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Wow, what a great thread. I lived in Bond Hill on Andina 1958 to 69. Bond Hill grade school, Woodward HS class of 1966. What a trip down memory lane. I'ts sad to drive down Reading Rd. now and see all the empty buildings. Thank you to all the people posting, jogging my memories of that time..
Another Reading Road legend passed away last year. Kalman Plotnick. He owned Plotnick Pharmacy on RR in Avondale, then in Golf Manor. Back to RR where he owned Sycamore Phcy and near the end of his career, he worked at Roselawn Phcy on RR.
While in da Nati for the holidays I got a chance to ride down Reading Rd from Galbraith to...Sugar n' Spice.
Not surprisingly, the streetscape all the way to Summit (which I've now taken to calling "Slummit," lol) was grim. The Drake Motel may have been shut down. But other than a rope or cable stretched across the driveway you'd hardly know it. At what remains of the Carrousel there was a for-sale sign with "2.2 acres" on it - not sure what that encompasses, but presumably the owners are looking to unload the place. The mention of the land area implies that they're pitching the property as a tear-down/redevelop possibility.
Meanwhile, most of the plastic panels of the old Frisch's sign have been smashed out. A large fleet of vehicles, many of them SUV's of varying sizes, is being stored on that lot. (There was nothing to indicate a dealership had been established there. So I don't know their provenance.) The landmark ugly red building which housed Vito's - now with the "t" largely obliterated from the lettering - is on the market. Past "Slummit" and the mostly vacant Valley Shopping Center all the "Blade Runner" scenery gave way to the leafy lovely Roselawn I like to go on about.
It wasn't news that the old Swifton was being demolished, but seeing it in person was something else entirely. It's quite the jolt when you see a place of that scale from your childhood vanishing. Some heavy equipment was chewing away at what little was left of the shopping plaza area when I rolled by. You now have an uninterrupted view of the outer line of drab "Dreesville" houses in the treeless development which went in to replace Swifton Village. It was encouraging to glance over at eastbound Seymour Ave and see retail life, though I doubt a store called "Urban G.E.A.R." would carry anything I'd wear.
Sugar n' Spice was the same fun and yummy experience as ever.
While in da Nati for the holidays I got a chance to ride down Reading Rd from Galbraith to...Sugar n' Spice.
Not surprisingly, the streetscape all the way to Summit (which I've now taken to calling "Slummit," lol) was grim. The Drake Motel may have been shut down. But other than a rope or cable stretched across the driveway you'd hardly know it. At what remains of the Carrousel there was a for-sale sign with "2.2 acres" on it - not sure what that encompasses, but presumably the owners are looking to unload the place. The mention of the land area implies that they're pitching the property as a tear-down/redevelop possibility.
Meanwhile, most of the plastic panels of the old Frisch's sign have been smashed out. A large fleet of vehicles, many of them SUV's of varying sizes, is being stored on that lot. (There was nothing to indicate a dealership had been established there. So I don't know their provenance.) The landmark ugly red building which housed Vito's - now with the "t" largely obliterated from the lettering - is on the market. Past "Slummit" and the mostly vacant Valley Shopping Center all the "Blade Runner" scenery gave way to the leafy lovely Roselawn I like to go on about.
It wasn't news that the old Swifton was being demolished, but seeing it in person was something else entirely. It's quite the jolt when you see a place of that scale from your childhood vanishing. Some heavy equipment was chewing away at what little was left of the shopping plaza area when I rolled by. You now have an uninterrupted view of the outer line of drab "Dreesville" houses in the treeless development which went in to replace Swifton Village. It was encouraging to glance over at eastbound Seymour Ave and see retail life, though I doubt a store called "Urban G.E.A.R." would carry anything I'd wear.
Sugar n' Spice was the same fun and yummy experience as ever.
I like your coments concerning the state of affairs along Reading Rd. I remember when the Drake motel was a going enterprise, let alone the Carousel. In my early work days, the Carousel was where we would put up our out of town customers. Also along that stretch of Reading Rd was Dick Porfidio's Wishing Well, a place you could always get a good meal.
I went to Swifton Center for several years to buy clothes at the Gentry Shop there. Then they opened a store in Kenwood at the intersection of Galbraith and Montgomery Rds, so much closer to me in Madeira.
Based on your most recent experience along the Reading Rd. corridor, how do you envision it avoiding further deterioration? Let's start with the basics, what is causing the deterioration to begin with?
As a child, I watched Swifton Shopping Center being built from my room. I was there the day they opened Rollmans and gave instructions on how to ride an escalator. Driving by now, makes me feel as old as I really am
I guess you know that the theater folded when multi-screen operations
opened and could draw bigger crowds with fewer operators on duty.
The seats were stripped out and the building became a Jewish School for
Girls, then a Bingo Hall and reception&dance hall that just barely had its
head above water until the bingo operators pulled out to move into empty
space in the Seymour Shopping Plaza, next to the Ritz Nightclub, across
from Woodwards old parking lot.
During an especially slow period, the Legacy (Valley Theater) operator rented the space out for a one-night "teen dance" that had way too many
people invited and when the fire department limit was reached, hundreds of kids milled around outside,drifting up and down Reading Rd. One kid
decided it was a good time to open fire on a couple of girls walking nearby, resulting in one dying just south of Northwood (I think) and setting off a panic "run for it" that also turned into an opportunity for
different school rivalries to bubble up. The first gunshots of this new
source of trouble caused Metro to pull all busses out of the neighborhood
so now the rest of the kids had no way to get out.
In small and large groups, these people were running and hiding behind
houses and expanding out through the neighborhood. Altogether I believe
that some 30+ shots were reported. On the order of some 75 law officers
showed up , blaring their sirens and blinking their lights to lend a disco effect to the event. Finally, Metro was called back in and the drivers were told to take the remaining kids "somewhere" to get them out of the area.
The death and resulting publicity crushed the Legacy as all the previously
arranged meetings, weddings, comedy shows, etc. began to cancel.
This was Christmas Eve, 2005, as I recall but I was in hospital at the
time so I missed the goodstuff.
Following that, after a period of sitting empty, a couple of new bars tried
to function there and gradually morphed into what is now " Celebrities".
(As a side note, the old projection room is still upstairs near the front but
it now looks outward into dead space created when the ceiling was lowered over the main theater. (I ate the last of the popcorn)
The Library was taken out of the Valley Shopping Center as arranged
by a political deal struck in 2001. The Library representative claimed that
they wanted to expand services to the much smaller Bond Hill branch
and there was no suitable building available. They also admitted to my
questioning, that they had never looked at or considered the old Bond
Hill Theater building just yards away. Since at the time I was acting
Chair of the Roselawn Business Association and working for and representing the owners of the Shopping Center who wanted to keep the Library there, I extended the offer (in public) that Roselawn would donate
some $200,000 for space modifications so the Library could grow in place
with minimal distrubance for themselves or patrons.
I was really concerned about this for several reasons. (a) Their plan did
not make economic sense, (b) we had many classrooms of kids who were
walked to and from the Library during the week, so many that I built
5 flower gardens for them to walk through and hopefully to begin gardening behind the Library where they entered and exited.(c) Roselawn
had some 500 Russian Jewish Immigrants who walked to the Library on
a frequent basis but who would be sitting ducks walking through the
new location arranged in the old Swifton, assuming they could walk the
extra distance, and (d)losing the Library seemed to me to be a deathknell
for the Shopping Center at a time when many local Council members were
trying to revive Roselawn as a "walkable community" in which to Live,Love,
Laugh, Work and Play.
Finally realizing that the "fix" was in, I ask that they at least name the
new facility the Bond Hill-Roselawn Public Library but the representative
of The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County said "hyphenated names just didn't work".
They did sort of imply that we would be "better served" by them taking
our Library away. (I'm still studying that)
I don't know how I missed this post. Moving the library was a dumb idea, but wasn't the beginning of the end of that center (after the death of of the Valley Theater) the move of Marx Bagels to Kenwood?
Next, Roselawn Pharmacy moved down the street to a new building.
Based on your most recent experience along the Reading Rd. corridor, how do you envision it avoiding further deterioration? Let's start with the basics, what is causing the deterioration to begin with?
This goes way back some four decades or more, starting with the panicked "White flight" out of Bond Hill which rendered Swifton an unsafe place to visit in perception if not reality. In those crazy times the academic quality at Woodward also suffered greatly. The student population, comprised in no small part of AA kids newly arrived in Bond Hill and from elsewhere and of the offspring of Carthage and Hartwell Appalachians, was a volatile mix. Swifton Village Elementary School (long gone) was for a time not only a "model of 'integration'" but also one of the better-quality institutions in the city. But that was destined to not last long, given the turbulent atmosphere and poor standing of the high school - to say nothing of the even worse Crest Hills Junior High (also now vanished.) More recently, we have a rebuilt Woodward now largely absent any student body diversity and still mired in the rankings cellar. The lone elementary school serving Roselawn (which includes "Condon" in its name in a nod to a school in Avondale CPS closed) fares no better in ratings or in the makeup of its pupils - of which at least 3/4 qualify for subsidized meals. Bond Hill Elementary, famously and lamentably relocated, is nothing to shout about either. At least two charter schools have already been shut down due to financial malfeasance and abysmal quality. One which has set up operations in the shuttered parochial elementary school, with the lofty title of "Cincinnati Leadership Academy," is also poorly regarded. So there goes a major incentive for young families to invest in a home in Bond Hill or Roselawn. Who in their right mind, given a choice, would send their offspring to a terrible school? One glimmer of hope lies in Pleasant Ridge Montessori - not far removed from those neighborhoods and with high parental involvement "not yet" reflected in academic ranking. But that means CPS, and along with that comes gaming the system to not only get your kid into her/his preferred school but then making sure they pass the entrance exam for SCPA or Walnut Hills (which are great.) Those willing to do this have plenty of appealing home options available to them in Pleasant Ridge itself as well as other, safer, communities.
Get past the academic conundrum and you still have crime to deal with. Now that the notorious nightspots with varying names prefaced by "Club," on Seymour - as well as Vito's - have gone under, the area's "shooting gallery" of choice seems to be Celeberties (sic) in the old Valley Shopping Center. The lines of crumbling brick-box apartment houses along "Slummit" and Eastlawn, as well as on some streets north of the former, continue to harbor low-life types. So do the remnants of the Carrousel, as does what's now known as the Sycamore Hotel. Not to mention the infamous Glenmeadow (aka Glenghetto) complex just west of the former Swifton. Plenty of miles are put in on police cruisers as their drivers respond to the latest homicide or seek to put a drug house out of business. Besieged residents of the three pockets of Roselawn that stay pleasant in the face of daunting odds have to contend with property crime that never completely disappears - everything from lawn ornament theft to garage break-ins to burglary. Ditto for the denizens of Bond Hill, where most of the side streets remain tree-lined and inviting to the eye as opposed to the sketchy-at-best appearance of Reading Rd. Speaking of which, as the "doorstep" to a neighborhood you could hardly find worse. Fast food franchises, auto parts dealers, hair/nail salons, and dollar stores are just about the only businesses punctuating deserted parking lots and vacant structures. An uneasy vibe permeates the street, helped little by the occasional slouching pedestrian. Here again: Some excellent properties, from structurally sound fixer-uppers to well-done renovations, are continually on the market at often unbelievable prices. But who, with school-aged kids or not, is eager to move into a house - however nice - where you have to exist nervously by day and in fear after dark?
What "Woes Lawn" and Bond Hill could use is something like a 3CDC with its financial and political clout. However, the same could be said for all too many other areas within the city limits, looking westward from nearby Carthage to Mt Airy, Westwood, and Price Hill. Crime is climbing, schools are declining, and residents with the funds and the choice are fleeing more often than not. Absent a large and noisy enough critical mass of concerned locals I don't foresee a change for the better any time soon.
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