Mid-century Reading Road (Cincinnati, Canton, Norwood: buyers, middle school, auction)

[goyguy]

Originally Posted by goyguy

All the paint and signage for Capri Pizza are still intact on that converted house behind Hartwell School, but the business is kaput.

The street-side sign in front of that house reads "Cosmic Pizza" as of my return trip to Cincy for Christmas! So it looks like Hartwellians don't have to go to a grocery freezer or call LaRosa's any more. But as a child of the '70s I have to wonder what goes into a Cosmic Pizza?
Speaking of 'za - and of Reading Rd - what's up with the area just outside the Roselawn LaRosa's, which appears to be their property? There's got to be a story behind why there are red and yellow palm tree sculptures on that patch of pavement. Seems more like something you'd see at a place called Cosmic...

[Gerri Ann]

Originally Posted by goyguy

The street-side sign in front of that house reads "Cosmic Pizza" as of my return trip to Cincy for Christmas! So it looks like Hartwellians don't have to go to a grocery freezer or call LaRosa's any more. But as a child of the '70s I have to wonder what goes into a Cosmic Pizza?
Speaking of 'za - and of Reading Rd - what's up with the area just outside the Roselawn LaRosa's, which appears to be their property? There's got to be a story behind why there are red and yellow palm tree sculptures on that patch of pavement. Seems more like something you'd see at a place called Cosmic...

So you were in town for Christmas and I did not get to meet you?? Goyguy you disappoint!!

[ED MOSER]

Joyce klein who formerly worked at the buccaneer and others is still in town and
works sometimes at lefty's edgemont tavern. Longview didn't quite make it to edgemont terrace, stopping even with ross avenue at it east edge. The only office
building i recall at section and reading was the roselawn center building, built about
1948-1949 at the same time as the valley shopping center. The southwest corner of
the longview property, straddling 66th street, led to a foot bridge over the miami
and erie canal, down into carthage so visitors from the city could ride streetcars
out to work or visit. The bridge stair case from the low side was torn down when 1-75 came through and laid up against the maketewah fence as late as 2001. Actual shutdown of operations of
longview was ordered in 1967 but the buildings stood for many years afterward and
several of the inmates lived there for lack of any other place to go. The old burial
ground lays down against the west side of glenmeadows dr. And is accessible by
a gate between the apartments.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by Gerri Ann

So you were in town for Christmas and I did not get to meet you?? Goyguy you disappoint!!

LaRosa's just rents their space here. The red and yellow palm trees are somebodys' idea of colorful decorations. Sorry but Roselawn ain't the place it used to be.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Agreed. I remember the building, particularly the pale green exterior wall with the red "Wishing Well" lettering and the well logo at the Galbraith/Reading corner. The neon sign must've come down before sticking in my mind.
That's quite the treasure trove of post cards. From that site, I learned the name of the drive-in restaurant down the road a piece in Roselawn which is still standing: Webbie's. I don't recall that place's having been brought up in this discussion. It may not have lasted long in competition with Frisch's, which incidentally was originallyconsidered a "Mainliner" - as I'd thought - according to the site.
Businesses in the RR corridor may have changed over the years, but the buildings and signs had been constructed to last. When Udipi (now known as Amma's Kitchen) moved in where the Fortune Kookie had been, the owners left the sign in place on its stout black pole. They had plain white plastic panels put in to replace the Chinese restaurant's red-lettered yellow ones, and posted their own sign below them. Next door at what I now know was once Webbie's, the sturdy sign remains complete with the big arrow which wraps around the bottom and the right side (though the bulbs inside it have probably burned out.) The sign itself has been painted black, with "Phat Daddy's" inscribed in big white block letters. I have my doubts that the current establishment features uniformed carhops wearing roller skates, lol.
Another interesting post card relevant to RR was that of the La Ronde's cocktail lounge. I have zero recollection of the elaborate merry-go-round sculpture in the middle of the room. Then again, the lounge probably was separate from the restaurant, and the fact that my teetotaling parents would've passed it up when we went to the Carousel for the occasional occasion dinner would explain my absence of recall.
Thumbs up, way way up, to Gerri Ann for the link!

Before there was a Webbies, it was Carters Hamburgers with covered
parking slots around the building, I think.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by goyguy

Something tells me that's the retail strip (with apartments above) which is on the realtors' Web sites lately: 7604 Reading Rd.

That should be "north" of Chili Time to get to the Why Not club. The
apartments mentioned used to be "behind and above", maybe 100' long
or so, with several rows of small metal shops behind them until at the very
end was Jimmy Batts automotive shop, mentioned by another poster.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by Gerri Ann

OMG - Ron's was my true hangout! I really was the yougest one there - for once just not fudging on age! But I was underage and drank right next to the liquor agents! Since Mom owned the Well, they knew me anyway. The last time I was in there was in the mid 80's. But from 1974 til 1979, it was like a second home. And I made friends there with people who were so protective of me and in my life until they moved on to that great "hunt Club in the sky"! It was just south of the Valley Shopping Center. You could enter Ron's parking lot from the Valley parking lot, or there was a side street just to the south of Ron's that you could enter from. It was in the same building as Gladys Fuller's hair salon - Gladys owned the hair salon on the first floor and Ron's was owned by Gladys' husband Ron and it was in the basement. One thing that was pretty cool about it was that there was a hand painted picture on one whole wall of people who had come in from the Old English hunt in their riding attire and their hunting dogs - and they were all drinking in the painting. It was sold to a "men's club" and then there was a fire and then it was razed to the ground. That was sometime in the late 90's. Oh but what a time we all had there through the years!

The building was originally called the Roselawn Tavern Building and housed
a pharmacy on the first floor alongside the restraurant, which was above
Ron's. The second floor had a dentist, insurance agent and one other.
Glady's had a rear entrance and there was a second floor balcony across
the back with a staircase leading down to the parking area. Many of the
men who used to hang out there are still around and Joyce Klein a bar
maid during the late 80's early 90's visits Lefty's on thursdays (nail day)
or works as a subsitute bar maid (now at age 75)

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by soozycue520

My step-dad used to go there, back in the day. If you were looking at the Valley Shopping Center, it was on the left side of the parking lot. It caught on fire, which I thought was why it finally closed. In it's place today is a {I believe} National City Bank.

No, not a bank. It's a new pharmacy, which moved out of the shopping center after many years. And the fire. happened in 3 places at once,
I understand, so the insurance never paid off. The land belonged to the
shopping center and was sold off. Originally, the whole place had been a
plant nursery and is shown on a bicentennial plaque in front of La BullBoxer31'.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by blockhead

What is interesting to me is that many of us who follow this thread no longer appear live in Cincy. Maybe there's a reason for that...Sure is great to recall all the old haunts and stories

The reason for you not living here is that you moved away. That is exactly what is preventing a revival, folks moving out and the new folks
not feeling attached. And so it goes.

[ED MOSER]

Originally Posted by soozycue520

Yes, the big destruction was in Saylor Park & Xenia, but there were numerous tornados that day, and the one near Roselawn went through Arlington Heights to Mason. I remember minor damage to Valley Shopping Center {some storefront windows broken}.



From Hamilton County Tornadoes, 1950-2003

"Moved northeast from Elmwood Place (north of Cincinnati), through Reading, Sharonville and Pigsah. The tornado lifted about four miles north of Mason. The two deaths occurred in Warren County. This tornado came from the same storm that produced the F5 Sayler Park tornado."

From Super Outbreak - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Mason tornado, which started in the northern Cincinnati subdivisions of Arlington Heights and Elmwood Place, was rated F4 and killed two..."

The 74 tornado tore out the trees in front and back of my house in
Edgemont but took only a single shingle from the roof.