Your Community Press newspaper serving Columbia Township, Columbia-Tusculum, Fairfax, Hyde Park, Madisonville, Mariemont, Mt.Lookout, Oakley, Terrace Park E-mail: easternhills@communitypress.com We d n e s d a y, J u l y 1 5 , 2 0 0 9
Meet Miles Altman, owner of King Arthur’s Toys in Oakley.
Volume 74 Number 23 © 2009 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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Eastside residents have made their choice for the very best in The Community Press’ first annual Readers’ Choice Awards. We’re counting thousands of votes and will announce the winners in a special publication in August. Winners of the Kings Island tickets won’t have to wait, however. Those local residents will be announced in next week’s Eastern Hills Journal.
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Library concerns
The Hyde Park Branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012. At least that is what branch manager Kathy Rieck hopes depending on the results of an upcoming levy and the extent of state budget cuts. FULL STORY, A4
A new trend
Stephanie Rozanovich recently opened Trend Boutique at 2946 Markbreit Ave. in Oakley. FULL STORY, A2
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Historic home gets reprieve
Mount Lookout homeowners have 3 months for repairs By Lisa Wakeland
About the house
lwakeland@communitypress.com
Owners of a Mt. Lookout home scheduled for demolition have another three months to improve the property. Pam Miller and her husband, Charles Shrout, who live in Miami Township, were granted a 90-day reprieve to make repairs to the Civil War-era house and find a buyer. “I’m excited that we have the time to do more work on the property,” Miller said. The city of Cincinnati has been trying for eight years to get the owners to make necessary repairs to the house at 759 Delta Ave. After receiving numerous complaints from neighbors, the city issued a demolition order in April and a backhoe was on the property in June. City officials have asked Miller and Shrout to bring the house up to minimum building standards and repair downspouts, gutters, cornices and both the front and rear porch. The owners are working with the Cincinnati Preservation Association to save the house and have cleared much of the overgrown weeds in the yard and ivy covering the house. “I knew this house had some serious issues, we just didn’t know that the need was so dire,” said Margo Warminski, the agency’s preservation director. “Once this house is restored it can be a model to show people what you can do to take a rundown house and turn it around.” Miller and Shrout moved to the house in 1984 shortly after they were married and moved to Clermont County in 1999 after their second daughter was born. After leaving, the couple rented the house for a while, but financial and health issues overshadowed the property maintenance. “Between unemployment and battling (breast cancer), it was
Owner Pam Miller said they estimated the home at 759 Delta Ave. was built in 1863 because there was no date on the house when they bought it. After some research, Miller said they found out there was nothing on the property in 1860 and a brick house was there in 1865. Margo Warminski, preservation director of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, said the house appears in an 1869 atlas of Hamilton County and the first-known owner’s last name is Griffin. According to the Hamilton County Auditor, the house has a market value of $214,310. There are four bedrooms and two full bathrooms in the 2,560 square feet of finished space.
LISA WAKELAND/STAFF
Owner Pam Miller, right, and Margo Warminski of the Cincinnati Preservation Association at Miller's house at 759 Delta Ave. in Mt. Lookout. The city has given Miller and her husband Charles Shrout 90 days to clean up the property and find a buyer. Miller said “we really hard for us have no idea” to keep up,” More pictures what hapMiller said. To see a photo gallery of some of pened. “I did not the house’s features, go to www. Neighbor come down to Cincinnati.com/mountlookout and click Alex Keith, the property duron this story. whose propering that time ty abuts the period.” They had a maintenance group Delta Avenue home, said it has that was supposed to take care of been abandoned for more than the property and the house, but five years and is infested with rac-
coons that often cut through her yard. Keith said two years ago Shrout asked to use her yard as a ladder base to begin restoration of the house. She said he only replaced a part of the gutter and nothing else. Keith fears they will make minor repairs and disappear again. Miller said they are actively trying to sell the property and more than a dozen people have come to look at the house. “I just want it to go to somebody who can appreciate it,” she said. “We can’t afford to do what it needs right now.” Miller and Shrout are working to find contractors to fulfill the 13 requirements from the city to bring the house up to standard. Warminski said she wants the house to be restored and not be one of the many vacant buildings torn down by the city. “So many people cannot see beyond things like peeling paint and failing gutters,” Warminski said. “They see problems and think a house is hopeless and can’t be saved. This will show them otherwise.”
Restaurant remembered fondly By Rob Dowdy rdowdy@communitypress.com
Despite closing about two years ago, the Village Kitchen is still remembered by its owners as “a unique, neighborhood place.” The restaurant initially opened in downtown Mariemont in 1963. Owners Art and Maureen Plate said business soared, as local residents flocked to the restaurant known for its homestyle meals and friendly atmosphere. Art Plate said Village Kitchen was often a meeting place for patrons to discuss current events while sipping a cup of coffee. “When we were in downtown Mariemont that was the place to meet,” he said. It relocated in 2004 to Columbia Township at the corner of
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Wooster Pike and Walton Creek Road and maintained its charm and customer base. However, after about two years, the Plates decided to retire and sell the business. Village Kitchen was no more, and a new restaurant took its place. Randy Cooper, who owns the property Village Kitchen moved to in 2004, said the new owners changed the menu, the prices and the name when they took over. The results were less customers, and the restaurant closed its doors for good about one month ago. “They lost the loyalty and patronage of the Indian Hill, Mariemont and Terrace Park areas that supported the restaurant for many years,” Cooper said. Maureen Plate, who started the business more than 40 years
ROB DOWDY/STAFF
Village Kitchen, which originally opened in 1963 and moved to Columbia Township in 2004, was once a busy restaurant with a committed group of regular customers. The owners sold the restaurant, and the space is now vacant. ago with the help of her mother, said she’s “just heartbroken” that Village Kitchen is no longer the
“unique neighborhood place” it used to be. “It’ll be missed,” Cooper said.
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