Mid-century Reading Road (Cincinnati, Avon, Deer Park: insurance, movies, college)

[goyguy]

Reading Rd in Avondale and on into "town," much like Vine St in Carthage, used to be one of the places to shop for a new car too. Bennett Ford and Hocks Buick are the dealers whose names stick in my brain after all this time.
The unmistakable yellow brick Sears store was where my dad moonlighted while working at P & G in the late '50s. I went there some as a kid, but can only remember the big concrete pillars that fanned out at the ceiling. Then again, what's memorable about a Sears store anyway? It was more fun "shopping" in the catalogue. lol The building was still a Sears store after all the troubles in the neighborhood came to a head, but not for very long. UC owns the property and uses it for storage and its maintenance-crew headquarters now.
Pizza ovens are turning out pies at the Valley Shopping Center to this day, at a LaRosa's which is in the north end of the plaza by the street.

[fhiudt]

As I remember it some of the shops there were: the movie theater, Noimam's drug store, there was a 5 and dime later the library and then a linen shop. Berconi's was the pizza palor. Later an extra building was added. Tillie Niebalsky had a resturant there. My uncle set up a demo later for the Amberacres condos. I recall a barber shop and woman's clothes shop too. At the drug store when I attended Roselawn school you could get a hot dog and coke for fifteen cents. You would race other there for lunch and if all the seats at the fountain were taken you would stand behind someone and wait for them to finish. There were offices for rent upstairs, I knew of a car insurance company: Fishel or something like that. I also think Center Cab was located behind the shopping center.

[wilson1010]

Speaking of Roselawn, does anyone remember if the Essex was actually a "hotel?"

[MiddleCincinnati]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

Speaking of Roselawn, does anyone remember if the Essex was actually a "hotel?"

The building that went up in the mid-1960's was an apartment
house from the get-go. I cannot recall what preceded it, though
Very early in the thread, though, someone remembered that a
welding shop was on that site before apartments went up.

[MiddleCincinnati]

Originally Posted by fhiudt

As I remember it some of the shops there were: ...

In the early 1970's there was a business in the easternmost strorefront selling soft-serve ice cream with mix-and-match toppings. It did not last very long.

I can recall a beauty shop from the early 1960's, as well as an S&L.

[blockhead]

Berconi's..now I remember that pizza place.

Fhiudt--what were the Amberacres condos? In high school I lived in an apartment on Amberacres Dr, off Section Rd, near Silverton. I think I wrote this before, but I went to school with a girl named Cindy Hiudt. Any relation?

[fhiudt]

my uncle was the builder and original owner of the Essex house. I will contact him and ask what was there before he built it as I do not remember. The family that bought Berconi's after Bert Cohen started it was the
Schwartz's. I was just visited by their son who ran it too a few months ago and have turned him on to this tread. But the Essex house was always an apartment building. The condos at Amberacres were built behind the apartments on Section rd and at the end of Amberacres drive. They were developed by the same uncle who built the Essex house.

[MiddleCincinnati]

Originally Posted by wilson1010

I guess most of this thread has to do with Reading Road north of Clinton Springs. In the 50's there was a thriving neighborhood of black owned businesses in the area south of Clinton Springs all the way down to the Sears store which was then at Lincoln and Reading.

It wasn't by design - I think it's more a function of who is contributing to the thread. Besides the Alms Hotel and Cabana Club, somewhere near Wm. Howard Taft and the Sears, mentioned several times, it's true that there hasn't been much contributed.

There was a supermarket somewhere near Reading and Rockdale - most likely a Kroger's. Frisch's had a commissary at Lincoln and Stanton. It would be great if people could say more about the area.

[soozycue520]

I don't know if it was mentioned, but there was a Red Barn restaurant on the corner of Reading & Lincoln, across from Sears.

YouTube - The Red Barn

It's now a cell phone place.

I work {and live} not far from this area, and there is a building I am curious about. I remember it being there when I was a kid, but don't remember what it used to be. The building is still standing, vacant. It is a one story building with a sign that has 5 white diamond shaped things.

3025{?} Reading Rd.
If you put in 3023 or 3025 Reading Rd. Cincinnati, OH on Google Maps & hit street level, you can see the building.
http://maps.google.com/maps

Anybody remember what this used to be?

[goyguy]

I'm curious to know the names of some of the synagogues which were on and all around Reading Rd at one time. Many of them, from Avondale all the way to Roselawn, are still being used as houses of worship by AA congregations (as is no less than the old Swifton Shopping Center.) Four come to mind as I write:

A humongous, pillared building with a broad and long expanse of steps leading from the sidewalk on Reading Rd at Rockdale Ave. This imposing edifice now bears a "Southern Baptist Church" sign above the front doors.

A smaller, gray stone structure still bearing Hebrew inscriptions, at the southwest corner of Reading and North Crescent Ave (now called North Fred Shuttlesworth Circle.) A Pentecostal congregation uses it on Sundays now.

A brick building with large, multipaned windows incorporating Stars of David, situated on the west side of Reading Rd not far north of Seymour Ave. It's doing religious business as the Tryed (sic) Stone Baptist Church today.

A low-slung 1950's structure (roof sloping upward from back to front, row of windows along the eaves, mostly stone facade.) This one's located on Summit Rd, with its distinctive exterior feature being a large mosaic of a menorah which has had a gold cross superimposed on top. Clever or ugly, you decide. The "houses of worship" link from the roselawn.org home page carries a photo if memory-jogging's needed.

Although abandoned in favor of Amberley Village during the '60s, Rockdale Temple stayed standing along its namesake street well into the next decade before being demolished. Its solid construction and heavy pillars made it seem like it belonged there and wasn't going anywhere. But it turned out that the Old Testament quotation "...mine shall be a house of prayer for all people" carved across the top of the pillars went for naught. To this day I can still picture it looming over the Rockdale/Washington intersection, on the southeast corner, where there's now merely a park. Lots of parks in Avondale now, ahem.