142,590 -$53,590 Garcia Karen Quanita Metcalf Elyse Res. 234-0003-0073-00
2053 Connecticut Ave 02/02/2009 $63,600 $116,910 -$53,310 Lasalle Bank National Association Tr Knight Daniel J Res. 228-0002-0203-00
5956 Monticello Ave 01/13/2009 $106,000 $158,960 -$52,960 Clemen Linda M Federal National Mortgage Association Res. 228-0002-0222-00
1172 Mosswood Ct 02/09/2009 $80,000 $130,340 -$50,340 Us Bank National Association Tr Herring Letha & Kevin Res. 247-0005-0428-00
5818 Lathrop Pl 01/16/2009 $71,200 $120,150 -$48,950 Doddy Reginald N Duodu Margaret A Res. 229-0004-0021-00
7973 Cherrywood Ct 02/25/2009 $64,900 $112,700 -$47,800 Iles Nicole M Hsbc Mortgage Services Inc Res. 247-0005-0231-00
5711 Kiefer Ct 01/30/2009 $30,000 $75,360 -$45,360 Adkinson John Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development The Res. 236-0002-0276-00
1233 Toluca Ct 02/13/2009 $60,000 $105,000 -$45,000 Fannie Mae Paige Lois Res. 236-0001-0226-00
5660 Hamilton Ave 01/02/2009 $52,000 $96,530 -$44,530 National City Bank Wilson Yvonne Res. 234-0004-0086-00
1535 Ambrose Ave 01/14/2009 $20,000 $63,210 -$43,210 Federal National Mortgage Association Davis Patricia Res. 233-0003-0028-00
5711 Kenneth Ave 03/10/2009 $50,000 $91,140 -$41,140 Cco Mortgage Corporation Phillips Linda D Res. 236-0002-0167-00
2011 Parkhurst Ct 03/26/2009 $91,455 $132,500 -$41,045 Lasalle Bank National Association Tr Brown Stephen A & Vikee Res. 228-0002-0254-00
2038 Connecticut Ave 03/13/2009 $62,000 $101,630 -$39,630 Wells Fargo Bank N A Price Pamela R Res. 228-0002-0195-00
6310 Savannah Ave 01/12/2009 $56,000 $90,060 -$34,060 Wells Fargo Bank N A Evers Robert E Res. 232-0001-0013-00
6311 Heitzler Ave 01/21/2009 $55,000 $87,620 -$32,620 French David A & Kathleen E Pickens-Fren Henderer Norma Jean Res. 232-0004-0019-00
866 Oakfield Ave 01/27/2009 $69,900 $102,500 -$32,600 Suggs Dorothea H Holmes Jason E & Jessica Res. 237-0003-0061-00
6349 Heitzler Ave 01/22/2009 $92,000 $124,200 -$32,200 Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Tr Evans Michelle L Res. 246-0003-0052-00
5700 Kiefer Ct 01/05/2009 $64,000 $95,550 -$31,550 Sanders Bruce Cinfed Employees Federal Credit Union Res. 236-0002-0293-00
1153 Lynnebrook Dr 01/20/2009 $60,000 $90,160 -$30,160 Third Federal Savings & Loan Association Of Cle Douglas Latisha D Res. 236-0002-0246-00
1010 Ebony Ln 02/09/2009 $48,000 $76,140 -$28,140 Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Tr Curry Darryl & Bonita Res. 237-0001-0042-00
6365 Meis Ave 03/23/2009 $8,000 $35,100 -$27,100 Diegmueller James F Tr Fannie Mae Res. 246-0002-0047-00
6479 Daly Rd 03/03/2009 $71,900 $98,590 -$26,690 Long Kim Foster Daniel M Res. 247-0006-0111-00
1610 Dixon Cr 02/27/2009 $108,000 $131,900 -$23,900 Sheville Justin & Melissa Kay Radina Judith & Tamarra K Stringfield Res. 232-0004-0095-00
1622 Larmon Ct 03/05/2009 $118,000 $138,480 -$20,480 Patton Patrick J & Kristen Hanks Mcafee Jack A Res. 234-0003-0068-00
5300 Hamilton Ave 02/24/2009 $88,000 $97,090 -$9,090 Johnson Jerome A Tr & Loreda B Tr Wade William W Res. 230-0001-0089-00
1192 Cedar Ave 02/02/2009 $32,000 $39,100 -$7,100 Working In Neighborhoods Fannie Mae Res. 235-0003-0062-00
6110 Hamilton Ave 02/26/2009 $155,000 $158,200 -$3,200 6110 Hamilton Avenue Llc Elisha Community Redevelopment Corporation Com. 233-0003-0080-00
5722 Kiefer Ct 01/08/2009 $90,500 $89,960 $540 Jones Milton W Bray Earl Jr & Linda L Morris Bray Res. 236-0002-0288-00
5828 Saranac Ave 03/16/2009 $26,000 $24,900 $1,100 Federal Home Loan Mortgag Corporation Pinkelton Kenneth L Res. 233-0004-0110-00
5300 Hamilton Ave 01/02/2009 $140,000 $128,300 $11,700 Thiemann Mary Theresa Dunn Elaine F Res. 230-0001-0174-00
6069 Waldway Ln 01/02/2009 $80,000 $62,900 $17,100 Lamb Patrice M Yates Brian F & Helenlamor Res. 237-0001-0299-00
1532 Larry Ave 03/10/2009 $195,000 $176,300 $18,700 Digiovenale Victoria Hancock Betty Res. 247-0001-0019-00
5923 Lantana Ave 03/23/2009 $80,000 $49,900 $30,100 Nguyen Tinh Nguyen Chris T Res. 233-0004-0052-00
1714 Cedar Ave 01/16/2009 $57,750 $780 $56,970 Access Property Managemen Llc Gunn Sheila R Res. 233-0002-0115-00
5836 Saranac Ave 03/25/2009 $111,000 $9,000 $102,000 Rivera Shana M Working In Neighborhoods Res. 233-0004-0105-00

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

A Tour of College Hill

College Hill Realtor Tour Notes

These are Ed Loyd's notes for a Realtor Tour of College Hill on April 1, 2009.

Start at College Hill Coffee Company heading north on Hamilton Avenue

Many of you may recall Schuler’s Wigwam that was formerly on this site and Kroger’s that was across the street but what you may not know about was the Car Barn and Linden Park Hotel that were also on this corner. The hotel lent its name to the mixed use development we expect to see when the economy rebounds.

Right on Hollywood

This is the northeastern part of College Hill, which was primarily developed from farmland after World War II by the developers Jack Wittekind and Thomas Wood, who are the namesakes for Wittekind Terrace and Thomwood Avenue here. No doubt our next street, Edwood was named for another relative.

Right on Edwood

Now I want to tell you about house we’re going to get a sneak peak at when we get to the intersection at North Bend. You’ll see over to our left a large white frame house and that was the residence of Coleman Avery.

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Coleman Avery, who raised horses and Irish terriers on a 42 acre farm on North Bend Road. In 1938, distraught over substantial financial losses in the market (a situation none of us could possibly identify with today) and already having suffered from a nervous breakdown, he shot his wife in the back of the head, as she was preparing strawberries for breakfast and then he shot himself.

They were both found lying on the floor of the kitchen; he fully dressed with an overcoat on, when the police burst into the home after having been called by the caretaker. Avery’s first wife had died and his second marriage to Sara Loving was one of the “social events of the season” in 1934. While their marriage appeared a happy one, with his failing health, he didn’t want his new wife to inherit any of his money, some say. Regardless, it was a great tragedy.

A year later, a large auction was held at the home that was attended by more than 500 people. They started in the barn selling rolls of wire fence, hay and other tools and then adjourned to the yard where a library of 2,000 volumes and antiques, including a number of Chippendale pieces, American and old English glassware, Chinese brasses, bronzes, oil paintings, four poster beds, numerous furnishings and 12 canes from around the world decorated in gold and agate. There were even seven Irish terriers among the 700 lots of items. Perhaps, if they had just held more auctions in the first place, there wouldn’t have been any need of a murder-suicide.

Right on North Bend Road

So there is the Avery house….

On the right you see the Northern Hills Branch of the Cincinnati Library and the Pleasant Hill School.

Previously on this site was the Crawford’s Old Men’s Home, which was established in 1888 specifically for the benefit of black men. John Crawford had left his home and estate for this purpose in gratitude and thanks to all the slaves who had helped him to escape Libby Prison and return to Ohio during the Civil War. The Crawford home later merged to form the Lincoln-Crawford Home in Walnut Hills.

Left on Argus

Now in the earliest days of College Hill…back in 1796, Aaron Waggoner built a log cabin near North Bend and Argus. He afterwards became our first neighborhood lunatic and wandered harmlessly from house to house clad in an Indian blanket and terrorized children. He built a cave in the side of the hill and lived their alone much of the time to an advanced age. This area later became the Pierson farm, where 120 homes were built in the early 1900s by Newbold Pierson around from Kenneth, Cedar and Argus and encompassing all of Leffingwell, Homeside and Atwell.

Right on Cedar Avenue

Newly constructed home

There are a couple of Sears catalogue houses on Cedar and we will pass one in a minute I will point out to you…

And we also have St. Clare Catholic Church here, though we aren’t going to go by it, which for 25 years met in an unfinished basement of the building before the sanctuary was built in the 1950s…like many parishes they built the school first and then had to put the rest on hold with the Great Depression.

The Post Office is just beyond that.

Left on Lantana Avenue

Now, if  we had turned the other way on Lantana we would have run into a street called Elkton, and that’s where a girl in the 1930s lived by the name of Doris Kappelhoff. She got a great break from College Hill neighbor Powel Crosley Jr., who invited her to perform on a WLW radio program and she did a great job. So, what was to be done with a name like that.  Rename her Doris Day, of course!

Right on Groesbeck Road

College Hill Railroad…house garage at an angle…

Jacob Tuckerman House, mathametics professor and president of Farmers’ College…

The next home was built by Sarah Brooks, a teacher at the Ohio Female College and it was once a boarding house and a school for girls. It later was owned by the Gray family, who gave their name to Gray Road, and were the first to start all the horticultural businesses down Gray Road in back of Spring Grove Cemetery, which are still there today.

Right on Hamilton Avenue

College Hill Presbyterian Church

New firehouse under construction

You can also see that many of the Store fronts in the business district have recently been renovated

Left on Cedar Avenue

Here at the corner in the Dow building there used to be a soda fountain shop in the 1910s and one of the school kids who worked there, jerks as they we called, was a young Tyrone Power who went on in the 1920s to be one of the first heartthrob sensations in Hollywood.

The College Hill Elementary School on the left was modeled after Jefferson’s University of Virginia. It was dedicated May 21, 1927 by Dr. Randall Condon, Superintendent of Schools. Walter Aiken, Director of Music. William Shroeder, President of the Board of Education, and one of the keynote speakers was Dr. Withrow. Today, four Cincinnati public schools are named for these gentlemen - Aiken, Shroeder, Withrow and Condon.

The large Victorian home here at the top of the hill, known at “Tree Knoll,” belonged to William Simpson, who was president of American Rolling Mills in Hamilton. The Simpsons were a large family and of the four brothers, each was the president of his own manufacturing or insurance company.

Straight on Lathrop

Left on Llainfair

Now, when College Hill was annexed to Cincinnati in 1911 there were a number of streets that had to change their names since there were already other Maple avenues in the city, for example. Llainfair is one of those and it was named for a town in Wales…but this only the first part of the name…it’s actually 58 letters long.

Llanfair pwll gwyngyll gogery chwyrnd rob wllllanty siliogog ogoch

The locals called it Llainfair P.G.

The translation of all that from Welsh is: "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."

Llainfair Retirement Community

Right on Davey

This is Davey Avenue and though the house is now gone, this street was the birthplace of the Crosley Radios. Powel Crosley Jr. was a native of College Hill…

Left on Larch Avenue

In addition to being the home of inventors like Crosley, on Larch is the home of famed Cincinnati artist Caroline Williams, whose pen and ink sketches recorded Cincinnati before so many remarkable building were lost to the “progress of the 1950s and 60s. The current owner actually found one of her early drawings on the wall in the attic …

She did 55 sketches alone on College Hill homes and buildings so it’s quite a remarkable treasure trove.

Right on Hamilton Avenue

On the right you see a beautifully maintained frame house that dates to the 1820s. It was in this home in 1833 that the first four students of the Pleasant Hill Academy came to take their lessons from Freeman Cary, which was the genesis of his educational career and the school that later became Farmers’ College, which I’ll talk more about in a few minutes. The home was later the residence of a series of College Hill physicians, including Drs. Johnson, McChesney and Kilgour.

Left into Children’s Hospital

Our next stop is the grounds of the Ohio Female College, which was established in 1848.

In the 25 years of its history, until it doors were closed in 1873, the Ohio Female College was one of the few institutions of its era where women could seek an advanced education. In fact, it was one of just five in the 1850s!

Naturally, this was also a place of interest for the young gentlemen of nearby Farmers’ College. The two groups were carefully chaperoned, their only common appearance being at the Presbyterian Church services on Sunday mornings.

There also was a healthy exchange of witty barbs between the newspapers of the Female College, which was The Dew Drop and The Thunderbolt of Farmers’ College.

As a sample of these exchanges let me offer this. Said The Thunderbolt: “The Dew Drop speaks very frequently of flats! The flattest things we have been able to discover are its pages.”

Retorted The Dew Drop: “Why are certain classic students of Farmers’ College more favored than Enoch? Because he had but one translation, while they have many.”

Following the closure on the Female College, the property became the campus of the Cincinnati Sanitarium, which was renamed in 1954 as Emerson A North Hospital. Today, the main building was constructed in 1988 and continues to be a place of reflection and healing.

Stop to point out Wilson House and Underground Railroad designation

Left on Hamilton Avenue

On the right here you see the Grace Episcopal Church, which was started in 1866 on the grounds of one of the previous buildings of Farmers’ College.

Now a College Hill girl, Olivia Avery, married a guy in this church named Phillip Hubert Frohman. He was from 1921 until his death in 1972 the architect of the Washington National Cathedral and is responsible for the realization of that remarkable space in our nation’s capitol. Frohman wasn’t a stranger to College Hill. In fact, he donated plans for a new vestry at Grace Church in 1916 that were not used due to their expense. He was a great grandson of General Doisy, who’ll mention when we go up Belmont Avenue.

He was also the nephew of the famous Broadway producer, Charles Frohman, who sank with the Lusitania, allegedly saying “Why fear death? It is the greatest adventure in life.”

Left on Hillcrest Road & Lanius Lane

Now our next stop is going to be at the LaBoiteaux Woods Nature Center, which was a gift to the city from Charles Louis LaBoiteaux in 1939.

LaBoiteaux grounds, were filled with native oak, maple, hickory, chestnut, walnut, cherry, hackberry, ironwood and even pawpaw trees. In particular, there was a towering oak grove on the property, with a number of them still standing. One mighty oak was more than 96 feet tall and its colossal trunk was determined in 1931 to be one of the largest in the county. The trunk circumference, measured 17 feet!

Now, while we are here I went you to note the deep ravine between here and Hamilton Avenue. This was one of the principal routes for fleeing slaves along the Underground Railroad.

Retrace Lanius Lane

Now Lanius Lane was named after on of College Hill’s characters Len Lanius, who had careers in wrestling, the martial arts, agriculture and optometry. Much like the young Theodore Roosevelt, he became interested in athletics in his youth after doctors said he was unlikely to live to the age of 20. Building up his strength, Lanius became an avid wrestler and won 70 straight “combats without losing a fall.” By the early 1890s he had become the light-weight wrestling champion of the world—at least that was his lifelong claim.

During the 1890s the story goes, a friend gave him two hens and told Lanius to fatten them up ant the invite him to dinner. While waiting for the hens to fatten he went out of town to full several engagements, and when he returned, Lanius’ wife Minnie asked him not to kill the birds but to keep them for the eggs they were laying. From this start he began to build up a business, which soon became one of the largest poultry yards in Ohio: the College Hill Poultry Farm. It was headquartered at his farm on the present day Lanius Lane for more than 30 years.

Left on Hillcrest Road

Pierson Simpson House…ghost story (if time)

Left on Hamilton Avenue

Note on the left some of the Strong, Avery, Aiken homes.

Left into Hammond North

The Hammond North, which was built in 1965 and today contains 181 condos. This was built near the site of the LaBoiteaux octagonal home that once proudly stood on the ridge.

It was a fanciful home built by Isaac Newton LaBoiteaux, a successful Cincinnati jeweler, whose family lived atop their bluff for more than 80 years. However, they built a second more practical home in which later generations lived and used the octagonal house for storage and a curiosity site for family guests. You might be interested to know that the house had eight gables, each with a balcony and support column, and the porch, which wrapped around the entire house, measured 232 feet.

The panoramic view you can enjoy here embraces much of the Mill Creek Valley and Montgomery, Pleasant Ridge, Bond Hill, Madisonville, Mt. Lookout, Avondale, Walnut Hills, Mt. Auburn, Clifton, the West End, Westwood and Cheviot.

Samuel Hannaford donated the architectural plans for the original building, of what was called the Methodist Home until 1982 when it was renamed Twin Towers. Today, the campus has been significantly remodeled and modernized with a health center and other facilities and complemented by new apartment and independent patio homes.

Right on Hamilton Avenue

Left on S. Ridge Drive (Twin Towers)

Our next stop is Twin Towers, which began in 1903 with the donation of the home and surrounding land by Obed Wilson, which had been his family’s summer residence. Unlike those Cincinnatians who run off to Michigan in the summer today, Wilson was content to leave what he termed the “social whirl” of Clifton for College Hill. He was a partner in the firm of Wilson & Hinkle, the publishing company that we recall by its later name, The American Book Company.

Left on Hamilton Avenue

Obed Wilson and Sam Cary house sites, Glenwood Apartments

Left on Belmont Avenue

· Stop at Recreation Center 5545 Belmont Ave (drive through circular parking lot)

We owe to Freeman Cary’s vision and work the very name of our community. For without him we may never have come to be known by anything other than Pleasant Hill.

This is the site of the main building of Farmers’ College, Cary Hall, which in 1846 fulfilled Cary’s vision of an institution of higher learning with the object “to direct and cultivate the minds of students in a thorough and scientific course of studies, particularly adapted to agricultural pursuits.” It was the first such institution of its kind in the county, predating the land grant colleges and any public assistance by more than 15 years.

An entire afternoon could be devoted to the College, its history and its famous teachers and students. Among the “old boys” can be even counted a President of the United States, who began to court his future First Lady here in College Hill. This college crowded a significant amount of educational achievement in its first decades.

the bursting cannons of the Civil War decreased the enrollment so significantly it led to financial strains and the school was forced to sell its model farm, and within a few years even to admit women! Even so in 1890 the board determined to abandon the work of a college and they formed a college preparatory school, the Ohio Military Institute, which operated until 1958.

There are still a number of longtime residents of College Hill who can remember the cannon firing at 6 a.m. each day, and the students drilling in their uniforms on the campus or around the Town Hall.

In 2007 we celebrated the dedication of an Ohio Historical Marker here that commemorates the history of all the colleges through which we earned our name.

Dr. Bishop’s Scottish Mound

Continue up Belmont

Sayre House—College Hill Hotel

Upson house

Aiken High School

Town Hall by Hannaford

The first home on the left actually started life as the rectory for Grace Church but it was moved to this site in 1953. An earlier home here had been built here by Major Adelbert Jacques Doisy de Villargennes, aka “the General,”

…who was the first senior warden of Grace church, who in addition to speaking seven languages, fought with Napoleon, was imprisoned in Scotland befriending Sir Walter Scott, became a professor of French in Ireland and eventually landed in Cincinnati where he was also the consul general of Italy and Ireland. In addition to the architect great-grandson Hubert Frohman I mentioned, he had another descendant who won a Nobel Prize for isolating vitamin K.

Lewis Crosley House brother of Powel Jr.

Charles & General Cist

Flamm’s grocery

Poundsford property

Underground Railroad house

Left on Glenview

With the exception of the Church building and a carriage house I’ll explain, every home on Glenview predates 1910, some were built as early as the 1830s.

The Huntington/Simpson house was originally a stage stop for travelers.

Poundsford carriage house has a Flemish gables rising above a green tile roof. The family had planned to build a similarly styled mansion but Mrs. P wouldn’t allow them to tear down the old Victorian home, which finally gave way in 1968 when the property was sold to a church group.

The Italianate Henshaw house was built in 1870 but a rear wing is believed to date back to the 1830s. The next three homes were all built by a local builder named Andrew Forbes.

Of these, is the Coy-Crowley House. First built for the author of a Latin textbook, it later became the home of a UC professor and naturalist who raised goats…and they were invited to roam around on the first floor of the home. To this day the house is known as “Goat Manor.”

Now up on the corner, the Swiss chalet home we passed was built by the Rammelsburg family, which owned Mitchell-Rammelburg Furniture Co. and Mrs. Rammelsburg was a sister of Peter Thomson who built Laurel Court.

Right on Glenview

The Oaks

Right on Belmont

Before I wrap up, you know today is April Fool’s Day so I may have slipped in a bit of made up history on you….can anyone tell me which of the following was NOT true:

· Powel Crosley began his radio empire in a College Hill attic

· Doris Day grew up in the neighborhood.

· Actor Tyrone Powers was a soda jerk on Hamilton Avenue

· Len Lanius was heavy-weight champion of the world

· There was a Coleman Avery murder-suicide

· Farmers’ College was the first agricultural school in the nation

· There was a Scottish burial mound behind the school for Dr. Bishop

· The Underground Railroad came through College Hill

· There was street car service to College Hill

· There is a connection between Grace Church, College Hill and the Washington National Cathedral.

· General Doisy fought with Napoleon and befriended Sir Walter Scott in prison.

· President Benjamin Harrison started courting future First Lady Lucy Scott Harrison in College Hill.

They are all true!!!

Don’t be fooled. College Hill has an exciting and vibrant history…and all of us at the College Hill Historical Soceity are glad to help you or any of your clients to find out more about the history of their home or the community.