Items Found in Vacant Building

Inside every vacant building are hundreds of stories. This particular building was last occupied/owned 10 years ago by an old man and his brother. Neighbors told me that in the end the last brother was sleeping in his car, because there were too many rats in the building. After he died, no one entered the building for years. His niece, who never entered the building because of the stench, sold it a few months ago. The basement was filled a foot deep with raw sewage. And if you go back in the City Directories, you can see the names of people that lived here and sometimes what their profession was. Anyway, I like to post these things for the record. Sometimes years after I post a photo like those below, someone will google a name and find it and send me a message saying they always wanted to find a photo of such and such... So here is some detritus found this weekend:

5 gallon, glazed clay crock with label of G. Gennert found in crawlspace. The Gottlieb Gennert Co. was a camera and photography supplies manufacturer in operation from 1869-1921 in NY. City Directory at the library shows that 100 years ago a photographer had his shop at the building where this was found:

Found amongst the debris was this customized notepad from Greg Spring a man who demolished lots of buildings in OTR, 20 years ago.. Check out the logo of a Trackhoe chomping into a seemingly occupied house...

Futuristic model car, box misprinted

A beautiful woman, "Itche Hogue"? (written on back)

1986 "Rita and Baby"...

"with love, your sister"

fountain square with Carew Tower in backround (and whatever the building was at the SE corner of Vine and 5th in the 70s)

A teenager's journal entry from 1999

second journal entry

And lastly, found in the attic:

Todd Oneal is a good man. Maybe he should run again..

5K House Patching Floors

I’ve written on this blog  a few times about how to repair old wood floors.  I have not done a very good job of it in my house, and I am always looking for help in this area.  So, I see that Mark, at 5kCincy has a good video of how he repairs old wood floors.  I found it helpful:

And check out his whole blog.  He has done a beautiful job restoring a house in Camp Washington over the past year.  Really an amazing job, an inspiration.  He is a skilled craftsman, and not everyone could replicate his quality, but I really think it is helpful for people to see step by step, how to buy a house for $5,000 and then transform it.

See his first post from last January here.

Ehrlich Shoes 1600 Main

1986:

2009:

Close up of Ehrlich's shoes sign:

[Where: 1600 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202] nec Liberty and Main

I originally made this blog post in August 2009. Over past few years I have been contacted by people who used to shop here, and by the Ehrlich family. Below is a great picture sent in by the family. In the photo is Emil and Otto Ehrlich in July 1943. The photo was sent in by Otto's son, Ron. If you click on the photos you can get a larger view. I really like that the tile and storefront are the same now as 1943, not like the 1986 photo I took. I also like that in the glass you can see reflections of lots of old buildings.  Thanks Ron for the great photo.

 

It Floods Often on Wheeling Island

and retail in the town proper is suffering

fascinating place

Photos from another Walk

Scene on lower Ohio Avenue, in OTR
 

if you want to buy one of the junkiest buildings in the city, call this number.
 

[where: 2012 Ohio Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Interesting pink building, I think for sale
 

[1808 Republic Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

steps from Ohio, Van Lear to Vine
 

exploring
 

Anton and George Zimmerman, 1883
 

Once the corner of Poplar and Buckeye, now the corner of Frintz and E. Clifton
 

Frintz was Poplar 

short little basement entry
 

Buck Rogers type lintels
 

Believe it or not, this beauty is on Peete Street
 

The lower half
 

[where: 102 Peete Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Old Phone and Old Light Switch

 

[where: 1305 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

1833 Sycamore

Peeking in Keyhole
 

Condemnation Orders
 

shattered
 

Southside
 

Frayed Window Ropes

Time to make some repairs:
 

417 Hopkins

While riding bikes with my son Sunday, I noticed this building in the West End that I had never noticed before. It caught my eye, because it is a very nice stone building that is obviously divided between two owners. It is in the Betts Longworth area, in a strange cul-de-sac that was created long ago when the streets were re-configured during some urban renewal program.
 

Curious, I looked up the ownership, and found that the building is actually made up of two 16 foot wide lots. That is a pretty skinny lot. The right side has a long history of solid ownership and slowly rising value, and that the left side has passed from one absentee owner to another for years.

That might be the end of the story, except that I did notice one funny blip in the ownership history. In September 2001, Jackie Shropshire sold this vacant half to Jeffrey D. Blovits for $98,000! A few years later is was sold for $5,000 and then later for $1,000! Googling Shropshire, I came up with the fact that she was part of the Black United Front, which was a political organization prominent during the 2001 riots. Then I googled Blovits and found this (tragic / comedic) description of himself written before the mortgage meltdown:

Jeff Blovits is the branch manager of the Westerville Franklin Bank, a mortgage franchise location of the publically traded ssb out of Texas. Jeff has been in the financial services industry for 12 years as bank manager, underwriter, and mortgage lender. His innovative mortgage planning concepts are paving the way for countless clients to improve their financial lives.

I wonder who wrote the appraisal for that $98,000 loan.

Storm Hits Race Street

Uprooted street tree
 

Roof and masonry wall blown off above 3CDC's new offices. This renovation was just completed and the damage looks pretty severe. The roof structure was old, but parts of the 4th floor were removed to make lofts and the structure altered in the renovation. There was insulation all over Republic Street, and it looked like a lot of water got in and reached the occupied areas on the first floor. I'm sure someone will have better photos.
 

Lots of slate was blown off Nast Trinity Church, it was all over the sidewalk
 

Old Addresses

In the 1890s the street numbering system in Cincinnati was changed. An ordinance was passed in 1891, but the implementation seems to have taken at least half of the decade. In the old method, addresses started at 1 on a street and just went up one number at a time, one for each building. In 1891 Council passed a resolution requiring that each lot or each 25 feet be designated a number, and that the numbering start at even 100s at each cross street. In the photo below, you can see that 1424 Republic Street was once 110 Republic Street. ...Except back then it was Bremen Street, but you get the idea:

1895 addresses on Bremen Street

By 1900 the addresses were much simpler:

Renumbering of the City notice in the 1895 Directory (click to enlarge if you want to read):

A Great Storefront

I love how this storefront is designed to allow viewing of displays on 3 sides, and I like the original brass moldings. Too bad the displays are empty...
 

[where: 1223 Main Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]
Mary Magdalen House

also good 

Where Is This

Can anyone guess where this building with guy doing a squat-thrust is?
 

Hint: It is in the second best neighborhood in the City...

UPDATE:
OK, I guess that was too hard. This is the Cincinnati Bell Building (ca: 1924) at the Northwest Corner of Hamilton and Westmoreland in Northside.


[where: 4331 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, 45223]

Paints - Ghost Sign

This building now houses Legal Aide offices. I wonder what hardware store was once here. Aufdemkampe?

[Where: 215-217 East Ninth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Best Tin Ceiling in OTR

During the tour of homes a week ago, we got a peek into the first floor storefront of a building on Vine Street, just north of 14th which has a fantastic metal ceiling:

Here is a picture from last year of the outside. When it was the Red Horse Saloon in the 80s, it had a flat drop ceiling covering the tin:

Because of the layout, this building will not have apartments or condos, but will be a fantastic, 3-story commercial retail space.

[Where: 1411 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]