Beautiful Cincinatti Homes (Cincinnati, Springfield, Norwood: apartment complexes, day care, how much)

[Bigbluelandrover]

I love homes and architecture and wanted to know where some of your favorite houses are in Cincinnati -in city limits please.
Since I moved away I appreciate the mansion on Belmont Ave in College Hill,there are many beautiful homes there. The gaslight district in Clifton, also near Cincy State, East Walnut Hills, Hyde Park,Mt Adams,Mt Lookout-the painted ladies. So many! That is what I miss about Cincy.

[Bigbluelandrover]

Title-Cincinnati
Why I spelled it wrong I have no idea-a lot on the mind I suppose.

[goyguy]

I could wander around Rose Hill Ave for days gawking at those North Avondale mansions, then hold my nose and close my eyes crossing Reading Rd and spend some more days house-lusting on and near Lenox Place.
Westwood seems to be in the public consciousness a lot more for its glut of cheesy '60s and '70s apartment complexes which have turned into subsidized dens of iniquity, than for the gorgeous Tudors tucked in among the brick-box apartment buildings on Boudinot...the unremarkable yet classic pre-WWII streets like Hanna Ave...enclaves from still earlier times such as Urwiler and Epworth Ave's or Homestead Place...the few estate houses which escaped subdividers and the wrecking ball...I could go on.
Folks love to bad-mouth Bond Hill and Roselawn because - quickly, violently, and radically in the case of the former and more gradually but no less decisively in the case of the latter - one population was succeeded by another. The houses and apartment buildings along Reading Rd didn't look so bad when I drove along the stretch from Summit all the way to Clinton Springs a few weeks ago. But for the most part, aside from the big brick retail/restaurant/office building that occupies the Reading/Section/Brookcrest block the commercial areas looked like H E double L. Similarly, along Paddock Rd there was one abandoned gas station after another, the bank at the corner of California Ave had been turned into a day care center, and storefronts stood vacant. The decaying business districts detracted from all the attractive residential side streets: Rosecliff, Towanda Terrace, Berkeley Ave, the list goes on. Here as in goodly portions of Westwood, there's no architecture that screams "look at meeeeee." But the sprawling Tudors and comfy Capes and big brick two-families - complete with wide porches - look mighty fine on their manicured lawns amid careful landscaping. There's clearly no less pride in ownership now than when the owners mostly had paler complexions.
"What she said" about Clifton (Lafayette Ave rules), eastern Walnut Hills (Lord, what folks used to make out of wood, stone, and/or brick) and along Grandin Rd and all through "Hype Park" and Mt Lookout.
Anybody who dismisses Hartwell as the hillbilly haven it gained a rep for being during the Sixties hasn't been there lately. While some streets like DeCamp and Ridgeway are still raggedy, the section between the two rail lines with Lockland to the north and Galbraith Rd to the south has been getting spruced up in a major way. Turn-of-the-20th-century homes with exterior details intact are getting makeovers to bring them back from decades of being carved up into boarding houses. The adjoining area south of Galbraith has gotten a head start on that process. Closer to Vine St, block after block of bungalows and Capes with the occasional Tudor or four-square Colonial mixed in are looking none the worse for wear and some demographic shifts.
(If you read this, Hartwell Girl...I know that Ridgeway Ave is technically part of Springfield Township and not Cincinnati. But "everybody" places it in Hartwell.)
A house doesn't have to be distinctive to be desirable. While a pile o' bricks on Dakota Ave or a Victorian on Annwood or a stone castle near Mt Storm Park may fire my imagination, I'd be no less content calling - say - the mammoth Tudor on Regent Ave at Paddock Rd my own (after painting over the pink stucco, LOL.) And there are scads of Arts & Crafts bungalows from Price Hill to Kennedy Hts and in most neighborhoods in between that I'd be happy to hold the keys to.

[Crew Chief]

Wonderful post, Goyguy! we've hardly ever been off of the interstates inside of I-275, but your post makes me want to jump in the ol' pickup and tour around Cincinnati right now! We weren't born here, but we got here as fast as we could! I'd even like to see more of Oakley besides the retail mess I deliver in!

[goyguy]

Speaking of delivering, Oakley definitely does that in the departments of front-porched brick duplexes + Arts & Crafts bungalows + classic brick-box 4-families It's yet another one of those communities that Architectural Digest never visits but has lotsa cool dwellings along mellow tree-lined streets. Next time you're there, stop by Aglamesis Bros for a sugar rush from their house-made ice cream and candy. 'tain't Graeter's, but neither is it UDF. Just be sure to save room for take-out from the Blue Gibbon, not that anybody can polish off one of their meals in a single sitting anyway

[Bigbluelandrover]

My dad worked in Oakley for nearly 40 years. It has gone from a humble somewhat applachian community to being Hyde Park Jr. He worked on Appleton. The west side has many beautiful homes along with Pleasant Ridge on the east and Clifton Heights south of UC has some nice brick homes overlooking the city.
Hartwell is slept on and the area north of Wyoming-is that the village of Evendale?

[wilson1010]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Speaking of delivering, Oakley definitely does that in the departments of front-porched brick duplexes + Arts & Crafts bungalows + classic brick-box 4-families It's yet another one of those communities that Architectural Digest never visits but has lotsa cool dwellings along mellow tree-lined streets. Next time you're there, stop by Aglamesis Bros for a sugar rush from their house-made ice cream and candy. 'tain't Graeter's, but neither is it UDF. Just be sure to save room for take-out from the Blue Gibbon, not that anybody can polish off one of their meals in a single sitting anyway

Oh, where to start?


First, Aglamesis is better than Graeters unless you are having a vanilla cone. Its not just the Italian ices, their mint chocolate is better than anything scooped at Graeters. Other than the French Custard vanilla, Graeters is simply Breyers out of the box.

Oakley is indeed experiencing an incredible surge of yuppiedom. There are BMW's all over the place. And trendy restaurants. But as for charm? Not there. Oh, you might find a house or two that was actually designed and not just built out of a kit (some call them Arts and Crafts, Sears called them houses in a box when they were sold by mail order). I guess that Millsbrae has a few houses that were actually designed and built. But, the good ones in Oakley are few and far between. There is more quality housing on Stetinius Ave. in Hyde Park than on every street in all of Oakley.

Norwood has 10 times the number of quality houses that Oakley does. And, everyone knows how much I love Norwood.

I have to agree about the Blue Gibbon (which is a long way from Oakley). I used to have lunch there about once a week and a normal person can finish a lunch portion, but dinner? That for the major leaguers.

[goyguy]

BBLR set "within the city limits" as a parameter for house enviers, but since Norwood is entirely surrounded by Cincinnati you'll get a pass on that one.
Everybody I've known who lives in a "Sears house" owns what's termed a "four-square colonial" - wood-framed, two-storied, a house-width front porch, etc. The rooms are amply proportioned; you could host a dance party in the LR! That bungalows also could be bought from the famous catalogue is news to me. Somehow I can't imagine purchasing an entire dwelling at Home Depot.
Maybe more folks aren't chiming in here b/c all the "qualified" neighborhoods have been named (along with at least two that I know everyone's not in accord with me about.) If so, I'll take the blame.

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by Bigbluelandrover

... the area north of Wyoming-is that the village of Evendale?

The next municipality to the north along Route 4 is Woodlawn, followed by Glendale, with Springdale next in line. Evendale's situated to the east of Woodlawn, between Sharonville and Reading.
Just a point of info since we're talking about dream houses w/in the Cincy boundaries

[flash3780]

Prospect Hill historic district. Milton St, Boat St, & Liberty Hill