College Hill eNewsletter Archive

How to Get Events on the College Hill Calendar at Cincinnati.com

2011-02-11T22:26:00.001-05:00

It's easy to get your organization's events into the Cincinnati.com calendar, where they automatically appear in the College Hill Calendar, and can also be viewed by anyone in the Greater Cincinnati area.

To get an item into the Cincinnati.com system, go here, then click on "promote an event," and provide the event information. Don't forget to specify that the event is in College Hill. Note that if you haven't already registered with Cincinnati.com, you'll need to do that.

Once approved and in that system, events are widely available: on the Cincinnati.Com & NKY.com community pages, in the News, Sports and Entertainment sections of Cincinnati.Com, on the Event calendars seen on hundreds of Cincinnati.Com pages including Metromix Cincinnati, and in the CincinnatiUSA.com visitor's guide.

They may also run in print in the Cincinnati & Kentucky Enquirer, the Community Press newspapers, Metromix magazine, Community Recorder newspapers, Your Hometown Enquirer zones, Our Town magazine editions and the Annual Discover magazines.

Elements the College Hill Crawford Field Committee Want Included in the Pleasant Hill Academy Site Plan

2010-11-02T13:41:00.000-04:00

Representatives of the College Hill Forum have worked with Cincinnati Public Schools for the past eight months to create a new site plan for Pleasant Hill Academy. We ask that these elements be included in any site plan approved by the Forum:

1. An historic plaque honoring John T. Crawford.

2. A south-facing raised bed school garden

3. A baseball field on the old school site

4. Basketball courts visible from the street.

5. An outdoor classroom (modeled on North Avondale) on a hillside

6. Keep the play structure on the lower playfield.

7. A well lit walking path created by retaining nine feet of the asphalt on the perimeter of the playfield. The asphalt on the inside of the path will be removed and returned to green space.

8. Keep the concrete retaining walls, steps, sidewalks and most of the trees on the west side of the old building.

9. Reduce the size and height of the library parking lot to increase visibility and security and onsite water retention.

10. Reach an agreement with the city on who owns and maintains the Devonwood Walk-through. Add a light and make it accessible.

11. A plan to keep the school grounds well maintained and safe. The grounds are currently very overgrown which has led to increased illegal activities and misuse. The overgrown woods supports a herd of deer.

12. A multi-purpose practice football/soccer/physical education field with upgraded turf behind the school building.

Key Points of the Cincinnati Public Schools Proposal for Crawford Field/Pleasant Hill Grounds

2010-11-02T13:38:00.001-04:00

Some key points of CPS proposal

o Demo of old Pleasant Hill/Modular structures

o Improve traffic flow and athletic fields

o No change to library and new school

o Widen drive for busses

o Connect handicap spaces to library with sidewalk

o Take away parking lot on west side of library

o 160 x 360 field(Football for 7^th and 8^th graders) replacing pavement

o Retaining access to Reid and Wittekind

o Walking loop paths

o Field in back northeast will be green space

o Paved area in back will be taken out

o More than 50% is hard surface (concrete/roof) under new plan, 30% would be

o Reduced number of parking spaces

Residents Recommend Local Home Resources

2010-09-23T18:54:00.002-04:00

Karen Hartman recommends these College Hill residents:

Handyman (carpenter, etc.)--Roger Bernhard 513-541-3037
Electrician--Ralph Martin 513-542-2591
Plumber--Jim Murphy 513-541-6594

Rene Sharp writes:

We use Viox Services. They are not based out of College Hill, but they are part of our organization at Twin Towers. I just thought I'd share in the event you don't have College Hill vendors to do everything you mentioned. They do all of our campus work and we have found them to be invaluable to us.

Dan Weyand-Geise writes:

In response to the request for someone to help with home repairs, improvements, etc, "Gotta' Guy" is a terrific duo of retired handymen who have done excellent work in Northside and College Hill. Ed Zinnecker and Jim Weyand (my father-in-law and member of First UCC) provide excellent craftsmanship and dedication on projects. Call Jim at 513-218-5407 for more information about "Gotta' Guy."

Karen Hartman writes:

We use Darryl Allen, 5924 Hamilton Avenue, phone 859-982-5194, to wash the windows at the office. He is extremely professional, and super-efficient!

Brad Hammond writes: I have some recommendations for services whose owners border on College Hill.

Petit Plumbing Mike Petit lives on the edge of CH on Oak Knoll. His phone is 513-522-3355. He does good work and is not too expensive.
Ralph Martin Electric. Ralph lives on 1355 Fogel which is just in NCH, but has his garbage picked up by Cincinnati. His number is 513-542-2591. He does great work and at a very reasonable cost.

Bob Tam writes:

Tony Thompson (who lives in College Hill) is an excellent craftsman. He expertly does electrical, plumbing, cement and tile work, and many other crafts. He, and the Amish cabinet maker he contracts with, did a great remodeling job on our kitchen and saved us 50% over what other high-end custom designers quoted. Everything he does is top-notch and of the highest quality. You won't find better for less. Best to just email him at: tonyt@fuse.net

Mae Norman writes:

"Rafeal Johnson, the owner of Steezo Inc. (513-305-1459 or steezoinc@yahoo.com), has been doing work for me and my husband for three years. He is very thorough and always cleans up after he has completed the job. He makes sure you are satisfied with the completed job. The work that he has done for us is more than acceptable and we are very pleased."

Send your recommendations to eNewsletter@collegehilloh.org.

Latest College Hill Food Safety Inspections as of September 2, 2010

2010-09-02T15:48:00.001-04:00

The Cincinnati Health Department’s Environmental Health Food Safety Program inspects all food service operations and retail food establishments in the City of Cincinnati to ensure compliance with the Ohio Uniform Food Safety Code. The following summarizes the most recent inspections in College Hill.

To see what is covered by these inspections, and to see details of the inspections, see here.

Aiken Senior High School 5641 Belmont Av	04/22/2010	No violations found
Ameristop 951 North Bend Rd		No records
Bacalls Café 6118 Hamilton Av	07/15/2010	Violations corrected
Belwood Apts Llanfair Retirement Community 1776 Larch	08/26/2009	No violation found
Booth Residence 6000 Townevista Dr	06/23/2010	Violations found
Bud's Pony Keg 1260 W Galbraith Rd	05/24/2010	Violations found
C & D Drive Thru 1979 W North Bend Rd	06/18/2010	Violations found
Children's Hospital 5642 Hamilton	05/24/2010	Violations corrected
Caring Hearts Adult Day Care 1208 W Galbraith	06/21/2010	Violations found
Cherish Your Children Childcare Inc 5825 Hamilton		No records
Chung Ching 5842 Hamilton Av	08/03/2010	Violations corrected
College Hill Coffee Co 6128 Hamilton Av	04/15/2010	Violations corrected
College Hill Recreation Center 5545 Belmont Av	07/20/2009	No violation found
Country Store 6000 Townevista Dr	06/23/2010	No violation found
Daily Mart 5804 Hamilton Av	04/12/2010	Violations found
Daly Sunoco 1200 W Galbraith Rd	04/02/2010	Violations found
EZ Market 5941 Hamilton Av	07/06/2010	Violations corrected
Family Dollar Store #1072 951 North Bend Rd	06/15/2010	No violation found
Family Dollar Store #1792 5823 Hamilton Av	04/05/2010	Violations found
Food Mart 1205 W Galbraith Rd	10/13/2009	Violations corrected
Goodies BBQ 5841 Hamilton Av	04/05/2010	Violations found
Iola's Restaurant 8227 Daly Rd	07/01/2010	Violations found
Larosa's College Hill 5830 Hamilton Av	07/15/2010	No violations found
Lauren Enterprises Ltd 6110 Hamilton Av	06/29/2010	No violations found
Little Caesars Pizza 1198 W Galbraith Rd	05/24/2010	Violations found
Llanfair Apts 1722 Larch Av	07/16/2010	Violations found
Llanfair Cafeteria Coffee 1701 Llanfair Av	08/12/2009	No violations found
Llanfair Retirement Community 1701 Llanfair Av	05/19/2010	Violations corrected
Llanfair Terrace Nursing Home 1701 Llanfair Av	04/30/2010	Violations found
McAuley High School 6000 Oakwood Av	04/12/2010	Violations found
McDonald’s #26577 919 North Bend Rd	04/16/2010	Violations found
New China Gourmet 1183 W Galbraith Rd	07/13/2010	Violations found
North Bend Supermarket 2104 W North Bend Rd	06/18/2010	Violations found
Papa John's Pizza #1821 5800 Hamilton Av	04/05/2010	Violations found
Pleasant Hill Academy 1350 W North Bend Rd	12/16/2009	No violations found
Progressive Child Academy 6425 Hamilton Av	01/28/2010	No violations found
Rustic Tavern 1197 W Galbraith Rd	04/02/2010	Violations found
Shakers Entertainment Complex 5900 Hamilton	07/16/2010	Violations found
The Salvation Army - Center Hill 6381 Center Hill	04/16/2010	Violations found
Twin Towers Inc 5343 Hamilton Av	08/17/2010	Violations corrected
Twin Towers Ret Home-Bistro 5343 Hamilton Av	07/08/2010	Violations corrected
Under The Sea Childcare 2129 W North Bend Rd	06/09/2009	No violations found
White Castle #42 923 North Bend Rd	05/21/2010	Violations corrected
Woot's BBQ 881 Oakfield Av		No records

Good-Bye Remarks for Amy Finnegan, Forum President

2010-05-26T17:42:00.002-04:00

Remarks delivered by incoming Forum President Phyllis Slusher at outgoing President Amy Finnegans last Forum meeting, May 25, 2010.

As much as Amy Finnegan loves this neighborhood, she’d finally had it with some out-of-control neighbors --and bought a new home outside of College Hill.

In February, the College Hill Forum Board unanimously rejected Amy’s offered resignation and asked her to stay on through the end of her term.

Sadly, that’s tonight. When we lose Amy Finnegan, we lose a major contributor to this community. And we lose a Forum president who never lost her cool -- or her class --during her busy term as president.

Amy led us through a tough decision making process with the Episcopal Retirement Homes proposal for the Eastern Star property. She took a lot of slings and arrows on behalf of the Forum, but never returned fire.

Perhaps, in her finest hour, Amy convinced the owners of the Hillrise apartments to work with the CH community - after years of unsuccessful attempts to get the owners to respond. Amy organized the investigation which disclosed no workable plan to improve conditions for residents. She led the community campaign to keep Hillrise from being rewarded with government money -- and to hold Hillrise accountable for their failings – and for their bedbugs.

Instead of simply complaining about EZ Market, she went to the store to discuss our concerns with the owner and get him involved. She later worked with the CPOP committee to effect some major improvements there.

Amy founded our National Night Out celebration to honor our fire fighters and police officers. Every year, she only got the exhibitors, got the food, got the drinks, got the volunteers, got the band, made the fliers, did the marketing and made sure it always was a fun event that got College Hill on the news – in a good way!

Amy has walked with Citizens on Patrol, she’s cleaned up litter and trash at every clean-up, worked every Pumpkin Patch and every Rhythm Race. She’s taken every Garden Tour, shopped at Farm Market, patronized most every business on the Avenue and built relationships with state and local officials – and she’s done it all with energy and enthusiasm.

Please join me -- with energy and enthusiasm – as we say goodbye and thank you to Amy Finnegan.

The future of College Hill is being shaped by a small group. Want to join them?

2010-05-01T10:21:00.001-04:00

The College Hill Ministerium (group of ministers who support Christ’s Community in College Hill) is sponsoring a series of strategic planning sessions to improve the economic and human relations climate in the community. Anyone with an interest in these areas may join. The group--which is diverse and includes a variety of business owners, concerned citizens, and civic leaders--is open to anyone who wishes to join, and meets every few weeks at the Recreation Center on Belmont. The next meeting is May 10, 7:00-9:00 pm.

The following shows the work the group has done so far, and where we’re going next. (Note: The items below are the perceptions of individuals in the group, not the consensus of the whole group. Our approach is to honor the perspective of each person; we will examine whether perspectives are “factual” or not when we go deeper into the planning process.)

Join us and help to shape the future of our community!

STEP 1: What sort of future do we want to create in College Hill? (Our “Objectives”)

Different groups work together with an “Us” consciousness (not “We” and “Them”)
- No anger or divisive expressions of concern across ethnic/racial groups in community
- Make sure volunteers / Citizens on Patrol act to assist citizens and business owners, and are viewed positively by all groups
- Common engagement and commitment by all groups to build the community
- Accountability by all in building the community
- Don’t give power for direction of the Ave to a small / limited group
  - Keep inviting me to meetings
  - Avoid rejection of business “types” that fit minority customer base
Open communication and dialogue
- Share honestly about what the issues are. (e.g. Why are authorities checking up on certain businesses?)
- All members hear each others’ feeling and concerns.
- Communications about economic, financial investments are shared among all groups
- Stop incidents of MBEs (Minority Business Enterprises) being investigated / harassed, funding of infrastructure for MBE being delayed or scraped (e.g. parking lots), etc.
Successful business community
- Common vision
- Diverse products, services, entertainment, goods offered to customers
- Develop all areas of the Ave community equally / fairly
- Provide mutual opportunities to build businesses (e.g. Invite me to your store opening so I can make contacts, I can promote my offerings, and I can learn about your place to promote it to my customers, etc.)

Help “young guys on the corner” get jobs: Employment.
- Hire local skilled people for projects in the community (instead of outsiders)
- Jobs: Collect info on openings in District, offer to kids on the block
- Job program that transfers “Ave” skills/trade into kids of CH.
- Revive (continue) vocational programs at the high school

Step 2: How will we know when we’ve achieved our objective of…creating a successful business community? (Other objectives will be addressed in upcoming sessions.)

We have all types of businesses, being visited by a diversity of customers
Our businesses are making money
Our businesses are being shopped by a customer base outside our community
Our community has a positive image; it attracts others
We have increased foot traffic, facilitated by places (e.g. a diversity of businesses) for customers to stop (e.g. parking) and shop
We have fewer vacant storefronts
We have a safe community
Local youth are employed by local businesses (so that youth have jobs)
Businesses work together to promote a positive atmosphere and shared clientele amongst themselves

Step 3: What does our community have to work with, and against? (# votes in parentheses)

Internal STRENGTHS we can leverage

Money / diversified incomes

· Existing businesses / Award winning & unique

· History / tradition

· Home owners / good housing stock

· People – diverse and willing to work together (1)

· Good schools; being rebuilt & renovated

· Job opportunities (2)

· Youth & Elderly in community (4)

· Pleasing facades

· Size of Ave & College Hill

· Community involvement & pride

· Activities

· Public services and areas (1)

· Green space

· Space for new businesses (3)

· Streetscape

· New firehouse (green bldg)

· Active Citizens on Patrol; vols actively clean Ave

· Opportunities for new development (8)

· Opportunities for weekend entertainment

· Area is central (20 mins to most other areas, 5 mins to interstate, central on bus line) (3)

· Hamilton & N.Bend is 2^nd busiest intersection in city

· Community Center

· Community organizations (CHCURC, CHBA, Forum, Gardens, CH Housing team)

· Churches work well together

Internal WEAKNESSES we need to address

Poor atmosphere amongst businesses (2)

· Business district too long

· High poverty (1)

· Empty / not well maintained storefronts / extremely visible vacant corners

· Few businesses open at night / Need reasons to come out at night.

· Need more parking

· No common vision

· No common view of good business practices (customer service, training, etc.)

· Perception of crime (1)

· Need more diversified involvement in community groups (3)

· Not enough opps for youth (training, jobs, entertainment)

· Role models for youth

· Inadequate crosswalks

· Bars on business windows

· Loiterers

· Jobs for adults

· Existing communication within community groups does not reach outside of group (1)

· Lack of communication (4)

· Lack of understanding (4)

· Lack of funding for new business and improvement (3)

· Negative media coverage

· Don’t know the truth about funding issues, façade program, city money, parking lot issue, flyers that are racially divisive (4)

· Lack of knowledge of running a new biz

External OPPORTUNITIES we can leverage

· Fill vacant spaces with viable new businesses (3)

· Cross-promos (i.e. community night)(2)

· City council support

· Organize / better leverage active groups (i.e. CHURC, Ministerium, etc)

· Stimulus money (i.e. community garden, contractors of schools)(2)

· Expand types of restaurants (i.e. Italian, African, etc.)(1)

· Define who we are as businesses & area (1)

· Opportunities for children

· Bargain rental / ownership prices for store areas property

· Invest in your neighborhood (3)

· Grocery store, hardware, etc. – variety of stores to be able to stay in your neighborhood to shop

· More places for young people to go other than hanging out on the streets (1)

· Role model to city (1)

· Understand and Agree instead of fighting (2)

· Interact with youth

· Networking

· Think outside the box

· Learn from each other

· Create & engage in mutual pride in College Hill Community (2)

· Attract people from other communities to live, play, work and do biz in CH (4)

· Mentor, encourage and employ youth and other CH residents (1)

· Marketing opportunity including current & future community events & assets (1)

· Gain from other communities assets, e.g. from the Comet to the College Hill Coffee shop

· All businesses and building owners clean up their act for the good of the community

· Mend fences with each other

External THREATS we should consider

· Perception of unsafe place (10)

· Bad economy

· Loitering of youth / adults (1)

· Other areas are attracting more customers (1)

· Trash

· Drugs (2)

· Guns (1)

· Gangs (1)

· Ignorance (1)

· Business closing / foreclosures

· Negative media attention (1)

· Graffiti

· Isolation by race (1)

· Perception of excessive policing

· Not working together to lobby for funds for the community

· Racial tension (stereotyping, “all blacks are poor & whites are rich snobs, etc)

· Generational tension

· Cultural differences

· Lack of support among biz owners

· Feeling of hopelessness

· Sense of entitlement & disrespect of others

· Economic apartheid (2)

· Inability to relate to another’s reality

· Misjudgments, misconceptions (e.g. re contractors, local workers, etc) (2)

· Anger

· People are more threatened by [site than by] conversation (?)

Next Step: How can our community leverage our strengths and external opportunities, and overcome our weaknesses and external threats, to achieve each objective (e.g. creating a successful business community)?

Join us for this important next step! The next meeting is May 10, 7:00-9:00 pm at the College Hill Recreation Center.

Hillrise Trustees Letter of 3/23/10 to CMHA

2010-04-08T11:15:00.001-04:00

March 23, 2010
Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority
Board of Commissioners
16 West Central Parkway
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Dear CMHA Board of Commissioners:

We, the trustees of the Cincinnati Business and Professional Women’s Retirement Living, Inc., (CBPWRL) are greatly appreciative of the opportunity to present to you our response to the College Hill Forum’s letter dated March 22, 2010 regarding Project Based Vouchers for the Hillrise Apartment building.

We had hoped that the meeting conducted on 3/18/10 between the CBPWRL, CMHA, Forum and mediator would start a cooperative process between the CBPWRL board and the College Hill Forum but it appears that the Forum does not share in that hope. CBPWRLI’s Hillrise Apartment facility is a 501(c) (4). As such it is run by a volunteer board of commissioners not unlike hundreds of facilities across the country. It is apparent from the Forum’s letter that they do not believe that the CBPWRL board is capable of renovating and maintaining the facility and that the renovation plan that has been produced is viable. We respectfully disagree. CBPWRL has made significant changes with regards to management, maintenance and security in the past 6 months. We have assembled the most experienced group of affordable housing consultants available in the Tri-State area to prepare a workable refinancing plan.

The Forum continues to make statements like “long-standing deplorable conditions at the Hillrise” and “CBPW failed to maintain, repair or reinvest in Hillrise during the past 40 years”. We believe these statements are both inaccurate and unfounded. The board is aware and has been trying to deal with a decline in the conditions of the Hillrise and neighborhood over the past few years with limited funding. Specific actions (chemical treatment, resident education and work with the Health Department) have been taken to address bed bugs. Both the property manager and maintenance technician has been replaced in an effort to improve on-site services and communication. Security improvements (lighting, fence repairs, evictions, resident education/awareness efforts, door locks etc.) have been completed. An emphasis to improve communication between CBPWRL, Hillrise residents, site management, the local police department and the College Hill community continues to be a priority for the board.

A Physical Needs Assessment of the facility was completed in 2004. Multiple refinancing plans for renovation have been completed over the last 5 years. Potential funding sources via tax credits (both 4% and 9%), City Rental Rehab funding, Federal Home Loan bank (FHLB), conventional financing and grants have been examined. All financing plans have come to the same conclusion. The only way for the financing plans to work is with increased rental income to support the debt. The only way for the rents to increase and for the building to remain affordable is with project based subsidies.

The Hillrise financing plan that was submitted with the PBV application is one that we feel provides the best future for the building. The Forum has insinuated that they are aware of a “respected organization” that has expressed interest in purchasing the Hillrise and competing for 9% tax credits for the renovation. CBPWRL examined 9% LIHTC in early 2008 and determined that the risk, fees, competitive nature of the application process and time required for closing was not in the best interest of the Hillrise. Also, as you know the LIHTC industry as a whole has been nearly decimated by the current economic crisis. We believe that tax credits is not the best option for the Hillrise.

CBPWRL, believes it has assembled the best team of affordable housing consultants to assist us with the refinancing and renovation of the Hillrise. Wallick Hendy, a known entity that provides management and development expertise. Creative Housing Solutions, Inc. an architectural firm that specializes in affordable housing renovation and has completed 850+ Physical Needs Assessments and numerous development refinancing plans. Stephanie Sweeney, grant writing specialists that focuses on Federal Home Loan bank applications.

The Forum has stated that “the Task Force has consulted several individuals familiar with construction and commercial renovation and all agree that some critical expenses in the proposal were unrealistic”. CBPWRL does not believe that these opinions are based in fact. To our knowledge no one has conducted an on site inspection of the Hillrise on behalf of the Forum. In our opinion it is impossible to assess a building component or system without seeing it.

CBPWRL consultants specialize in affordable housing renovation. A hard-cost budget of $2,500,000 has been established by detailed cost estimates. The Hillrise has enormous economy of scale because of its shared systems and compact design. The current Hillrise FHLB proforma has an average unit hard cost of $28,853/unit and a total development cost (i.e. hard + soft costs) of $37,064/unit. In comparison the St. Paul proforma had an average unit hard cost of $32,980/unit and a total unit development cost of $72,446-$85,981/unit. The stark difference between the plans is within the nature of the financing. Because the Forum does not have experience with affordable housing refinancing packages they are unable to differentiate between the two.

The Forum lists 5 items of disagreement. We would like to address each one:

Age Restriction of 55 and Over- CBPWRL understands that if the PBV are awarded and a contract is negotiated with CMHA, then CBPWRL and the Hillrise must comply with the requirements of the contract. It is understood that a part of this contract will be to restrict occupancy to persons that are disabled and/or 55 and older.
Live-in Manager- the Forum believes that a live in manager will greatly reduce incidents of residents calling police. Wallick Hendy’s responded by saying that in their experience (35 years in this industry) resident managers tend to “burn out”. They recommend that a combination of a full time resident manager (working hours) and a resident “care-taker” (live in person) and floor captains is a much better solution. CBPWRL concurs with their recommendation.
New management employees not previously employed by Metro Management. We believe this request is simple discrimination. The current on site manager has been employed with Wallick Hendy for several years and has an impeccable resume. CBPWRL, is not willing to loose her because she was once employed by Metro.
Private security- We believe that improvements in building security, entry systems, cameras and age restrictions will greatly improve the security concerns at the Hillrise. Resident leadership reports a substantial improvement in the on-site security in the past 6 months. They expressed a continued concern of drug and prostitution in the neighborhood.
Bed bug infestation- CBPWRL, management and resident leaders continue to work with residents of the Hillrise to alleviate this problem. The building under goes monthly chemical treatments. Resident leaders are working with management to try and better educate people. Unit trash is taken immediately off site by Wallick Hendy so that contaminated furniture etc. is not recycled into the building.

CBPWRL, continues to examine its own bylaws and standards to look for ways to improve upon its oversight of this facility. Having said that, we do acknowledge that there is a reliance on the property manager to provide a professional service. We are confident that the Wallick Hendy management company, a company that has been in the affordable housing industry for 35 years is and will continue to provide that service to us. We also, believe that having CMHA involved with the building will serve to strengthen the improved oversight we are trying to achieve.

In summary, I fear that if PBVs are not awarded and the renovation financing obtained, conditions will only further deteriorate and the wellbeing of the residents will be threatened.

Sincerely,

Hillrise Board Trustees

Sandra Lett, President

College Hill Property Sales, First Quarter 2009

2009-04-11T00:57:00.001-04:00

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

A Tour of College Hill

2009-04-08T23:18:00.001-04:00

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.

Ancestors of Ohio Female College Student Visit College Hill

2008-08-15T13:35:00.002-04:00

College Hill became a veritable “history detective” destination when graced by the recent summer visit of two cousins in search of an 1871 poem written by their ancestor, a graduate of the Ohio Female College. Rachel Farley and Tara Musselewhite traveled from Seattle and Houston in pursuit of the valedictory poem of their 1^st and 2^nd great grandmother, Rachel Ann Smith. Smith was one of a handful of OFC graduates honored in the June 8, 1871, commencement ceremonies in College Hill. Her poem, entitled “A Cup of Cold Water” was part of the valedictory address, a copy of which is being sought by Smith’s descendants.

The College Hill Historical Society was eager to assist in this tantalizing quest. CHHS was able to extract a few folders of information on OFC compiled by the original Society in their archives (currently under reconstruction). Ed Lloyd, Society Trustee, invited the cousins to his historic home on Hillcrest Road and provided them with a custom tour of College Hill, showing them where all the schools and colleges once stood as namesakes to our beloved neighborhood. Although the poem has yet to be found, Ed did come up with an 1871 commencement program as well as an extract from the Valedictory address of Miss Rachel A. Smith, 1871.

Born in 1852 on the banks of the Ohio River to a riverboat captain, Miss Smith began reading at an early age and continued her love of books throughout her childhood. She was educated by governesses, and cited a German professor in particular as influencing her education. From her autobiographical writings:

Once a week, a German Professor rode on his pony and came to stay all night [at Smith’s Landing] giving sister [older sister, and famed artist Isabel E. Smith] and me music and German Lessons. He always gave us the news from the surrounding towns, and once he brought me a puppy in his saddle bags.

At the age of sixteen, Rachel Smith began her college education in Oxford, Ohio, at the Western Female Seminary. In the fall of 1868, she began her career at the Ohio Female College. In her writings, Smith talked about two college administrators:

I want to pay a tribute to the Principal of this College, Miss Bauman. She made Philosophy a delight, and Astronomy was not merely a study of the stars, it was entering into the courts of the Creator. She not only trained out minds, but our hearts and our souls. Dr. Burt, the president of the College, was a fine scholarly Presbyterian minister who taught us the Bible and through his book, The Land and its Story, made Palestine a real place to us.

Smith’s acclaim as an honor student was evidenced by her role as President of the Somerville Literary Society during her college tenure. She was also called upon to attend to special guests visiting Ohio Female College. But her most proud moment came on her graduation day. She later recalled the day in her memoirs:

When I stood on the platform to receive by diploma, I think it was the happiest day of my life. I was wearing my first long dress, a white embroidered mull, and had received many gifts from relatives and friends who were in the audience. It was the 8^th of June, 1871—a perfect day. I had taken the highest honors and had written a poem called “the Cup of Cold Water’ as my valedictory. Trustees had this poem printed and sent out to patrons, and I was invited to become the teacher of English at the College.

Rachel Smith did not accept the position, but did go on to write some articles for a Cincinnati newspaper before marrying a Pennsylvania lumberman, and leaving Ohio to raise their family. Rachel’s husband, Nelson P. Wheeler, later became a United States congressman. Rachel continued her lifelong love of education, and we are so grateful for her memoirs and legacy in College Hill.

If you have any information about the poem (maybe one of YOUR ancestors was a Trustee of OFC?), please email the College Hill Historical Society at collegehillhistory@yahoo.com.

Thanks to the College Hill Historical Society for this article.

Motion to Seek City Funding for Linden Park Project

2007-09-05T11:48:00.001-04:00

Motion offered by Jerry Mundy and passed 224-1 at a standing-room-only special meeting of the College Hill community on September 4, 2007, called by the College Hill Forum and the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation.

Without further delay, we as residents and/or business owners of the community of College Hill along with Al Neyer Inc., approve the pursuit of City of Cincinnati project funding for this development in the amount of 1.8 million dollars.

We the community also approve the site plan as discussed this evening, which includes approval for the construction of a mixed unit building as described, to be built on the northeast corner of Hamilton Avenue and North Bend Road (the former Shullers location). The building is to be a three story unit to include approximately 12,000 square feet of retail space located on the ground floor, 19 condominium units located on the second and third floors of the building with condominium floor plans approximating what has been described tonight.

We also approve the construction on the same site of 24 to 30 town homes as laid out in the site plan distributed tonight.

Exterior and interior design detail of the units will be determined after city funding approval is received and within the constraints of the total project budget approved by the city. Design, layout and final pricing to be determined at a later date.

College Hill Housing Development Team Progress Report

2007-06-02T21:34:00.001-04:00

May 20, 2007

Housing redevelopment along Cedar Avenue in College Hill is alive and well. In the fall of 2005, a few participants of the College Hill Summit began meeting informally to see how we might be able to respond to the Katrina Hurricane disaster by organizing to offer housing to those needing relocation. However, the group learned was that having housing available for a disaster required much advance planning, and given that there was no advance plan, it was not possible to help further in an emergency situation. The group continued, however, and the vision for housing redevelopment moved to one of increasing home ownership in the College Hill community. So the Housing Development Team was born.

Soon the team learned that the rental rate in College Hill was approaching 40%, and this was no doubt contributing to the trend of declining quality of the housing is some parts of College Hill. As the team met, the vision for housing development emerged as follows:

Housing Improvement will help improve the overall quality of life in College Hill by catalyzing action on multiple issues. Housing improvement will focus on increasing home ownership and eliminating abandoned and ‘blighted’ homes. In partnership with residents and other community groups, the following will also happen:

Physical improvements are made to currently owned homes.
City infrastructure—streets, sidewalks, lighting— is improved.
More people actually own their homes vs. renting.
Neighborhoods and churches organize to help one another.
Drug and gang activity is eliminated.
Trash and litter is reduced and removed.
Residents are empowered to guide their destiny.

An “action plan” was developed to develop a proposal by early 2006 to engage leaders in the community and answer the question “What’s Next?” Here is the action plan from the fall of 2005:

The aim is to:

Focus initially on Cedar Avenue, from Argus to Hamilton.
Involve and collaborate with the residents and businesses on Cedar Ave, including renters as well as those who own the properties involved.
Establish the basic feasibility of this kind of project for improved housing, so that once Cedar is done, another street can be done as well.
Provide answers to the many questions that such a proposal will create
Involve all groups and organizations in the community in defining the project, and in organizing it.

As the team continued working there were more questions than answers. However, they worked to develop answers to each. These questions, with answers, are here.

In the process of developing an action plan, the team went through a number of steps in determining the current structure. Our goals were focused on improving housing in the Cedar Avenue neighborhood and increasing home ownership as planning for rehab and development progressed. With the decision to be a ‘not for profit’ effort, the question of ownership needed to settle with either a new legal entity or an existing one. Several options with existing community groups were explored, but they were overcommitted on other projects and were not able to assume the lead for the College Hill Housing effort. It was about that time that members of the team learned of the efforts of several Not-For-Profit housing redevelopers working in adjacent communities. A bid package was prepared, and the team found two organizations that were interested. After extensive interviews, and tours of properties that each had either rehabed or built new, the team chose Working in Neighborhoods (WIN) as our developer. This resolved the question of ownership, as WIN would manage the complete process from purchase to home sale and beyond.

So with the selection of housing developer behind them, the Housing Team set about developing an agreement with Working In Neighborhoods to guide the decision making process as the work moved forward. It was agreed, that rather than a ‘contract’, the team and WIN would be guided by a ‘covenant’. They believed that a covenant would capture the intentions of both parties, and would be more like a formal ‘handshake’ with the community, rather than a binding contract. The covenant developed captured the expectations of each party of the other, and provides the blueprint for ongoing work of WIN in collaboration with the College Hill Community and Residents. The Covenant agreed to is provided here.

Pictured at the Covenant signing are (from left to right): Dave Scharfeberger, WIN, Rev. Dan Weyand-Geise, Valerie Hershberger, Ron Cowgill, Sister Barbara Busch WIN, Joe Poole, Rev. “Chappie” Chapman, Phyllis Schoenberger, Rev. Sil Watkins, Ed Wells.

As the WIN and the Team has developed since the fall of 2006 when the Covenant was first drafted, the effort in moving forward has been truly a collaborative one. The progress report is positive, though all on the Team, and WIN would have hoped for faster progress. Early on, in the process of selecting a developer, Sister Barbara had advised that it would not be a ‘quick fix’ and there needed to be a concerted long term effort to demonstrate the needed progress. She cited examples of other communities where the effort at housing improvement has been sustained for years.

However, thanks to early gifts, initial purchases for properties were made. This avoided a delay of nearly six months in getting started. So, as of mid May, 2007, two properties have been acquired in the focus area. They are 1304 Cedar and 5836 Saranac. Unfortunately, none of the dwellings on these properties could be salvaged, as their condition rendered it most prudent to start from fresh.

The team hopes that construction of new homes can begin before the end of this year.

Demolition of the Saranac house was completed in April, and the house on 1304 Cedar was completed in mid May.

On May 19, the Housing Team hosted the residents of the Cedar Avenue and cross Streets from Salvia to Leffingwell at an old fashioned block party. The Housing Team members, WIN, and other groups interested in the residents were present to share what's next, and how to be involved in the program as it develops. Nearly 100 residents visited together with each other and team members during this time of sharing the vision, progress and future plans for improvement in home ownership and upgraded housing along Cedar Avenue in College Hill.

Ron Cowgill, for the Housing Team (513-494-2481, rcowgill@cinci.rr.com).

College Hill Housing Development Team Questions & Answers

2007-06-02T21:21:00.001-04:00

This is the list of questions developed by the College Hill Housing Development Team during the progress of their work, along with the answers the team developed:

Q: What Organization in College Hill will lead the project?

A: The team concluded that it would be organized under the College Hill Forum’s Quality of Life Committee. The original team will function as a steering team for the project.

Q: Will this project be similar to others that are being developed in Cincinnati?

A: The team believes the approach is similar to other community groups working on housing, but no doubt is unique in organization structure.

Q: Will this be a non-profit or for profit project?

A: The team concluded this will be a not for profit activity. This led to choosing Cincinnati’s Working in Neighborhoods (WIN) as the developer.

Q: Where will the financial support for the project come from?

A: Financial support to establish seed money was donated through the Cincinnati Foundation. The team expects to get gap financing from the City of Cincinnati.

Q: What are the hopes and dreams of the residents of the involved street?

A: The team is still working to identify how residents will be involved.

Q: What model will be established for increasing home ownership?

A: The team has chosen as developer Cincinnati non profit housing group Working in Neighborhoods--WIN for short. Their model for developing high quality low income housing and placing it for sale to qualified home ownership is the model chosen.

Q: How will this project be fully synergistic with the development planned for Hamilton and North Bend?

A: At this point there is no direct relationship to the North Bend and Hamilton Development.

Q: Does this project include business property, rental housing, or just single family residences?

A: The focus is on single family residences.

Q: Should the project include training in home ownership?

A: Yes, the project will include training in home ownership. WIN’s approach is a strength.

Q: Should the project provide training in basic skills needed to complete the work of the project?

A: The team has learned that this is not a good format for training basic skills.

Q: Is the goal not only to eliminate 'blight' but to 'beautify' the neighborhood?

A: Beautifying the neighborhood will result as overall improvement in home ownership quality is improved.

Covenant between Working in Neighborhoods and the College Hill Housing Development Team

2007-06-02T21:12:00.001-04:00

September 2006

I. Covenant Intention

This is a ‘good faith’ agreement between Working in Neighborhoods (WIN) and the College Hill Housing Development Team (CHHDT).

II. Objective

The objective of this covenant is to express, agree and commit to honor our mutual expectations for how we will work together for housing development in the College Hill area. These expectations derive from the desire of both parties to see significant improvement in the housing stock of the College Hill NRSA area.

III. Background and Vision

The neighborhood of College Hill has been dealing with many issues for a number of years, as have all the neighborhoods of Cincinnati. Among these issues is the noticeable deterioration of housing, rising from a variety of factors, such as an increase in rentals, a decline in home ownership, a lack of proper maintenance, and an increase in crime. The focus of CHHDT and WIN is on housing, but in doing so, the hope is for an overall improvement in the neighborhood, as expressed in CHHDT’s Vision Statement:

Housing Improvement will help improve the overall quality of life in College Hill by catalyzing action on multiple issues. Housing improvement will focus on increasing home ownership and eliminating abandoned and ‘blighted’ homes. In partnership with residents and other community groups, the following will also happen:
· Physical improvements are made to currently owned homes.
· City infrastructure—streets, sidewalks, lighting— is improved.
· More people actually own their homes vs. renting.
· Neighborhoods and churches organize to help one another.
· Drug and gang activity is eliminated.
· Trash and litter is reduced and removed.
· Residents are empowered to guide their destiny.

IV. Communication

This document outlines a working relationship between CHHDT and WIN which includes many references to communication. However, it is recognized that to be successful this relationship will require frequent, proactive, and personal verbal communication above and beyond what can realistically be outlined in this document. Therefore, this agreement is not intended to limit or replace in any way the ongoing communication between CHHDT and WIN.

V. When Revisions Are Needed

When issues and topics arise that have not been previously discussed, it is the expectation of both WIN and the College Hill Housing Development Team that these will be reviewed at a regular meeting of the joint parties and that this document will be revised when appropriate.

VI. We, the undersigned, commit to the following:

A. In Property Acquisition…
WIN will:

Buy on Cedar or immediately adjacent to Cedar (at least for the next 1-3 years).

Whenever appropriate and possible, Email or phone designated members of the CH Housing Team when an appointment is made to view a prospective property.

CHHDT will:

Tell WIN of available or about to be available properties. It is especially advantageous to acquire properties before they go into receivership or even before they go on the market.

B. In PreConstruction…
WIN will:

Seek to employ local contractors (thru the General Contractor).

Share specs, sketches or drawings, and estimates prior to start of construction with the Housing Team.

Plan to match neighborhood architecture.

Upgrade the housing whenever possible.

CHHDT will:

Provide list of recommended local contractors.

Commit to quick turnaround (within one week) of review of specs, sketches/drawings, and estimates.

C. In Financing…

WIN will:

Negotiate a new contract with the city to include funding for work in College Hill.

CHHDT will:

Support WIN in obtaining funds from the city.

Be present in discussions with the city.

Lobby, if necessary and appropriate.

Letters of support from community organizations.

D. In Rehab…
WIN will:

Ensure work is architecturally similar neighborhood.

Make first rehabbed houses extra attractive, to stand out and attract attention in the neighborhood.

Solicit input from the Housing Team on landscaping plant and flower selections.

Schedule periodic walk-thru opportunities for the Housing Team.

Use local suppliers whenever possible.

CHHDT will:

Watch over the property to prevent theft and vandalism.

Yard/landscape maintenance, including grass cutting and watering.

Help remove junk or clutter from houses, if necessary. (organize volunteers)

Help in demolition, if needed and appropriate. (organize volunteers) Decide on house-by-house basis.

Help get donations in-kind from local suppliers.

E. In Marketing and Sales…
WIN will:

Schedule open house for newly rehabbed houses.

If possible, schedule closing at the houses to enable creation of an “event” in the neighborhood.

Use local realtors when needed only as needed (realtors need to understand 2nd mortgage concept).

CHHDT will:

Make open house an “event” in the neighborhood.

Make closing an “event” in the neighborhood.

Help find prospective buyers for rehabbed properties.

F. In New House Construction (vs Rehab)…
WIN will:

Partner with Housing Team to develop mutually agreeable design prior to building.

CHHDT will:

Help with research on architectural styles and designs appropriate for the neighborhood.

VII. We have reviewed the above and fully commit to covenant together to approach the improvement in housing in the College Hill community in mutual parthership and shared vision:

Signatories to the Covenant were the following:

For the Housing Team:

Rev. Dan Weyand-Geise, College Hill Ministerium, Christ’s Community in College Hill
Phyllis Schoenberger, College Hill Forum Quality of Life, College Hill Business Association
Joe Poole, Concerned Citizens of SE College Hill
Ed Wells, College Hill Forum Quality of Life Committee
Rev. Harold “Chappie” Chapman, Christ's Community in College Hill, College Hill Presbyterian Church
Rev. Sil Watkins, Golden Leaf Baptist Church
Valerie Hershberger, Summit Co-Facilitator, College Hill Presbyterian Church
Ron Cowgill, Summit Co-Facilitator, College Hill Presbyterian Church

For WIN:

Sister Barbara Busch, Executive Director. WIN
Dave Scharfenberger, Director of Training, WIN
Dyah Kartikawening, Housing Development & Home Buyer Counseling, WIN

Where is it? #8

2007-03-15T14:48:00.003-04:00

This historic College Hill farm is located at 1225 North Bend Road, about half a mile east of Hamilton Avenue.

It's owned and occupied by John Blickenstaff, Angie Denov, Tim Kraus and Lois Gish. They bought it from the Paul Brothers.

The Paul Brothers purchased it in 1939 from the estate of Coleman Avery, who had killed his wife and then himself on the site.

Past Presidents of the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation

2007-01-25T01:42:00.001-05:00

1976 Roy Hall
1977 Roy Hall
1978 Roy Hall
1979 *
1980 John Ludwig
1981 John Ludwig
1982 Don Hunt
1983 Eve Bolton
1984 Genevieve Kress
1985 Kurt St. Clare
1986 Genieve Kress
1987 *
1988 Eve Bolton
1989 Ralph Galloway
1990 Roy Hall
1991 Eve Bolton
1992 Eve Bolton
1993 Eve Bolton
1994 Brad Hammond
1995 Brad Hammond
1996 Andrew Lipton
1997 Andrew Lipton
1998 Michael Battoclette
1999 Charles Darling
2000 Barry Walker
2002 Barry Walker
2002 Gail Finke
2003 Marty Weldishofer
2004 Marty Weldishofer
2004 Carol Lyon
2005 Carol Lyon
2006 Carol Lyon

We were unable to ascertain who was presidents in 1979 or 1987. If you know, please tell Carol Lyon (513-542-2942, carolilyon@aol.com)

A History of the Children's Hospital College Hill Campus

2007-01-17T15:23:00.001-05:00

A glimpse of the Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus dating back more than 150 years

1848-1873

Ohio Female College

The Ohio Female College is one of the institutions that gave the community its name, College Hill, and its character as a center of learning. It was only the fifth college in the country to provide a liberal education for women.

College in 1852

The original campus had three buildings and 15 acres of woods and gardens. It was home to more than 250 women pursuing their interests in higher learning. The location was touted as being “central, accessible, elevated and healthy…and sufficiently far from the city to be free from its temptations and dissipating tendencies, yet near enough to enjoy its privileges.”

College in 1869

The main building was rebuilt after a fire in 1868. The college’s unique ventilating system was considered one of the first forms of air conditioning and gained much notoriety.

Rear view campus

There were flower and fruit orchards, a vegetable garden and a two-acre lake that fed from a natural spring which provided opportunities for rowing and ice skating. A stable was available for keeping horses.

The college could not afford to stay open and was sold to the Cincinnati Sanitarium in December 1873.

1873-1956

Cincinnati Sanitarium

“One of the largest psychiatric hospitals west of the Alleghenies,” the Cincinnati Sanitarium was founded by three physicians who recognized a need for a private care psychiatric facility in Cincinnati. They purchased the 40-acre property and transformed the buildings for the treatment of mental illness and alcohol and opium addictions.

Main campus

In addition to the main hospital, there were four two-story cottages, an amusement hall with a billiard hall in the basement, a flower conservatory, several physical plant buildings, an ice house and even a station for the Cincinnati Northwestern railroad.

Rest Cottage

In 1913 a nearby large residence adjacent to the property was purchased. Called the “Rest Cottage”, it was used in the care of individuals with “nervous and nutritional disorders”.

The grounds

The buildings were situated in the middle of a 30-acre park with fruit trees, shrubs, flowers, an artificial lake, gravel walks, a highly cultivated vegetable garden and a living spring. A major change in the landscape occurred in 1927 when the lake was drained.

1956-1994

Emerson A. North Hospital

In 1956, the Cincinnati Sanitarium was renamed for Emerson Arthur North, MD, a pioneer in clinical psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati. The 95-bed psychiatric hospital specialized in serving adults, adolescents and children in need of treatment for behavioral, emotional and chemical dependency problems.

During the 1960s and early 70s, Emerson A. North Hospital became part of the Cincinnati Mental Health Institute, serving as the inpatient component of the community mental health centers. A new facility was built in 1988 (Phoenix International). The hospital closed in 1994 when its services moved to Providence Hospital in Mt. Airy

1994-2000

Phoenix International

The campus was occupied for six years by Phoenix International, a company that conducted clinical trails of drugs for the pharmaceutical industry. The clinic closed after it was sold to another company and operations were consolidated.

December 2002

Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus

The Convalescent Hospital for Children generously provided the funding to purchase the Hamilton Avenue property and facility for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus, which opened in December 2002, provides an extended hospitalization treatment program for children and adolescents who suffer from chronic mental illness and impaired functioning. An inpatient program also is offered at this location.

"Where is it?" # 7

2006-10-26T13:02:00.000-04:00

Did you know that there's an exercise course behind the College Hill Children's Hospital campus? It was made in part by players from the Bengals in a "Hometown Huddle" project.

These round pavers name all the players on the team that year.

Contributed by Gail Finke.

College Hill Business Association Unveils First in Series of Murals Created to Attract New Businesses to the Avenue

2006-10-25T14:56:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, November 11 at 2 p.m., the College Hill Business Association (CHBA) unveils the first storefront mural in its Discover the Avenue fantasy business art project. The community-inspired art project will fill vacant storefronts on Hamilton Avenue with murals depicting the kinds of businesses College Hill residents want to see in their neighborhood. Painted by artist and College Hill resident Katie St. Clair, the first window, at 5838 Hamilton Avenue, depicts a "fantasy" ice cream shop.

The College Hill Business Association has as its goals to energize, revitalize, and market the business district. The College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) and the CHBA have begun a marketing strategy using the theme Discover the Avenue. Foremost among the goals set by CHBA and CHCURC is attracting new businesses to the neighborhood.

The Discover the Avenue fantasy business art project will bring this stretch of Hamilton Avenue to life by putting art where it is hoped businesses will move in. "Why sit around and dream?" asks Phyllis Schoenberger, CHBA Secretary and Arts Project Coordinator, "If we get creative, maybe that dream will become a reality."

The effort was inspired by a successful project in Seattle, Washington, when the Columbia City neighborhood and the South East Seattle Arts Council had a half block of vacant storefronts painted to depict what was wanted and needed in the community. The murals captured the imagination of a developer and several business owners. Within a year, all murals had to be removed because "real" businesses wanted to locate there.

Discover the Avenue is the theme for each of the anticipated six storefront art projects. Each project will represent a business that was recommended in a 2002 market feasibility study or that residents have said they wanted. An ice cream store/bakery was at the top of the list of a recent resident and business survey of a "must have" business on the Avenue. New restaurants, entertainment venues, professional services and a personal service business followed in that order.

The first project is sponsored by Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus, Division of Psychiatry, which is currently undergoing an expansion of its College Hill Campus residential facility. Joan Burger, Outreach Coordinator from Cincinnati Children’s College Hill Campus stated "Cincinnati Children’s joined the College Hill community back in December of 2003. At that time, we had approximately 200 employees working at the College Hill Campus location. We are proud members of the College Hill Business Association and proud to support the community efforts to improve their neighborhood and business district. We are doubling in size by expanding our psychiatry services, adding on more outpatient offices, offering new employment opportunities and moving staff over from the Burnet Avenue location."

Katie St. Clair grew up in College Hill and is a College Hill resident. She graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinnati in 2005 as valedictorian of her class. She was recipient of the New York Studio Program and lived in New York City while participating in the Parsons School of Design Art Show. She then spent three months at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich, Germany, in a Munich Exchange Program. Her art work, her enthusiasm for the project, and her love for College Hill make her the perfect choice for the first project.

The second project, at 5923 will be supported and sponsored from Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. Linda Holterhoff and Robin Henderson from KCB are advisors on the project.

"Where is it?" # 6

2006-10-05T14:27:00.000-04:00

Those German Letters are on the "German wall" at the First United Church of Christ on Glenview. The church was located in Northside for many years. The inscription comes from the old building.

Stothers Concert Dedicated in Memory of David Schnaufer

2006-08-30T11:23:00.000-04:00

Tom and Missy Strothers, College Hill, will dedicate their September 30 performance at the College Hill Coffee Company to David Schnaufer. David passed away on August 23. Donations will be accepted and given to a local hospice in David’s honor.

David Schnaufer, a musician who revived the use of the dulcimer in country music and taught the instrument to many students, died of cancer at a local hospice. He was 53.

Schnaufer recorded with The Judds, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Kathy Mattea, Mark Knopfler, Emmylou Harris, Chet Atkins and many others on dulcimer, a gentle stringed instrument used in Appalachia since the 1800s, derived from zithers brought into North America by German immigrants in the 17th and 18th centuries.

"Anybody can make beautiful music in five minutes of playing the dulcimer," Schnaufer often said. "It's the simplest of all the stringed instruments, but can be as complex as anything else."

The Strothers who, have been playing dulcimer together since 2000 as a husband-wife duet, have been significantly influenced by the music, style and teaching of Schnaufer. In 2003, when Schnaufer was featured by the Cincinnati Dulcimer Society, the Strothers played their arrangement of Schnaufer’s composition "When Silence was Golden." After their performance Schnaufer in his usual Texas manner said, "It brought tears to my eyes."

It is appropriate to celebrate Schnaufer at the College Hill Coffee Company. David loved a good cup of java along with reading the NY Times. Recently Schnaufer was served an espresso. When asked how it was he replied with a thumbs up, "Fit for the Times." David Schnaufer was also fit for the Times along with newspapers and magazines coast to coast including Cincinnati where Schnaufer has inspired many musicians.

Details of the Strothers' tribute concert can be found at
http://www.collegehill-arch.org/calendar.htm .

Schnaufer had been an adjunct associate professor of dulcimer at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music since 1995.

"David was one of the first teachers in the Blair School’s folk music program, along with Mark O’Connor and Butch Baldassari,” said Mark Wait, dean of Blair School of Music. "He was a wonderful artist and teacher, one whose influence will be felt for many, many years."

Schnaufer was born in Hearne, Texas, and grew up in La Marque, Texas. As a child, he experimented with mouth harp and harmonica. As a young man, he came across a display of dulcimers in Austin, Texas, and bought one for $40.

Schnaufer soon began winning dulcimer contests and moved to Nashville in the 1980s.
He progressed from playing in restaurants for tips to backing The Judds and other country music acts. He recorded and released solo dulcimer records and collaborations with other artists. For several years he was a member of the country-rock band The Cactus Brothers.
Wait recruited Schnaufer to the Blair staff after hearing him perform at a dinner party. Singer Cyndi Lauper was among his students.

"David was an amazing musician--that hardly needs to be said," Wait said. "But those of us fortunate to know him as a friend know that he was also an extraordinary and wonderfully generous human being. He treated everybody he worked with--students, colleagues, children, adults--with gentleness and respect. "

Services were held Saturday, Aug. 26, at 10 a.m. at Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory in Brentwood, Tennessee. Attending were the Strothers and two to three hundred friends of Schnaufer including recording artists such as Emmylou Harris, J. D. Crowe, and the Cantrells. Schnaufer’s brother, Reverend Eric Schnaufer performed the services. Wait delivered a moving eulogy – both humorous and poignant.

The ever present cicadas grew increasingly louder as Wait delivered the final remarks of his eulogy. Schnaufer loved the sounds of nature and included the sound of cicadas on his CD "Delcimore." The spirit of David Schnaufer was certainly present among those blessed by his life.

This article includes excerpts from the Vanderbilt News Service.

"Where is it?" # 5

2006-08-17T11:15:00.000-04:00

This interesting collection of stationary figures may be found on the east side of Oakwood Avenue right here in College Hill.

"Where is it?" # 4

2006-08-02T16:06:00.000-04:00

A house built in 1821 once stood on this property that was later donated to the College Hill Presbyterian Church by the prominent Pounsford family. The house was then used for ministries and classes for many years, with this plaque near the road identifying its donors. In the 1980s the house was torn down for the construction of the Barnabas Center, the church's educational wing, but the memorial remains.

Idea and picture by Gail Finke.

"Where is it?" # 3

2006-07-27T13:29:00.000-04:00

This interesting scene can be found on the grounds of the McAuley Convent, which is on the north side of the west end of Cedar Avenue.

"Where is it?" # 2

2006-07-06T11:01:00.000-04:00

This symbol is on the site of the former Eastern Star Home on North Bend east of Hamilton.

It's the Masonic square and compass superimposed on a five-pointed star representing the star of Bethlehem.

See it soon, the property has been purchased by the city for use as part of the Linden Park development.

Idea and photo by Gail Deibler Finke.

"Where is it?" # 1

2006-06-29T12:32:00.000-04:00

This stone is from the beautiful and extensive Belltower Garden at the First United Church of Christ. If you haven't experienced it, it's worth a visit.

Photo by Gail Deibler Finke.

Overture Awards Introductory Workshop Comes to Pleasant Hill Academy

2006-06-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION NEWS RELEASE
June 20, 2006

Talented Minority Student Artists Sought
OVERTURE AWARDS INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP

Thursday, July 20
Pleasant Hill Academy

Do you know a talented student who is looking for an artistic summer adventure? The Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is presenting a special OVERTURE AWARDS INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP on Thursday, July 20 at 5 PM at Pleasant Hill Academy, located at 1350 North Bend Road. The program is designed to encourage minority high school students to participate in CAA’s Overture Awards – the largest high school arts scholarship competition of its kind in the nation.

In addition to preparing students for the Overture Awards competition, the workshop offers information about pursuing a college education in the arts, and provides access to local performers, writers, and artists who will share their real-world experiences. Students will also have an opportunity to present their performance or visual art to professionals, who will evaluate and critique the students’ work.

The workshop was presented for the first time in the summer of 2003 by CAA’s Building Diverse Audiences Advisory Committee (BDAAC), resulting in the selection of more than twenty students to participate in the 2004 Overture Awards Competition. One of these students has since established a mentorship with the Cincinnati Opera. Another student, Rachel Edwards, was awarded a special Vocal Music scholarship from the Overture Awards in 2003, which she used to pursue private voice lessons. Later that year, Rachel was a finalist in CAA’s presentation of Showtime at the Apollo on Tour at the Aronoff Center.

Each year, the Overture Awards provides $24,000 in scholarships to local students in recognition of their talent and achievements in six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art or Vocal Music. Twenty-four Overture Awards finalists are guaranteed to win at least $500, and the winner in each discipline is awarded a $2,500 scholarship.

CAA’s Overture Awards offers much more than an opportunity to win scholarships. Through the Overture Academy – a series of free master classes and workshops – students learn about careers in the arts, post-secondary education options, and other scholarship assistance. In addition, students have access to personal coaching and evaluation from area professionals and university instructors.

Overture Award Program Co-sponsors include: The Cinergy Foundation; The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation; and the Eleanora C. U. Alms Trust, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee. Scholarship Sponsors include: Citigroup, Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, Inc., The William O. Purdy, Jr., Foundation-Dance Scholarship and U.S. Bank. Competition Sponsors include: The Corbett Foundation, The Western & Southern Financial Fund and SiteRightNow.com.

For more information, call (513) 977-4168 or email Dbango@CincinnatiArts.ORG

# # #

CONTACT:
Van Ackerman
Director of Marketing / PR
CINCINNATI ARTS ASSOCIATION
650 Walnut Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513) 977-4108 / office
(513) 477-8856 / cell
vackerman@cincinnatiarts.org
http://www.cincinnatiarts.org/

Linden Park Commons Site Plan

2005-11-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

Here is the current conceptual site plan for the Linden Park Commons project at the corner of North Bend Road and Hamilton Avenue in College Hill. The land acquisition approved by City Council in November, 2005, consists only of the highlighted properties north of North Bend Road.

Dorothy Harris and Amos Robinson Earn Awards for CPOP Participation

2005-11-03T00:50:00.000-05:00

This is the documentation of the contribution that earned Dorothy and Amos the 2005 CPOP awards.

Community: College Hill

Problem: Youth/young adults dealing drugs, police arresting but legal system releasing them to College Hill streets within hours. No one was being held accountable.

Date: August 29, 2005

Submitted by: Phyllis Schoenberger, CPOP member, Secretary, College Hill Business Association, Active Citizen on Patrol, Chair of the College Hill Forum Health & Safety Quality of Life Committee

A. Scanning:

Since the inception of the College Hill CPOP team in May 2003, the arrests of those dealing drugs and causing disorder in our community has increased. The problem was that the legal system returned the criminal to the streets within hours with minimal if any safeguards for the community. These young men taunted the Citizens on Patrol (COP)volunteers, making comments that “no way you gonna get me, see, here I am”. The CPOP Team, COP volunteers, and College Hill Neighborhood Officer, Herb Noble, identified this frustrating problem.

B. Analysis:

Residents of the streets to which these drug dealers returned, sometimes with guns, attended the CPOP meeting asking for something to be done. These criminals are identifiable. The Team knew where they lived and where they hung out and dealt drugs. CPOP had input from business owners about them hanging and selling in the business district. We recognized that many of these youth had not finished high school, had no job, and no authority figure in their lives. CPOP invited experts to our meetings in order to educate us, to verify our facts, and to help us be creative in our approach to deal with the problem. These experts included prosecutors, probation officers, and judges.

C. Response:

It seemed clear to the CPOP team after analyzing the problem and especially after talking with those in the legal system, that our community needed to try something that had not been tried before, i.e. to effect change within the legal system. Two members of the CPOP Team volunteered to attend hearings for any one arrested who we knew to be a drug dealer or drug player in College Hill. Dorothy Harris, CPOP Facilitator, and Amos Robinson, CPOP member and active COP volunteer, began the now very effective “court watch” team. This effort was aided by working with Terry Cosgrove in learning the workings of the legal system, accessing computerized criminal records, and ascertaining court dates.
Since then, they are involved for a minimum of twenty hours a week in attending hearings. That does not speak to the time spent using the computer for the pertinent information in following the cases.
Even more important than their focus and dedication to attend hearings is the trust and respect they have earned with judges and prosecutors. They are asked by the judges to give community input and that input is taken seriously in sentencing. Ms. Harris and Mr. Robinson do not always ask for the harshest possible sentencing, knowing that in some cases, prison is not the answer. They recommend that the perpetrator receive community control with stipulations that the youth or young adult is welcome to our community if they take this time to obtain a GED or return to school. Many times they ask that the defendant get a job to support his children. Obviously, the probationer is expected to stop any criminal behavior.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Robinson then inform the community as to the community control stipulations. If the probationer is seen breaking those stipulations, they are reported and they serve their sentence in jail. There are so many reasons to commend these two citizens, but one thing is outstanding and that is the personal risk they take by being in court, highly identifiable, and subject to retaliation.

D. Assessment:

Since the initiation of this “court watch team” the following has happened:
Judges, with few exceptions, seek them out at trial, asking for their community input regarding the defendant.

Sentencing has been consistently more in keeping with the merits of the case, what is best for the defendant and what is a more effective safeguard for the community.

In many cases, Dorothy and Amos make contact with the families who are attending the hearing. Ms. Harris takes every opportunity to talk with the mothers of these young men.

Criminals who have gotten away with crime, who thought they would never be held accountable, have been arrested and are spending time in jail or on community control. Over the past year at least eight have been convicted because of the presence and input of Dorothy and Amos. Other known drug dealers are no longer in our community because they can more easily work elsewhere.

Because of their work in the legal system, Mr. Robinson is now leading an effort for College Hill to have its own Probation Officer in order to make community control stipulations more workable. Any breaking of the stipulations can be dealt with more swiftly.

The involvement of these two College Hill residents has brought hope to our community. It has brought support to the many fine police officers in District 5 who work our streets. It provides proof that the community is behind their hard work in making arrests to rid our business district and residential areas of those who cause fear and disorder.

At the November 2004 meeting of the College Hill Forum, our community council, Dorothy Harris and Amos Robinson were recognized by the community of College Hill for their “initiative and dedication in working for a safe community”. They were commended for their “invaluable work in combating crime and in creating a working relationship with the Court system that fosters a healthy and vibrant community”.

The Streetscape—Mike Battoclette Looks Back on a Completed Project

2005-10-24T00:35:00.000-04:00

The Streetscape has been in place almost long enough for us to begin to take it for granted. But we know that “The Avenue” didn’t always look this good. Here are CHCURC Streetscape committee chair Mike Battoclette’s observations about what was involved. Says Mike:

I congratulate our community and city leaders for all of their efforts to make the Streetscape improvements a reality. It took us over three years but we got it done.

This project for College Hill really started back in early 2001 with the completion of a College Hill Urban Design Plan funded with $30,000 from the City of Cincinnati’s Neighborhood Business District Improvement program (NBDIP). The Streetscape project was one of six keystone projects that College Hill identified in that plan back in 2001.

The first item of business to start the Streetscape project was to secure funding. Back in late 2001 our community was awarded $1,500,000 over three years to design and implement a new streetscape for our business district. These funds were awarded through the City’s NBDIP program. Everyone was very excited. There were many community individuals that worked on this effort to secure funding but the main point person and leader for this effort was Dave Schwartz.

With funding secured we put together a group of community individuals to help lay out and design the actual streetscape improvements. Our first meeting was Tuesday March 5th, 2002 and included: Peg St. Clair, Mary Kauffman, Barb Ramsey, Beth McClean, Kathy Strawser, Rick Strawser, Dave Schwartz, Gail Finke and Mike Battoclette.

As the designs were presented and documents were put together, we worked through issues with project phasing, public meetings, city approvals, lighting assessments, Cinergy gas line installation, main designer issues, and other things too involved to mention. Working with us through it all from that first meeting has been City of Cincinnati Architect Jack Martin. Jack has been involved in many of our community projects over the years and we thank him for his continued work and support of College Hill.

As we worked through the designs and met again and again, other key community people joined the fun in helping to make this Streetscape a reality. Those individuals included: the Reverend Todd O’Neal, Derrick Mayes, Karen Hartman, Tom Haid, Marty Weldishofer, Dolores Rowland and Phyllis Schoenberger.

We recognize especially Cincinnati Economic Development Director Tom Jackson for his attention, responsiveness and easy, calming work ethic in helping our community. He acted as our community point person throughout the project and was essential to getting all those documents completed for bidding, the lighting assessment approved through the business district and construction finally started.

Construction started at the end of last year with RA Miller as general contractor. They and their sub-contractors worked through all kinds of weather and dealt with some unforeseen conditions below ground, all the while keeping the federal highway that is Hamilton Ave open.

Now, at the end of all this, the streetscape looks great. The new street lights, the special lights for our crosswalks, the pavers on the sidewalks, the planter boxes with beautiful flowers, the new trees and the new sign and meter posts all make a great foundation and infrastructure for the continued success and attractiveness of College Hill.

The future is NOW for College Hill. People are starting to take notice. All of the community organizations are to be congratulated for their hard work to date and the FUN everyone is having along the way! We continue to build lasting relationships.

Thank you for allowing me to assist with this Streetscape project. I look forward to the future successes of College Hill. What a great neighborhood to live in within this fine City of Cincinnati!

Mike Battoclette

Biloxi Relief Trip by Tom Strothers

2005-10-03T03:56:00.000-04:00

Biloxi Relief Trip by Tom Strothers
Shortly after Katrina hit Mississippi and Louisiana we spent a lot of time checking on our friends living in Mississippi and around New Orleans. Fortunately everyone had been accounted for. Like so many others, we sent a large donation to a relief group. It just wasn’t enough. During the week following Katrina’s onslaught we communicated with a close friend, Shannon, living near the Gulf in Biloxi. Her location is shown below:

What struck me in one letter from Shannon entitled “Tears for Katrina” was that her family and neighbors were pooling resources and helping each other without help from the outside. The only help being received was from the Salvation Army and from a Baptist relief center.

At the end of the first week after Katrina hit I talked with a friend in Park Forest, Illinois, about getting some supplies together and heading to Biloxi to help Shannon and her neighbors.

Preparation

My friend, David Lynch, and I talked to Shannon about the most urgent needs. At the end of the first week they were getting food and water. The Marine Corps came in via amphibious landing and quickly got the sewer system repaired. They had a generator running and were able to get gasoline. Shannon and her neighbors pooled resources and used Shannon’s house as a supply center. Miss Mel, Shannon’s neighbor did all the cooking. A church center was providing water, food and sporadic quantities of ice. What was really needed were items for personal hygiene and cleaning supplies.

David and I are both members of a dulcimer chat group called Everything Dulcimer. We asked for donations for our trip. Missy, David and I were also scheduled to be at the Harmony Harvest music festival in Lancaster, Ohio, on September 17. We decided that we would accept donations at Harmony Harvest then head to Biloxi on the 18th.

We began receiving financial contributions and boxes of supplies from Everything Dulcimer. On the 17th the organizers of Harmony Harvest took up a collection and went to a store to pick up various supplies including coloring books and crayons for children.

We went and returned to Lancaster on the 17th then spent most of Sunday, the 18th, sorting through our supplies and boxing them.

The Trip
We left Cincinnati at about 6pm Sunday figuring a 14 hour drive. We were really loaded and didn’t figure on making good time but Dave’s van did quite well. We had no problem getting to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as the sun came up. We were already starting to see the effects of Katrina – fallen trees, twisted road signs and piles of debris. We missed our turn off toward Rt. 49 that would take us toward Biloxi. Apparently the sign was blown away. We ended up and a back road. It was a narrow paved road. The smell of dying pine trees was everywhere. It smelled like shopping for a cut tree for Christmas.

We finally made it to I-10 north of Biloxi. Shannon told us that there were three routes to her house from I-10. We planned on taking I-110 into Biloxi and we found that exit with no problem. However, traffic was bumper to bumper and there was a sign “Emergency Vehicles and Residents Only.” We were tired and figured that we would be in line for a long time so we did a U turn and headed back to I-10. This was two weeks after Katrina and debris was barely pushed aside from both sides of the roadway: clothes, bedding, shattered lumber, roofing, sheets of metal and so forth. This was the first real sign of the devastation. (We found out later that the area from I-110 south to the Gulf shore was one of the hardest hit areas.)

We made it back to I-10 and I called Shannon on our cell phone. She directed us to a Kangaroo gas station and said she would meet us there. Dave walked into the service station and mentioned that we were down to help some friends and told them where we were headed. They told him that nothing was left “South of the Track.” It took Shannon about 45 minutes to drive the 7 miles to where we were waiting. At this time I had been up over 24 hours but one look at Shannon and hearing her hack and cough and seeing that she was physically drained, my sleepiness disappeared and I realized we had some work to do.

The drive across Pass Road to Shannon’s neighborhood was slow. Most of the traffic lights were still out. There were National Guard personnel directing traffic at major intersections. We passed small and large businesses that were boarded up. One grocery store had large sheets of plywood across shattered store front openings that were hand painted words “We’re Open” crossed out. We a McDonald’s sign that was twisted but still partially lit. The restaurant roof was a foot off the ground. There was a small “Mom and Pop” hardware store with a panel van that had been blown through the back of the shop. Only a few iron beams held the roof in place. The walls were gone. We saw slabs of concrete partially covered with floor tile but no building.

Then we headed south across the railroad track. I was actually surprised to see anything standing but most of the houses were in tack though each house had a pile of debris at curbside. I noticed that the elementary school across the road from Shannon’s looked as though it had been untouched by Katrina. Nonetheless, we had arrived.

Monday

Shannon lives in a neighborhood close to Keesler Air Force Base south of the railroad track that runs parallel with the Gulf shore. The area is appropriately called “South of the Track.”

Shannon’s husband, Kit, is a Biloxi police officer. He had no choice but to stay in Biloxi during Katrina. Shannon and her two sons, Logan and Mike, also stayed. They had survived Camille and figured they could withstand this one. Besides, by the time that the path and intensity of Katrina was established, there was no time to leave.

Katrina came ashore between Gulf Port and New Orleans. The most dangerous part of Katrina, the northeast quadrant was right over Biloxi. Reports were that the storm surge was 25 feet but there were clear signs that it was much higher. Nonetheless, Shannon’s neighborhood was a bit higher in elevation than others that ended up under water. The map below shows approximately where the storm surge was in relationship to Shannon’s house.

After arriving, exchanging greetings and grabbing a cup of coffee, we began unloading the van. Kit was in bed as was working a 12-hour shift from 6pm to 6am. Shannon’s house already looked like a warehouse with boxes of various food and water. They had already removed the soaked carpet from the front room. The musty smell of mold was prevalent. We stacked and shoved our supplies sorting out some special gifts for Shannon – like chocolates and special bathroom goodies.

Two elderly ladies stopped over in the early afternoon asking about the electricity guy. Another friend of ours wanted to join us. He is a certified electrician and they wanted him to restore their power. The ladies lived a few houses toward the Gulf from Shannon. Though Shannon’s block had power, they did not. Unfortunately our friend’s boss wouldn’t let him take the time off. I’m not sure he could have done anything anyway. The utility companies were restoring power where it was safe to do so.

Dave decided to lay down for a while. I was on second wind and decided to chat with Shannon and take a walk down the street toward the Gulf. The picture below is typical of what I first saw.

On the way back from our walk I saw another scene typical of life in Biloxi near the Gulf. Nothing was left but the concrete slab where a house used to stand. A camping trailer is now being used for the residents and a sign identifying the address and owner placed outside. I’m not sure if this trailer was provide by FEMA or by someone else.

While Dave and Kit were still sleeping, I looked around at the damage in Shannon’s house and tried to think about where to start. They had a tarp partially placed over the roof to cover the damage. Since Katrina had hit the weather had been typical hot, muggy days but sunny. However, the tarp wasn’t enough to handle any significant rain.

After Kit and Dave got up we discussed what could be done during the time we were there. Kit had been remodeling the house on his time off but working mostly by himself and only between shifts. It was slow going. Kit had had only one day off in 28. However, he was scheduled to have Tuesday through Thursday off.

Shannon’s father and stepfather from Caldwell, Ohio, had delivered roofing supplies and plywood the previous week. It looked like enough to replace the roof. Our first thought was to go ahead and replace the roof thinking that it would not make sense to repair the front room if there was a chance of the roof leaking. Kit figured we would not have time to do this and that there was a chance of rain toward the end of the week. Also, State Farm Insurance had told them not to touch the roof until an adjustor could assess the damage. It was not clear when this would happen. Kit had checked with FEMA and they said that they did not qualify for assistance. Therefore, we decided to work on re-covering the roof, remove the ceiling and walls in the front room and to put up new ceiling and walls.

We spent the next three hours or so removing the old tarp that was there to cover more of the front roof where most of damage was. Dave and I had brought a couple tarps so we used that to cover the front porch and the rest of the roof. We then piled new shingle bundles on the tarp to keep it from blowing away.

Shannon decided that they couldn’t use all the supplies we brought but that her neighbors would need some of the stuff. She also had boxes of stuff everywhere. We decided it would be best to sort through everything and set aside what they could use and get rid of the other stuff. We spent the next couple hours doing this. Her neighbors came over and went through the extra supplies taking only what they absolutely needed. That left quite a few boxes of first aid, cleaning and personal hygiene supplies.

Miss Mel stopped by and said that her husband was going to grill up some burgers. She invited us to dinner and to drink some beer and watch the New Orleans Saints on Monday night football. We took her up on this but left at half time. I had been up some 40 hours or so and was feeling it.

Tuesday

First thing Tuesday morning, we made a list of list of materials needed for the living room. Kit and Dave headed to Lowe’s while Shannon and I cleared the north side of the room. There was heavy furniture in the room so we decided to do move the furniture to one side of the room, do two-thirds then move the furniture and finish the other part. We sealed off the rest of the house with heavy plastic and ran a plastic barrier across the room to seal off the larger area since we would be removing material coated with black mold.

After Dave and Kit returned we began tearing off paneling, rain soaked dry wall and removing insulation. Respirators were definitely required.

Around 11:30am the Salvation Army drove by handing out hot meals. It wasn’t much – ravioli, vegetables and sliced peaches – but it was good.

During our work period Kit mentioned that the Biloxi police department had lost 20 cars due to Katrina that have yet to be replaced. They were getting help from several police departments. His partner is an Indiana State Police officer who will be there for a few more weeks.

Shannon described how the Marine Corps had done an amphibious landing in order to get the sewage system working. She said it seemed like something from a war movie. I asked about the elementary school on the opposite corner where she lived. The lot and outside of the building seemed untouched. Shannon said that the week before we arrived that the Army Corps of Engineers were assigned to get all the schools up and running. This particular school can’t be opened yet due to some problems with their sewers. The city water system is running but they are still advising that people first boil the water before drinking. We were strictly using bottled water for cooking and drinking.

While we were eating the mail man showed up. The week before he showed up twice and that was welcomed. The week we were there the mail was delivered daily – a small sign that some semblance of routine was returning.

By four o’clock we had pretty much removed all the old material from the room and piled it up curbside. Normal garbage service was set up to run two to three times weekly. Once a week front end loaders and dump trucks were scheduled to pick up all debris piled up curbside. No matter where we traveled large piles of debris were in front of most residences and businesses. Most of the debris was hauled to designated burn sites.

After getting all the old material removed we vacuumed all the dust and years of inner wall stuff then sprayed everything with a mixture of bleach and water. After this dried we hand painted the exterior walls and ceiling with a mold retardant. Finally we installed new insulation on the walls and ceiling and covered this with heavy plastic.

After cleaning up, we decided to load up all the extra supplies and head to Shannon’s friends Dennis and Suzie who lived north of the track. They took a few things that they needed. Suzie showed me a dulcimer that Dave had built for her. Wow, did it have a good sound. Suzie had just started playing recently. I played around with it a bit when Dennis asked if I knew the song “Ashokan Farewell.” I had come up with a dulcimer arrangement and played it. Dennis literally had goose bumps on his arms while I was playing.

We left Suzie and Dennis and headed to find a place to drop off the rest of our supplies. We saw a relief center being run by a Baptist group. They had placed pylons across the entrance as it was about 6:30pm. Nonetheless, we pulled up to a fellow at the entrance and told him we had supplies. He said that they were closed. Then he said that they don’t need clothing or water. He glanced at the full pickup load and asked what we had. We told him cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items. After yelling to someone about what we had another fellow came running up and directed us to another entrance. They were thrilled to receive our supplies.

We pulled into a bee hive of activity. They directed us around a forklift that had run out of gas and passed a semi-truck they were unloading by hand. Several people helped us unload and asked if we needed anything. Ice. One guy yelled over to have someone bring us ice. “How much do you need?” he asked. We told him four bags would work. He asked if we could take ten. We thought of Suzie and Dennis and took ten.

While they were unloading us and loading the ice I chatted with the driver of the semi-truck. He had donated his rig and diesel fuel to bring supplies down from North Carolina. He asked who we were with thinking that we were with some larger group. We just told him that we were friends of Shannon and simply trying to help in a small way.

One of the directors asked where we lived and that they would deliver ice to us. When we told him “South of the Track” he looked in surprise and said that he didn’t think anything was left “South of the Track.” Ice was indeed delivered the next day.

Shannon fixed a nice dinner that evening. This was the first I had a chance to meet her son, Mike. Shannon brought out her dulcimers and Mike his mandolin. We swapped tunes while Dave restrung one of Shannon’s dulcimers.

Mike, an ex-marine, was working at a bar as a bouncer. That’s also where he spent two nights during and after Katrina. Shannon’s younger son, Logan, was spending the night with a friend a few blocks away when Katrina hit. Well into the storm the roof where Logan was staying began collapsing. He left the house and ran through the heavy rain and wind to Shannon’s house where they spent the next endless hours listening to the living oak outside knocking to get in. Shannon’s biggest fear was to have one of the three trees in their yard come crashing down. Her fears were warranted as the pignut hickory at the front corner had come nearly out of the ground. The surface roots were obviously separated from the soil and a portion of the sidewalk over the root base had lifted and was cracked. The tree should come down but it will have to be at their own expense. Neither FEMA nor the insurance company will do anything. Logan had left the previous week to start 8th grade in Caldwell, Ohio, where Shannon’s dad lives. Gary, another son of Shannon, was staying in an apartment a bit closer to the Gulf. Gary left the apartment as the storm surge flooded the first floor. He waded through chest deep water to get to Shannon’s place.

I guess we stayed up until about 1am chatting and listening to some of the various stories about Katrina. Just so many lives were touched. Somehow no one that they knew had lost their lives though many were living in various stages of destruction.

During the day on Tuesday we first started paying attention to Hurricane Rita. With the Gulf being above 90 degrees surface temperature we figured it would develop into a cat 5.

Wednesday

It didn’t take us long Wednesday morning to finish up the cleanup that we were doing.

Just before lunch two FBI guys came up asking for Kit. Relatives of one of the neighbors had not heard from her and they had filed an inquiry. Kit pointed out where she lived and thought that she had left for Mobile. They were looking at me strange having long hair and beard. Kit told them that I was wanted in Ohio. We joked around with them for a while then went back to work.

At lunch time the Red Cross came by with hot food. As much as had been said about the Red Cross not being there for anyone, the food was pretty good. It was a tomato-beef mixture with lots of ground beef and very filling.

The Baptist group also showed up with additional ice that we distributed to the neighbors.

We spent the rest of the day putting up the plywood sheeting. Shannon had commented on how much better she breathed after us sealing off the area. Shannon has to use an inhaler due to burned lungs from ammonia vapors. She was going through two inhalers daily just before we got there. By Wednesday she was down to less than one.

It seemed like we were ahead of the game and would easily finish what we were doing before we had to leave.

Hurricane Rita had built to a Cat 5 but the track seemed headed toward Texas and probably wouldn’t affect us other than rain. We were pretty sure that we could handle rain.

Thursday
We tore down the plastic barrier in the room Thursday morning and moved the furniture to the finished area then sealed this area off to avoid spreading mold to the furniture and new paneling. Then we began tearing down the remaining walls and ceiling.

By afternoon the winds had picked up and the temperature dropped from the muggy 90’s to comfortable lower 80’s. The wind was advanced warning of Hurricane Rita that was close to being directly south of us.

Gary drove over his Jeep Cherokee that had been under water from the storm surge. He was having trouble with the electrical system and had bought a new wiring harness for it. Gary’s children were in the Houston area and with Rita heading that way wanted to drive over to get them. While he was working on the Jeep we were ripping out moldy dry wall and fiberglass insulation.

We had one light shower that forced us to scramble and cover all our building material.

The Salvation Army delivered hot food around noon. Ravioli again but it was welcomed.

By late afternoon we had the remaining part of the room stripped, chemically cleaned and painted with the mold retardant. We then installed the insulation and covered the room in plastic. It was beginning to look good and smell clean. We removed the plastic barrier again opening the house and getting the now fresh breeze throughout the lower floor. We figured that all we had to do on Friday was to put up the remaining paneling and hang the new ceiling fans that Kit had bought.

Dave and I figured we had done all we could and would head back to Ohio on Saturday. We had a few beers and a late supper then went to bed early feeling pretty good.

Friday
I woke up at around 5am with the sound of an explosion and bright flash followed by another smaller more distant explosion. The power went out.

Kit hooked up the generator and plugged in the refrigerator and coffee pot. Thank goodness for that. It was raining pretty hard and we scrambled around making sure all the wood outside was covered well.

We found out that at least five transformers had blown. One of them outside of Mel’s house had exploded and had set a debris pile on fire. Her and a neighbor were hosing it off trying to keep the fire from expanding. It eventually went out when a utility truck arrived. There was several trucks with lift buckets roaming the neighborhood looking for frayed wires and blown transformers. Power finally came on around 4pm.

Kit had to work that evening so laid down to get a bit of sleep. That’s when we saw it. There was a drip of water above the plastic we had put on the ceiling. It wasn’t much more than a teaspoon full but, nonetheless, there was a leak. Our hearts sunk. We hoped it was just a small leak that we could fix easily since it wasn’t all that much water. Dave, not knowing the extent of the leak had laid down to take a nap until the power came back on. We decided that we shouldn’t continue further until we got enough rain to make sure this wasn’t the only leak.

Then it began to rain very heavy outside and the wind got strong. We saw more water on the ceiling in a different spot. Shannon went to the attic and said that water was coming in everywhere. Shannon was losing it. I was losing it.

After pulling it together we grabbed anything that would hold water and headed to the attic. We took a roll of plastic sheeting and began spreading that above the new fiberglass hoping to keep it dry. I saw a hole in the roof about 2 inches wide by about six inches long. I looked up and it looked as though the tarp covering the hole was no thicker than cellophane. Chances are the rain was coming through tears in this thin tarp. I shoved a towel in this hole and placed a bucket beneath the towel. Shannon and Mike were spreading buckets and containers wherever they could. We then went back downstairs to assess the damage. It actually seemed like we had reached a stalemate with the rain. There was water from before but it wasn’t getting worse.

Dave got up and I explained the situation to him. We both felt like our efforts all week long were in vain. The feeling we both had was indescribable. We tried to rationalize that we had made an impact, that we had brought needed supplies and brightened up life for Shannon. Yet, we were about to leave with a leaky roof and uncertain future for her house.

Kit got up and wouldn’t talk to anyone. He wouldn’t listen to anyone. We each kind of went to separate places in the house and in the front yard. It was time to gather our thoughts and try to figure out what made sense.

We all concluded that the problem was the original tarp. Shannon’s dad had delivered several rolls of tar paper. We figured that we could lay this on top of the tarp in real roofing style. Dave recalled that Mel had a large roll of heavy-duty tarp. Enough to cover the roof.

Mike and Kit began to layout the tar paper and stapled it down. The wind was so strong that the tar paper was just tearing as they laid it down. Finally they used roofing nails with large plastic washers. This seemed to hold. Shannon and I headed out to Lowe’s to get additional roofing nails and a dozen lengths of furring strips.

Kit had to go to work shortly after we got back from Lowe’s. Dave was too heavy to go up on the roof. Mike had to go to work. Shannon and I climbed up onto the roof to lay down the new tarp. Dave stayed below to hand us the furring strips and to guide us in getting the tarp aligned. In strong wind Shannon and I managed to get one end of the tarp down and secured it with a furring strip. Dave handed up a bundle of six, 8-foot strips. We laid those down on the tarp only to see the wind pick up the tarp and strips. We managed to get the strips down and secure them with long screws. We were very glad to get off the roof.

The next ring of feeder bands poured more rain on us. We checked the attic and didn’t see any leaks other than residual water that had already penetrated the old tarp. We finally felt that we had the roof sealed.

Saturday
The next morning the rain had let up. Kit came home from work and said that it had rained very hard during the night. We didn’t see any new leaks and the ceiling had dried from the previous leaks. Whew. I think we were ready to leave.

Kit had promised us a tour of Biloxi and some areas not open to the public. As soon as we drove onto Rt. 90 along the Gulf a MP stopped us since we weren’t supposed to be there. He accepted Kit’s police ID and left us alone.

We spent the next hour or so driving around areas of Biloxi. On one occasion Kit go disoriented though he had been working the area as a police officer for eight years. The destruction was widespread and complete. Houses had either blown apart or had floated as far as 100 yards before breaking apart. Many frame houses were stacked against one another like so many wooden blocks. Cars were tossed around like hot wheels without regard to weight or model. Clothing and other debris still hung in the trees 15 to 20 feet above ground. Water marks could be seen in areas that were not supposed to be under water. Sections of Rt 90 across Back Bay of Biloxi were stacked like dominoes. Pictures of this tour and other pictures taken are displayed at www.strothers.com/Biloxi.htm .

The trip home to Ohio was uneventful other than some heavy rain near the Alabama-Mississippi border. It is good to be back home. I will forever be impacted by this trip and I will not hesitate to offer direct assistance to hurricane victims. The recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will take a long time. I really don’t know the most effective way to help but for Missy and me this will be a part of our monthly budget.

Tears of Katrina

2005-09-07T00:51:00.000-04:00

From Shannon in Biloxi, September 7, 2005

Just when I think I have no more they come again. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm OK.

We got power back last night but that doesn't mean it will stay. They have blown twice as many transformers as they have replaced. Every street without power and road access to the block has two or three power trucks on it working in shifts day and night. They are all working so hard--the power crews, the relief volunteers, supply lines from churches and other organizations, search and rescue teams and law enforcement from here and everywhere. This city and the people in it appreciate them more than we could ever express.

I'm not too sure I have a lot to say, you all have more information than we down here are getting. But it's bad. So much is gone, so many people are gone and missing. I didn't realize the true extent till yesterday, and I really don’t think I comprehend it all. There’s too much I can’t understand and not enough answers. With the power cames the TV--not a good idea for a shell-shocked population. I didn't leave the neighborhood much and only when I had to.

The one and only ice truck came through here the day Bush was here (was it just for show?), brought in by a state narcotics team from somewhere. A fire truck with bottled water came in yesterday. We've had to run across town to distribution sites and by the time we got there they were usually out. In the middle of the night Wed or Thurs came Kit and two other units, with ice and water. I woke up Logan and we went door to door with the ice that I couldn’t hold in the freezer for the others and passed it out telling them we had water and to come get it.

The Salvation Army was up Tuesday morning serving hot meals to people on the east end as they crawled out of the rubble in shock. They have been feeding people over there till the Red Cross came in Saturday with a National Guard escort. They wouldn't come in without protection and our guard units are in Iraq. Didn't bother the Salvation Army to be unprotected.

They’re having a power struggle on the east end in a way. The Red Cross is trying to run them off the locations they are set up in and the Salvation Army isn't budging, they have been here since Tuesday morning. They said if they wanted these certain locations, on the main streets, they should have been here to get them. The SA was just trying to be convenient to the people, the RC has TV crews……. It's all so .......... it's too much to take in. This is no place for a power struggle. I've lost a lot of respect for the RC at this point.

A little church down the street at the Methodist retirement center has opened a food bank in the neighborhood with food and water as long they have supplies coming in.

According to the RC and FEMA we are basically on our own. We don't exist down here. I told that little FEMA man my address, and exactly where I lived four times yesterday and the blank look never left his face. Kit had to find a big blue tarp for the roof. FEMA showed up Saturday, but no one could find them till yesterday and there are only a handful of them. FEMA isn't the same organization they use to be before they went Homeland Security after 9/11. And I still don't understand the connection between FEMA and the Red Cross. There is one. I just haven't figured it out. Is the RC a government organization? They haven't been making a move with out FEMA approval.

Anyway we have each other, food and water, phones and now power. I don't have to freeze ice for everyone with the generator, but I still have the freezer full just in case the power goes out again. I’m freezing the bottled water. I can get 16 gallon jugs in my freezer.

Miss Mel down the street has been cooking for about a week now, we take her food and her relatives gave her the stuff in their freezers, which was kept frozen with power from generators and is making sure the neighborhood has a hot meal in the evening.

A neighbor who had cancer and was evacuated--called her family in Florida and told them to take care of her neighbors, so they’ve been coming in with a load of supplies about every three days and unloading at Miss Mel’s. They all know if I don’t have what they need, Miss Mel does. By the way, Mel or Melanie is in her twenties. Her hubby walks the block with flashlights at night keeping an eye on us all.

Food still isn't coming in from outside to the stores that made it through the storm. With Homeland Security power, FEMA has been commandeering what they think is necessary or want, from food & water to generators & gas tankers everything is running short. I'm not sure where they are taking it, probably to NO, the trucks aren't coming into the city. I don't understand that either.

The Church organizations that are bringing supplies in aren't leaving the city empty, they are also getting people out. One family per trailer usually pulled behind a pick-up, and housing people till arrangements can be made to get family or friends to come get them. There isn't a rental truck to be had for a few hundred miles in any direction.

I finally got Jill and Ron out of here. They left yesterday evening with what would fit in the trailer and the rest is in my garage, my parents will drop it off to them in Huntsville AL, on their way back from picking up Logan. He'll be going to school in Ohio and staying with Grandma for a while. I won’t leave Kit.

Ron's son got a way out to Texas Saturday or Sunday. His stuff which he gave to Gary (my former foster son)--they couldn't take anything more than they could carry--is in my garage too.

Gary lost his apartment. He got to the stair well as the building collapsed. He dove from the stairwell before it went, into the water and pulled himself to higher ground with a downed power line and walked here, two miles away, in the storm.

Along with thousands of others, I have no job, but Kit has more overtime than he can handle so I'm not real concerned at this moment. I'll worry about when I need too.

All the worst case scenarios were based on Hurricane Camille. No one ever expected something worse. No one expected this storm to get so big so quick. When these areas were proclaimed a disaster area before the storm hit, it was still expected to go up the mouth of the Mississippi. Not far enough west to save us here in Biloxi, but those areas in NO, in the quarter that were actually a few feet above sea level that didn’t get much damage, would have been about 25 to 30 feet under. Between the wind and the water, the people in the convention center and the dome would have died.

I don’t really blame anyone for the slow responses to the gulf coast. I truly believe that when evacuations were going on in NO and no plans were being made before hand to have supplies on the ready to go in there, that at that point, before the storm started curving, they didn’t expect to have anyone left alive in that city. So much has gone wrong and we all can see that.

Will it be fixed for the next disaster? For the people involved, I hope so. I don’t believe natural disasters and homeland security mix. FEMA needs to have to branches. I believe the Red Cross has become too commercialized. I believe the Gov of LA needed to do something to help the Mayor get people out of NO. I believe more of NO should have been evacuated to the west so the rest of the gulf coast could get out.

I wake up 3 and 4 times a night and walk around the house, making sure I’m not dreaming this whole thing. Sometimes during the day I’m not sure if I’m dreaming. I have done so little and am so tired. I hear the wind when there isn’t any. Time had stood still for a week now, and I have no idea what day it is when I wake up, I just know it's tomorrow. I’ve lost three friends and coworkers that I know of, more have lost everything. I pray every night that I wake up and everything is right again, but it never will be. I wake up in the morning pacing the floor afraid Kit isn’t going to make it home. Logan disappears for 5 minutes and I’m in a panic. And I feel very very guilty because I have so much to be thankful for.

Shannon

New College Hill Community Logo

2005-08-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

On August 2, 2005, the College Hill Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) unveiled a new College Hill Logo to the community.

This logo was designed to create a vibrant, active, recognizable image reflecting the community's rich history, its natural and architectural surroundings and its diversity.

The two halves of the logo represent College Hill's nature and architecture . The curve in the middle represents Hamilton Avenue as it comes up the hill and shows that College Hill is progressive and moving towards the future. The leaves breaking out of greenery imply that the community is expansive and inviting new growth. The architectural elements represent the character and history of College Hill. The two halves merging on a common path represent the community working together and shows openness to change. The tag line reinforces the most-loved positives of College Hill, that it is a "Diverse" and "Neighborly" community.

The logo was developed by CHCURC's Identity Committee led by Don Cluxton. To learn what College Hill means to its residents and business owners and what they like most about their community, the committee distributed surveys and conducted focus groups throughout the community. They then worked with Cincinnati's graphic design department to create the final design, which was unanimously embraced by the CHCURC Board.

CHCURC's goal is for this unique logo to appear on all public notices, way finding signage and public structures, as well as community web sites, newsletters and letterheads. A Standards Guide for the College Hill Logo and Identity System is available from CHCURC.

About the College Hill eNewsletter

2005-08-01T13:40:00.000-04:00

The mission of the College Hill eNewsletter is to make College Hill an even better place to live and do business by telling the story of our vital, diverse, involved community. The intended audience is all residents of College Hill as well as non-residents who are interested in keeping up on what's happening in College Hill.

It is timely--approximately weekly, depending on circumstances.
Its contents represent a broad spectrum of things about and of interest to our diverse community, but are biassed towards stories of College Hill people working together to improve our community.
It is short & sweet, with links to lengthy explainations appearing on the various community web sites or in the College Hill eNewsletter Blogspace.
It is sent only to people who want to see it; subscribers add or remove themselves from the distribution list.
It is a work in progress, and changes as we learn together how to best serve the community.

New Business Association Mission, Vision, Goals to be Presented June 21

2005-06-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

The new Mission, Vision and Goals to be presented at the June meeting of the College Hill Business Association were developed over the past several months by a volunteer group of business and community representatives. They soon discovered that they had many things in common, among them a desire to improve the economy of College Hill and a commitment to find ways for the Business Association to help all College Hill businesses participate in the economic growth of College Hill. You can hear the results of their work at 8:00 am Tuesday, June 21 in the Twin Towers Gulden Center. It's likely you'll be moved to participate in the mission.

CHBA President Gayla Price says, "I think that the Mission, Vision and Goals will help people recognize that we are an active organization. I also want people to know that:

We are the oldest organization in College Hill, dating back to the late 1940's.
We strongly support the other community organizations in College Hill.
We are looking for new and ACTIVE members.
We are looking to constantly better our organization so that we may serve College Hill Businesses better.

You can contact Gayla at 513-733-8837 or gayla.price@pnc.com.