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I probably was one of the first to even cross the mound of dirt before construction of Swifton Shopping Center. I believe the Swift family mansion was there before it was torn down to build the center. I was only 4 at the time. That was in 1954. !
Perhaps I or my younger brother knew you, MMZ. In 1952 we lived in the second apartment building constructed in Swifton Village, well before the shopping center was built. The house you refer to was not the "Swift family mansion;" I don't recall its name (although "estate" was part of its customary designation at the time). Until its developer (Jonathan Woodner Company) demolished it for the shopping center, I played in it with the few other children who had just arrived in the nascent apartment complex. It was a remarkable wood-framed Victorian structure with many grand rooms, all ornately detailed. I recall porcelain sinks with delicate floral motifs, carved woodwork, and high ceilings with elaborate plasterwork and painted garlands. Its numerous outbuildings were clearly agricultural in function, and its cellar was filled with (still edible) home-canned preserves and vegetables, as if only recently deserted. Roughly coterminous with its demolition, work began across the road on Woodward High School. It, along with the shopping center and apartment complex, occupied land that until recently had been open farmland. Indeed, an abandoned old barn and vineyard still occupied the area immediately north of our Rhode Island Avenue apartment building.
But if the planners of the Swifton Shopping Center had hoped to center their project in prosperous, growing suburbs, they were somewhat off their mark. For years the most prominent signage to greet visitors to Swifton Village were those announcing the availability of low-rent apartments ('one-bedroom starting at $48/month, two-bedroom starting at $62/month...."}. That the apartments themselves soon acquired a reputation for shoddy construction and maintenance undoubtedly didn't improve tenancy rates (nor did a frequently unresponsive management), but the upshot was that the tenants formed a rather transient community, with high rates of turnover in the apartments. I suspect that relatively few residents had moved in with long-term rental plans in mind. (A 2002 article from The Cincinnati Enquirer, archived online as Complex was troubled from beginning , alludes to some of the early difficulties in management of the project.)
In retrospect, its location strikes me as a somewhat inauspicious siting for a major suburban shopping center (notwithstanding the recent completion nearby of the Valley and the Roselawn Shopping Centers). It must be remembered that the principle demographic pressures on the area at the time the Swifton project was begun were quite different from those shaping the growth of the northern unincorporated suburbs in later decades (colloquially but accurately termed white flight); rather, the need for low-cost housing for young families in these postwar years seemed to drive residential development in much of this area between the established communities of Bond Hill and Roselawn. Bond Hill was already built out during the prewar years and by 1952 was a mature neighborhood of primarily single-family residences. Less densely-settled Roselawn, to the north, accommodated further development, but builders found it to their greater advantage to supply the growing demand for single-family residences than to build appreciably more affordable multifamily dwellings. Indeed, the Veteran's Administration had planted a dense but temporary warren of small dwellings for returned GIs nearby, on Seymour Avenue near what was to become Woodward High School. These low-rent houses, which looked like recycled married-non-com quarters from a military post, provided Swifton Village many of its earliest tenants. Apart from these and the apartments of Colonial Village, a smaller apartment development off Seymour Avenue, the Swifton Village project was in a fairly low density residential area at the time. Neighboring tracts were occupied by Maketewah Country Club to the southwest and by Crest Hills Country Club immediately to the north, while bordering the complex was the newly-built Cincinnati Gardens, a civic center so underutilized that large sections of its vast parking lots had been leased by Fisher Body for Chevrolets awaiting shipment. It's notable that the first children to live in Swifton Village were sent to Carthage (and earliest on, Mary Dill) Elementary School, there being none closer to their homes.
What of the shopping center itself? There were attractive stores there, to be sure. Rollman's was perhaps the first of the established downtown department stores to launch a satellite from the city hub, and it offered considerable cachet as the anchor store for the complex. At the same time, it seemed a store appealing more to older consumers (I counted on its limitless stock of hand-rolled hankerchiefs for my grandmother's birthday presents) and rather less to trendier shoppers. The Colony restaurant was another migrant from downtown, one that I remember being much favored by shopping parties of mothers and their mothers or children. And later, when fashion moved beyond cowboy shirts, Max's Gentry Shop was a desireable source of gear for preppy young men. The other tenants are well recalled in others' contributions to this thread, and while some were more upscale and others less so, their mix strikes me still as about what one might expect in any suburban shopping center of the period.
Despite the relative affluence represented in development of the next tier of northern suburbs (Roselawn, Golf Manor, Amberley Village), the emergent residential profile of Swifton Village undoubtedly influenced the shopping center adversely. It hardly wants comment that, apart from their commercial aspect, shopping centers also serve a significant social role in the community life, and surely in this Swifton Shopping Center was no different in becoming a gathering place for local adolescents. Many of the congregants were from Woodward High School, across the street, as well as from Swifton Village itself. The disjunction arising between boisterous teenagers who regarded the space as their own and interloping shoppers occasionally led to overt conflict. Pasquale's Pizza was a favored hangout (especially in the evening) for older local teens, and sometimes the venue for minor dustups. (I myself held forth in the parking lot outside on two occasions, but this is another story altogether.) Infrequently, though, did the tension surpass the level of mutual glowering. That management was aware of the discord was evident in the security guards who roamed the Center, especially in the afternoon and evening, riding herd on those youngsters they regarded as potentially disruptive. This included especially Levi-clad young men affecting James Dean personas, with ducktails and cigarettes behind the ear. Plainly the security people preferred the look of aspiring Ivy Leaguers, to whom they typically gave a pass.
I left Swifton Village when my family moved to a more affluent neighborhood; after completing high school in 1960 I rarely revisited the area. Thus my description recounts only the earliest years of the Swifton complex as witnessed first by a young boy and interpreted later by an old man. Your mileage undoubtedly differs.
Last edited by Korey; 12-01-2007 at 07:11 AM..
Reason: url not correctly embedded in text
I left Swifton Village when my family moved to a more affluent neighborhood; after completing high school in 1960 I rarely revisited the area. Thus my description recounts only the earliest years of the Swifton complex as witnessed first by a young boy and interpreted later by an old man. Your mileage undoubtedly differs.
You offer a very poignant account of the changes taking place in
Cincinnati in the 1950's and the challenges presented to the developers
of the new mall, as well as an interesting personal perspective on the
mall itself. In fact, I would not mind hearing more about the parking-lot
standoffs.
It may be that the chief appeal of this site was its central location. Say
what you like about Swifton Village and the undeveloped stretches of
Seymour, the mall was easily accessible from prosperous Bond Hill,
North Avondale and Amberly, as well as less well-heeled Norwood,
Carthage and Elmwood Place. The Mill Creek Expressway, even prior
to its extension as I-75, offered access from more remote parts of
the city.
It was not until the early 1960's, with the construction of I-75 and I-275,
that easy access would emerge to the truly vast undeveloped areas soon
to host TriCounty and other regional malls The introduction of the
automobile-oriented malls and supermalls, with their proximity to the
newly-built suburbs, had to await construction of highways.
I grew up in Swifton Village 1956 to 1960. Went to Swifton Center all the time there was a barber on lower level. Uncle Al used to appear there. There was a Librel Supermarket sometime in the 60"s. Went to swifton Primary school when it was new. Moved to Philadelphia in 1960. Live in Harrison O. now.
Seems like just about all the bases have been touched with regard to the stores in Swifton Center. There was a Suburban Federal Savings & Loan
around Kroger's and the cafeteria.
I spent a number of classroom hours at Woodward giving more attention to the leveling of the ground and subsequent construction than to the academic tasks at hand. Previous posts have referred to the mansion (which sat on the hill overlooking the northeast corner of Langdon Farm and Reading. It may have been mansion-sized but it looked more like an old farm house that was not well maintained, at least on the outside.
To suggest that building Swifton Center was overkill for the surrounding populace at that time if off base. First, the Valley Shopping Center was the minor leagues compared to Swifton. When it was constructed, Swifton was either the second or third largest shopping center in thecountry. Secondly, look north to the Valley Shopping Center and beyond. That portion of Reading Road between Summit Road and Galbraith Road, with its array of motels and restaurants was referred to as "the million dollar mile." I guess a case could be made that it extended south on Reading to Section Road to include the Valley Shopping Center and the restaurants near it.
As for Swifton Village, it wasn't exactly Section 8 housing when it was built. I knew of young professionals who lived there until they could afford a house and during the season a number of Reds players lived in Swifton. I know this was back in the day when they had to work off-season jobs to make ends meet. I guess the price was right or maybe they weren't tied to a lease. I would think the club would've steered them away if it was as bad as a previous poster suggested. In any event, let's not confuse l950s Swifton Village with the West End or Eighth & State.
I never lived in Cincinnati, but in Wilmington. I still can recall my mom and her best friends, sisters (a Lutheran family from Minnesota) taking us girls (there were 4 of us) down to Swifton Mall for a day of shopping and pizza. It was real city sophistication for us. I was born in 1954. I remember Pasquales, and G.C. Murphy's because I think later a Murphy's was opened in Wilmington, a smaller one. Of course I recall the other department stores as well.
That was back when my mom always wore matching shoes and a handbag, a beautiful deep emerald boucle circle coat that set off her brown wavy hair and a hat and gloves to church. She and I still look at the "retro sixties" fashions that came back, and laugh about all her lovely clothes, which styles now my daughter now loves.
My best friend in high school came from a family that owned Tischbein's drugstore in downtown Cincinnati.
Wow! I am really amazed at all of these postings about Swifton Village and Swifton Center -- and the memories they bring back to me. I lived in Swifton Village from 1955 - 58, attended Carthage Elementary (4th - 6th grade), caddied at Crest Hills, played ball at Roselawn Park, saw Gene Autry and the Harlem Globetrotters at the Cincinnati Gardens, was a member of Boy Scout troop 355 in Bond Hill -- and yes! there was a Pony Keg. It was on Seymore Avenue just down from the Gardens, and across Seymore from Sam Hern's Boat yard and Robert Hall's mens clothing store. Oh I could go on and on (like the time I got caught swiping candybars and squirt guns out of Walgreens and the time my friend and I played hooky from school and spent our lunch money at the White Castle in Bond Hill) If any of you would like to further discuss my depredations as a whippersnapper or share some of yours I really like to hear from you. Oh! I forgot to mention that my two favorite stores in Swifton Center were Rogers Toy and Hobby Shop and Pasquale's Pizza, where I developed a lifelong addiction to the stuff.
I feel I can provide any answers with regard to Swifton shopping Center, as I lived a couple of hundred yard away fron the entrance from July 1956, to June 1965. I am sure I can provide all the details as they are all very vivid in my mind.
Dick Gose Southport, North Carolina
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mid Century Mod
I am currently doing research for a blogspot that I have recently created (The MALL HALL OF FAME). This blog is an entirely non-commercial enterprise on my part, and is comprised of articles, images and artwork for America's Post War shopping centers. I hope to do several articles about Metro-Cincinnati's regional malls, as well as a few of the major shopping plazas. Currently, I have articles posted about TRI-COUNTY, KENWOOD PLAZA/TOWNE CENTRE and KENWOOD MALL/SYCAMORE PLAZA.
I was just wondering whether anyone on the forum would care to reminisce about any of these shopping centers..........or such malls as SWIFTON CENTER/JORDAN CROSSING, WESTERN WOODS or BEECHMONT. It is nearly (if not) impossible to find out very much about any of these shopping centers in their early days. I would be more than glad to credit anyone (in my finished article[s]) who can provide any pertinent info.
Namely, I would love to find out more about SWIFTON CENTER. It opened in 1956, and was Cincinnati's first (quote/unquote) "shopping mall". I am thinking that the Elder Beerman department store (at the south side of the mall during its SWIFTON COMMONS days) was originally a Mabley and Carew......but, so far, I have not been able to establish this as fact. Also, there -apparently- was a second department store in the original 1956 center. I have no idea what it was. There was also a supermarket in SWIFTON CENTER in those days. Could it possibly have been a Kroger?
Yup.....this is going WAY back in the city's history. Hopefully, these, and other, questions about Cincinnati's "classic mall era" shopping centers can be answered, so that these details can be recorded for posterity before so much time passes that no one can even remember them.
Thanks everyone for reading..........and -especially- thanks for any input that any of you Cincinnatians can provide.
[I love the quote from "Korey" ?. He left Swifton Village in 1960 when he graduated from high school in 1960, to "Uh Hum",.....move to a more "affluent neighborhood". Tisk, Tisk. I gradueated from Woodward in 1960, & lived in Swifton Village for 5 more years. Wonder if this upscale Snob was in my graduating class? Ha. I doubt it, I don't think we had people like this !!!!!
quote=Korey;2136840]Perhaps I or my younger brother knew you, MMZ. In 1952 we lived in the second apartment building constructed in Swifton Village, well before the shopping center was built. The house you refer to was not the "Swift family mansion;" I don't recall its name (although "estate" was part of its customary designation at the time). Until its developer (Jonathan Woodner Company) demolished it for the shopping center, I played in it with the few other children who had just arrived in the nascent apartment complex. It was a remarkable wood-framed Victorian structure with many grand rooms, all ornately detailed. I recall porcelain sinks with delicate floral motifs, carved woodwork, and high ceilings with elaborate plasterwork and painted garlands. Its numerous outbuildings were clearly agricultural in function, and its cellar was filled with (still edible) home-canned preserves and vegetables, as if only recently deserted. Roughly coterminous with its demolition, work began across the road on Woodward High School. It, along with the shopping center and apartment complex, occupied land that until recently had been open farmland. Indeed, an abandoned old barn and vineyard still occupied the area immediately north of our Rhode Island Avenue apartment building.
But if the planners of the Swifton Shopping Center had hoped to center their project in prosperous, growing suburbs, they were somewhat off their mark. For years the most prominent signage to greet visitors to Swifton Village were those announcing the availability of low-rent apartments ('one-bedroom starting at $48/month, two-bedroom starting at $62/month...."}. That the apartments themselves soon acquired a reputation for shoddy construction and maintenance undoubtedly didn't improve tenancy rates (nor did a frequently unresponsive management), but the upshot was that the tenants formed a rather transient community, with high rates of turnover in the apartments. I suspect that relatively few residents had moved in with long-term rental plans in mind. (A 2002 article from The Cincinnati Enquirer, archived online as Complex was troubled from beginning , alludes to some of the early difficulties in management of the project.)
In retrospect, its location strikes me as a somewhat inauspicious siting for a major suburban shopping center (notwithstanding the recent completion nearby of the Valley and the Roselawn Shopping Centers). It must be remembered that the principle demographic pressures on the area at the time the Swifton project was begun were quite different from those shaping the growth of the northern unincorporated suburbs in later decades (colloquially but accurately termed white flight); rather, the need for low-cost housing for young families in these postwar years seemed to drive residential development in much of this area between the established communities of Bond Hill and Roselawn. Bond Hill was already built out during the prewar years and by 1952 was a mature neighborhood of primarily single-family residences. Less densely-settled Roselawn, to the north, accommodated further development, but builders found it to their greater advantage to supply the growing demand for single-family residences than to build appreciably more affordable multifamily dwellings. Indeed, the Veteran's Administration had planted a dense but temporary warren of small dwellings for returned GIs nearby, on Seymour Avenue near what was to become Woodward High School. These low-rent houses, which looked like recycled married-non-com quarters from a military post, provided Swifton Village many of its earliest tenants. Apart from these and the apartments of Colonial Village, a smaller apartment development off Seymour Avenue, the Swifton Village project was in a fairly low density residential area at the time. Neighboring tracts were occupied by Maketewah Country Club to the southwest and by Crest Hills Country Club immediately to the north, while bordering the complex was the newly-built Cincinnati Gardens, a civic center so underutilized that large sections of its vast parking lots had been leased by Fisher Body for Chevrolets awaiting shipment. It's notable that the first children to live in Swifton Village were sent to Carthage (and earliest on, Mary Dill) Elementary School, there being none closer to their homes.
What of the shopping center itself? There were attractive stores there, to be sure. Rollman's was perhaps the first of the established downtown department stores to launch a satellite from the city hub, and it offered considerable cachet as the anchor store for the complex. At the same time, it seemed a store appealing more to older consumers (I counted on its limitless stock of hand-rolled hankerchiefs for my grandmother's birthday presents) and rather less to trendier shoppers. The Colony restaurant was another migrant from downtown, one that I remember being much favored by shopping parties of mothers and their mothers or children. And later, when fashion moved beyond cowboy shirts, Max's Gentry Shop was a desireable source of gear for preppy young men. The other tenants are well recalled in others' contributions to this thread, and while some were more upscale and others less so, their mix strikes me still as about what one might expect in any suburban shopping center of the period.
Despite the relative affluence represented in development of the next tier of northern suburbs (Roselawn, Golf Manor, Amberley Village), the emergent residential profile of Swifton Village undoubtedly influenced the shopping center adversely. It hardly wants comment that, apart from their commercial aspect, shopping centers also serve a significant social role in the community life, and surely in this Swifton Shopping Center was no different in becoming a gathering place for local adolescents. Many of the congregants were from Woodward High School, across the street, as well as from Swifton Village itself. The disjunction arising between boisterous teenagers who regarded the space as their own and interloping shoppers occasionally led to overt conflict. Pasquale's Pizza was a favored hangout (especially in the evening) for older local teens, and sometimes the venue for minor dustups. (I myself held forth in the parking lot outside on two occasions, but this is another story altogether.) Infrequently, though, did the tension surpass the level of mutual glowering. That management was aware of the discord was evident in the security guards who roamed the Center, especially in the afternoon and evening, riding herd on those youngsters they regarded as potentially disruptive. This included especially Levi-clad young men affecting James Dean personas, with ducktails and cigarettes behind the ear. Plainly the security people preferred the look of aspiring Ivy Leaguers, to whom they typically gave a pass.
I left Swifton Village when my family moved to a more affluent neighborhood; after completing high school in 1960 I rarely revisited the area. Thus my description recounts only the earliest years of the Swifton complex as witnessed first by a young boy and interpreted later by an old man. Your mileage undoubtedly differs.[/quote]
[q I lived in Swifton Village, ( which was by the way the first real estate venture for Donald Trump ) from the opening of Swifton Shopping Center in October 1956, to June 1965. Yes, every year 10-12 Cincinnati Reds players lived on my street : Yorktown Road, .At that time there was no better apartment complexes in the Cincinnati area. Among my neighbors that I became friends with were Reds Hall of Famers such as : Jim O'Toole, Bob Purkey, Joey Jay, Bob Purkey, Jim Maloney, as well as Don Blasingame, Johnny Temple, Roy McMillan, Johnny Edwards, Harvey Haddix, Bill Henery, manager Fred Hutchinson, & I could go on for another hour .
I was a joy to live there.
Dick Gose Woodward High School 1960 UC 1965,..Southport, North Carolina.
uote=veteran observer;2575135]Seems like just about all the bases have been touched with regard to the stores in Swifton Center. There was a Suburban Federal Savings & Loan
around Kroger's and the cafeteria.
I spent a number of classroom hours at Woodward giving more attention to the leveling of the ground and subsequent construction than to the academic tasks at hand. Previous posts have referred to the mansion (which sat on the hill overlooking the northeast corner of Langdon Farm and Reading. It may have been mansion-sized but it looked more like an old farm house that was not well maintained, at least on the outside.
To suggest that building Swifton Center was overkill for the surrounding populace at that time if off base. First, the Valley Shopping Center was the minor leagues compared to Swifton. When it was constructed, Swifton was either the second or third largest shopping center in thecountry. Secondly, look north to the Valley Shopping Center and beyond. That portion of Reading Road between Summit Road and Galbraith Road, with its array of motels and restaurants was referred to as "the million dollar mile." I guess a case could be made that it extended south on Reading to Section Road to include the Valley Shopping Center and the restaurants near it.
As for Swifton Village, it wasn't exactly Section 8 housing when it was built. I knew of young professionals who lived there until they could afford a house and during the season a number of Reds players lived in Swifton. I know this was back in the day when they had to work off-season jobs to make ends meet. I guess the price was right or maybe they weren't tied to a lease. I would think the club would've steered them away if it was as bad as a previous poster suggested. In any event, let's not confuse l950s Swifton Village with the West End or Eighth & State.[/quote]
[ Yep, the pony Keg was "Karl's at the corner of Langdon Farm Road & Seymour Avenue, (actually on Seymour) & perhaps 200 yeards from Cncinnati Gardens. I lived perhaps two blocks away on Yorktown Road, & went to 20-30 Royals Games a year as well as seeing the Beatles there in I believe it would be 1965>
Dick Gose Woodward High School 1960, UC 1965,.....Southport, North Carolina.
quote=fiferphil;2688675]Wow! I am really amazed at all of these postings about Swifton Village and Swifton Center -- and the memories they bring back to me. I lived in Swifton Village from 1955 - 58, attended Carthage Elementary (4th - 6th grade), caddied at Crest Hills, played ball at Roselawn Park, saw Gene Autry and the Harlem Globetrotters at the Cincinnati Gardens, was a member of Boy Scout troop 355 in Bond Hill -- and yes! there was a Pony Keg. It was on Seymore Avenue just down from the Gardens, and across Seymore from Sam Hern's Boat yard and Robert Hall's mens clothing store. Oh I could go on and on (like the time I got caught swiping candybars and squirt guns out of Walgreens and the time my friend and I played hooky from school and spent our lunch money at the White Castle in Bond Hill) If any of you would like to further discuss my depredations as a whippersnapper or share some of yours I really like to hear from you. Oh! I forgot to mention that my two favorite stores in Swifton Center were Rogers Toy and Hobby Shop and Pasquale's Pizza, where I developed a lifelong addiction to the stuff.[/quote]
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Shifting demographics vs location
Swifton Village/Swifton Center
