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Delhi Press

August 18, 2010

EDITORIALS

LETTERS

COLUMNS

Editor Marc Emral | memral@communitypress.com | 853-6264

CH@TROOM

communitypress.com

PRESS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Unity, not separation

A recent article in the Enquirer regarding the separation of Price Hill into divisions caught my attention. As a former resident and business owner, I think I can speak with some authority and concern. In my opinion, the community would be better served by eliminating the various divisions and regarding the community as one. As far as I remember, the original separation was done for funding reasons, which never seemed to work out as planned. I feel sure that the very people who are fighting for separation

About letters & columns We welcome your comments on editorials, columns, stories or other topics important to you in The Delhi Press and The Price Hill Press. Include your name, address and phone number(s) so we may verify your letter. Letters of 200 or fewer words and columns of 500 or fewer words have the best chance of being published. All submissions may be edited for length, now at one time lived in the area they want to separate from. In Price Hill, there are many good residents and business owners who could combine forces for

CH@TROOM Last week’s question

With a new poll showing support sliding for Ohio’s smoking ban, with Kentucky counties considering a ban, how effective are such band? “Not sure, but I like the nonsmoking restaurants.” N.P. “I don’t know how effective it is everywhere, all I know is I love the smoking ban at the places I

About Ch@troom What do you think about Kentucky Speedway getting a NASCAR Sprint Cup event for 2011? Do you plan to attend? Send your answer to westnews@communitypress.com with Chatroom in the subject line. go. It’s great not smelling smoke while eating or walking out with the odor on my clothes. C.A.S.

Developers saw good opportunity in Price Hill First of two parts. By the late 1800s two rapid transit streetcars provided service to Price Hill, according to the Cincinnati Street Railway’s book, “Cincinnati by Trolley: The Elberon Avenue and the Warsaw Avenue Lines.” No longer was the area considered a “sparsely settled territory” as it had been described in a Cincinnati Commercial Gazette article September 29, 1893. In the Feb. 6, 190,2 Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, we learn that on the day before, a section and a half (960 acres) of Delhi Township had been annexed to the city of Cincinnati. Two Cincinnati Commercial Tribune articles published on March 2, 1913, were a harbinger of things to come. One told that the John A. Kreis mansion at Glenway Avenue and Rapid Run Pike was to be demolished to make way for a subdivision. The other article told of “hundreds of acres” in the community being prepared for similar construction that summer. Two subdivisions which were developed during this time period in Price Hill’s newly annexed western section were the Western View and the Overlook.

The Western View

The Western View subdivision is located on West Eighth between Rosemont and Sunset avenues. Its builders, William Botwin and Louis Tunick, were, according to the 1920 U. S. Federal census, Russian immigrants who arrived in the United States shortly after the turn of last century. We also learn in this census that they shared a two family home at 1252 Lick Run (Sunset) Ave. for a time. Botwin and Tunick were skilled house builders. In addition to Western View where they constructed mostly bungalow and four-square homes, we learn in a May 18, 1919, Cincinnati Enquirer ad that they also built the brick and stucco homes found in Hermosa Park (West Eighth, Hermosa and Carnation avenues). Later advertising placed in The Cincin-

nati Enquirer on May 23 and 30, 1926, credits them also with building the “English type brick” homes on Jamestown Avenue, west of Karen R. Sunset Avenue. Arbogast Plans for Western View Community submitted Press guest were to the Hamilton columnist County Recorder on April 13, 1916, and according to a retrospective article May 1, 1921, in The Cincinnati Enquirer, construction began shortly afterwards. Another May 20, 1917, ad in The Enquirer promoted Western View as being “in one of the most select sections of Price Hill … just opposite St. William’s Church and School.” We also learn in the May 1 article that the last Western View home was sold to George S. Binder for $14,500. Others who resided in Western View and mentioned in the article were: J. E. O’Hara, Mary Crow, Edward J. Ginter, Charles H. Miller, M. E. Bosken, Reuben J. Wood, Henry A. Schmidt, J. A. Mersman, Sigmund Frietsch, James Doyle, John G. Fratz, George G. Meiners, Miss M. Coughlin, Miss A. Braun, and Mrs. R. Lammerding. A look through real estate news for the 1930s and early 1940s did not readily reveal new ventures for Botwin and Tunick. Louis Tunick died Jan. 24, 1953, at 70. His obituary in The Cincinnati Enquirer said that he built his first house in 1912 at 3913 West Liberty Street. At the time of his death he headed the firm of Tunick Builders, the obituary stated. William Botwin died Dec. 28, 1976, an obituary in The American Israelite revealed. Both are buried in Judah Touro Cemetery, according to their obituaries. Karen R. Arbogast lives on Leona Drive.

accuracy and clarity. Deadline: Noon Friday E-mail: westnews@community press.com Fax: 853-6220 U.S. mail: See box below Letters, columns and articles submitted to The Press may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms. the common good of the area. We came into this world with nothing and will leave with nothing, no matter how our lives turned out while we were here.

Some examples of how this can work are Elder and Seton high schools, the new Carson School, Warsaw Federal, Hart Pharmacy, Kroger, just to name a few who have elected to remain in Price Hill and are doing very well. This can be accomplished when the code word becomes unity rather than separation. Don Huber Aston View Lane Cleves

At it again

Steve Driehaus and his Washington, D.C., buddies are at it again. Now a school bill of $26.1 billion. Remember the $862 bil-

Electric line opened westward travel Sayler Park had all kinds of transportation from its beginning. There was traveling by river in the beginning, the canal in 1850, commuter train after the Civil War and the interurban railways in 1900. The interurban was sold to the Cincinnati Street Railway which was became the Cincinnati Transit Co. The Cincinnati Lawrenceburg & Aurora Electric Street Railroad Co. built an electric street railway that ran down Lower River Road (now Gracely Drive) following U.S. 50 through Addyston and North Bend to Lawrenceburg and Aurora, Ind. It opened in April 1900. Construction was supposed to be completed in January, but the rail mills were overloaded with orders. Eventually construction speeded up, and the first car ran down the tracks between Anderson Ferry, Addyston and North Bend in April. Two weeks later the tracks were completed over the North Bend hill to Cleves. By June the railroad ran to Lawrenceburg, and two weeks later to Aurora. A branch of the line also ran the Whitewater Valley to Harrison. A power station and car barn was located between Addyston and North Bend. The site housed a repair and painting shop for cars and power plant to generate electric power. The cars were the same on both ends, so they could reverse direction. To switch directions the motorman would pull down the wires on one side and take his hook to the other side

and connect them up again. The backs of seats reversed so passengers could face the other direction. Steel wheels on steel tracks did not provide very much traction going up hills. The climb was slow, so the car had to rev up the power after leaving Birch Lane (Lowland) in Fernbank to cross the trestle over the Muddy Creek. The car often stalled and had to back to the bottom and start all over again. The other side was also a challenge. Motorman normally checked the air back and emergency brakes before going down the hill to make sure they worked. There were plans to extend the line west to Rising Sun, Madison Ind., and Louisville, Ky. Those plans were never implemented. In 1913 it rained four inches in two days in Indiana. That sent the Miami and Whitewater Rivers over their banks. The bottom lands were flooded sweeping away barns, outbuildings, railway stations, houses and all sorts of property as it raced along. Bridges were swept away, regardless of their supports. At Elizabethtown, Ohio, the waters were temporarily checked at the embankments of the Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg & Aurora electric line and the Big Four Railroads. But the water eventually pushed over the embankments, bridges and all obstructions before it and sped on to overthrow the gigantic steel bridge over the Miami that had only recently been built to replace the famous old “lost

PRESS

bridge.” This Betty Kamuf bridge was the longest single Community span bridge in Press guest the world at the columnist time. Within 30 minutes it was at the bottom of the river, a mass of twisted iron and broken concrete. Damage doomed the railroad. It was forced into receivership, and never emerged for 15 years. In 1928 the railroad reorganized. But the line only survived until 1930 because of operating losses. It was purchased by The Cincinnati Street Railway. Six miles from Anderson’s Ferry to Fernbank were converted to 5-2 1/2 gauge and service cut back to Fernbank. Passengers in Addyston, North Bend, Cleves, Aurora and Lawrenceburg were left stranded. Electric railway service was operated by Cincinnati Street Railway as route 30 until 1941, then under Cincinnati Transit Company as bus service was route K, and now SORTA route 50. The lightweight cars were sold to the Sand Springs Railway at Tulsa, Okla., and are in a museum in Illinois. Some of the bridge remains are visible in Addyston, where East Main turns into Hillside Avenue. This is where you’d get off of River Road to get on East Main or Hillside Avenue. Betty Kamuf is a winner of Griffin Yeatman Award for Historical Preservation. She lives in Sayler Park. You can reach her at sp.column@fuse.net.

What’s a true Price Hillian? Sometimes it gets very difficult to know if you are really a true Price Hillian. Take the case of Tom and Jerry. They were born some 80 years ago in the shadows of Holy Family Church. They played together on a team that was called Price Hill Merchants, all the sponsoring merchants were from the neighborhood or businesses along Warsaw Avenue. They rode the Price Hill Incline to Eighth and State to play a team from the Eighth and State Boys Club. Their fathers belonged to the Price Hill Civic Club. Suddenly the Incline ran no more and they now rode a bus that was called the East Price Hill bus. Later they attended Elder High School and played football with some classmates from St. Michael School who said they were from Eighth and State. As they grew older, they both

moved further out on the hill they went to the Overlook Theater and bowled at Overlook Lanes. After bowling, they went several doors up the street to have a coney at Price Hill Chili. As they had children one boy dated a girl who lived on Covedale Avenue, but she actually lived in Delhi Township. She attended Covedale School, which was in Green Township, and most of her classmates were from Price Hill As Tom and Jerry got older, a friend asked them to belong to the Southwest Improvement Association, which represented people in Southwest Price Hill. In retirement they began to play golf with the Price Hill Oldtimers. One day when they went to play their fellow golfers were ready to throw them off the team. You see, the morning paper had listed their homes as being in Covedale. To make matters worse, when they came home from golfing, the

A publication of

Your Community Press newspaper serving Delhi Township and Sayler Park

lion so-called stimulus, how much of that money has not been spent? You cannot keep going with the spending spree. Soon it has to catch us and then it may be too late. If you really want to help schools, go back to schools starting after Labor Day. How much money will this save? If you are really against abortion, why didn't you force it to be written into “Obama Care”? Steve, you have just been there too long. Bill McCauslin Pineknot Drive Delhi Township

Delhi Press Editor . . . . . . . . . . .Marc Emral memral@communitypress.com . . . . . . .853-6264

city has posted a sign in front of Tom's house that he now lived in West Price Hill. His friend Larry Jerry lived one Schmolt door east, so he Community was now a resident of East Press guest Price Hill. They columnist stopped to see an old friend that for years lived at Eighth and State only to find out he now lived in Lower Price Hill. They also noted that the house they were born in was now in a place called the Incline District. To make things worse their wives informed them while they were away some one came and covered up the sign in front of their house and being they are in their 80s, they don't know where they live anymore. Historian Larry Schmolt is a lifelong resident of Price Hill.

A WORLD OF DIFFERENT VOICES