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Here is a picture from the 2nd story of Hartwell elem. which sits on the north east corner of Vine & Galbraith taken in June 1980. You can see the Sweeney lot and also all the green space where Krogers is now located...of course there is the old Hartwell pool house too which has since been replaced with a new Recreation Center and pool. Thought you all might enjoy the old pic!!!
Love the pic Hartwell Girl. Brings back a lot of memories.
Notice the two trees in the picture. There used to be at least one more. The tornado of 1969 took one out that stood between those two trees. Somewhere around here I have a picture of me and my hubbys cousin sitting in what was left of the one that did sit in middle of those two trees. I am venturing a guess that the same tornado caused the tree you can see leaning toward Vine Street to look like it does.
All that green space looks shocking to me now but really it shouldn't. We used to go to Knothole games there just about every Saturday during the season. Our son was more or less just a baby then, maybe around 18 months/2 years or so. That baby is now 39 years old.
No worries, I've seen plenty of your posts in this forum too. Your experience was shared by a WHOLE lot of people during the '40s to '70s. Some kids I grew up with had Kentuckian parents who'd learned their three R's - you know, Readin' Writin' and Route 25!
The Vine St corridor all the way from Elmwood Place to Woodlawn felt the impact of that big Appalachian migration. For a time it was said that more people from certain counties in KY were living in Carthage than in the counties themselves! I'd been hoping more folks from that era would've "spoken up" in this thread, so am glad you did.
Yeah, my parents knew their R's. And for us, it was Route 25E. Sometimes, just for old times sake when we go down home on vacation, we go the old route. It has changed so much over the years. Hard to believe that it was once the main route between here and down there. Used to be, you would go down through there and everything was bustling. Now, it's all but dead. Still some pretty scenery though. I can remember Elmwood Place being called Little Casey County because so many people from Casey County settled there. Last I heard, most of those folks have moved out from there now, seems a lot of them have settled in Butler County.
I hope one day, you guys visit my neck of the woods in SE Kentucky. Really, it is not as bad as certain people would have you to believe. The good people far outweigh the bad.
That settles it, when the C-D meet-up after next happens we'll take it to the mountains!
In Carthage's Appalachian heyday it was folks from Rockcastle County who were "well represented" there in numbers beyond what was said stayed behind. During the pre-I-75 era you'd go through there on Route 25, it's between Berea and London. It wasn't hard to see why families would "up and leave" from there, since you can't eat the scenery. The main industry seemed to be tables set up alongside the highway selling "redneck" junk. Every single one of them had stars-n-bars-flag beach towels on display!
The old ball field in Hartwell looks huge until you think about how big the Kroger's (and parking lot) is that replaced it. As for the neighborhood's original Kroger's, which struck the first punch in the destruction of Mary St as a quiet residential block, the Hartwell CVS started out there and Family Dollar "number umpteen and twelve" occupies the building today.
BTW the only dress shop thereabouts that I remember was called Tina's. Whenever there was a "sale" sign in the window, we kids used to cross our fingers that Mom wouldn't see it when driving past or when stopping at the adjacent strip mall. Said strip mall has had a complete turnover of tenants; back in the day it was a frequent goyguy family stop since Igler's Pharmacy, Dedden's Florist, Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan, and a UDF were there. Tina's occupied the small building abutting the strip mall to the north, opposite the Vogue Cafe, and was gone by 1970. Jem Cleaners and a Busken Bakery are among the businesses which have operated there since then.
And yes, the Vogue Cafe is still very much alive in the same spot as always. I enjoyed some "cold ones" there this past August while I was in town. Gotta love its history - it's said that they opened the very night that Prohibition was repealed. Something tells me that wasn't the first time they started making money off booze, though Aside from the cafe (which, sad to say, has no kitchen) and the long-lived and sweetly named Hug Jewelers next door, tain't a blessed thing on that stretch of Vine St which was there even twenty years ago.
Scheff's Parkview Market was what was housed in the brick building perpendicular to Vine St which was gutted and remodeled, to be reborn as the relocated Big Melon and two separate storefronts. It faced a Texaco station which is currently a "mobile communications" shop.
I know exactly where you are talking about goyguy. We stop at that darn McDonalds in Mt. Vernon everytime we go home. I know, it's laughable that two people carrying Golden Buckeye cards just have to stop at Mt. Vernon Mc D's. We go a little piece farther down, to Corbin Exit 29 then another 45-50 miles or so south of there.
What I remember most about the roadside stands that were all along 25 were the chenille bedspreads, most of them with a huge peacock on them. Oh and dishes, sold dirt cheap. It's changed a lot now. I guess the interstate cost some people their business.
Thanks for telling the name of that dress shop. I could remember everything, even how you had to walk a little downhill to get to the door. I just couldn't remember the name. We still shop at Hugs, my Christmas present is coming from there. Shame on my hubby and Larry Hug for not telling me what it is. So much has gone from down that way. We used to go to the small lunch counter in at Iglers and order nectars, cherry cokes etc when we would go to the Vogue Theater to see a movie. I think they hated making the nectars for some reason. That strip mall where the Big Melon once operated is all but dead now. It's been home to several different businesses, too numerous to mention. What was Iglers at the other strip mal is now a hardware store, which we patronize a lot.. I can't even remember what's in there now besides the hardware store and National City Bank.
We'll all have to make a trip south sometime. Go down 25E, stop at the Kings Bar B Que Bar and Grill then head on south to my home town and then go under the Cumberland Gap and head on south in Tennessee till we come to Norris Lake. We'll just holler "Hey Y'all" to my cousin and her hubby and I am sure they will take us all for a ride on their house boat.
The Teranga "West African" restaurant is in the space where UDF used to be. Their food must be good, b/c I don't know of any population of Liberians, Ivory Coast natives, etc in the neighborhood but they've been in business for a long while.
Igler's hung on until the bitter end and beyond, but once Revco + Walgreen's + CVS landed it was only a matter of time before they had to call it quits. I doubt anybody shed a tear when Revco bailed out. Here's hoping Cramer's Hardware holds out better in this big-box store age. My worry is that the building which started out as a Liberal supermarket, was later a Thriftway, and now houses a furniture outlet no one seems to patronize, is being eyed by Lowe's or Home Depot.
Mrs Goyguy Sr got a little sumpinsumpin from Hug for her birthday! We find excuses to give them business, lol...the folks miss all the old Cincinnati jewelers that faded away and hate the McJewelers in the malls. Not that they're hurting for customers from what I can see. Getting a watch battery replaced last year took over an hour, the place was mobbed and all kinds of gossip was getting caught up on between the clientele and one clerk in particular. I drank in the scene and didn't mind the wait, since you don't get that "community" atmosphere in stores much any more.
I had some laughs at news from farther down Vine St this week. Seems a manager at the Long John Silver's by the fire station in St Bernard had dreamed up the perfect crime by setting up the place for robbery by relatives. EXCEPT...the brainiac gave a good enough description to the cops of his own cousin that they were able to haul the perps in and get the money back!
i am white i was robbed in hartwell buy 5 black kids. i was on the cincinnati side by speedway so if you have plans to move there it is a bad place . thay called me a Nname as thay robbed me i can see cracker or white boy.....BUT(N)name whith (A) at the end.........MUST BE A GANG THANG...N NAME ENDS IN A USE TOO BE ER..SOO ANYWAY WHARE THERE IS BLACK THERE CRACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Teranga "West African" restaurant is in the space where UDF used to be. Their food must be good, b/c I don't know of any population of Liberians, Ivory Coast natives, etc in the neighborhood but they've been in business for a long while.
Igler's hung on until the bitter end and beyond, but once Revco + Walgreen's + CVS landed it was only a matter of time before they had to call it quits. I doubt anybody shed a tear when Revco bailed out. Here's hoping Cramer's Hardware holds out better in this big-box store age. My worry is that the building which started out as a Liberal supermarket, was later a Thriftway, and now houses a furniture outlet no one seems to patronize, is being eyed by Lowe's or Home Depot.
Mrs Goyguy Sr got a little sumpinsumpin from Hug for her birthday! We find excuses to give them business, lol...the folks miss all the old Cincinnati jewelers that faded away and hate the McJewelers in the malls. Not that they're hurting for customers from what I can see. Getting a watch battery replaced last year took over an hour, the place was mobbed and all kinds of gossip was getting caught up on between the clientele and one clerk in particular. I drank in the scene and didn't mind the wait, since you don't get that "community" atmosphere in stores much any more.
I had some laughs at news from farther down Vine St this week. Seems a manager at the Long John Silver's by the fire station in St Bernard had dreamed up the perfect crime by setting up the place for robbery by relatives. EXCEPT...the brainiac gave a good enough description to the cops of his own cousin that they were able to haul the perps in and get the money back!
Just happened to do a google search of Westendorf and Lockland and came across this thread. Started search because of an email from my brother today. Because you see...Westendorf's Market meant a lot to me growing up to...it was my family's livelihood...it was my family's business. The news today takes the story to its apparent conclusion. The news is they were tearing down Westendorf's Market in Lockkand. It was nice to see people recalling the days of yesteryear regarding the local community. Hope to add some additional background soon and maybe even square away a few things. Thanks for the memories!
Wow, another chapter in Valley history is closing. As I've brought up in other threads (yes, multiple), as a kid raised in northern Wyoming the trip by foot or bike to Westendorf's was a regular ritual. Even at the age of no more than ten or eleven, I felt a sense of loss when King Kwik moved in barely a block up the street. Mr Westendorf then decided to close the grocery store and let the property remain a money-maker. (That it certainly was.)
The Lockland Westendorf's was a looked-for landmark along West Forrer St, since it of course faced I-75. I stay amazed that that store remained open for as long as it did, in the face of all the supermarket competition. Probably neighborhood loyalty went a long way. My reaction was "sad, but not surprised" when it closed.
Despite some of the not-so-hidden social divisions in Wyoming (blue-collar vs. better-off, parochial vs. public schools, Catholic vs. WASP) I became somewhat friendly, as a young kid, with the son of Mr Westendorf's business partner. Mike Mages went on to become the butcher - perhaps manager - of the Lockland store. Because we were on opposite sides of all three of the dividing lines I mentioned, I only hung out with him on rare occasions during elementary school (since he went to St James so was at least in the same town.) Once he finished there and headed for Roger Bacon in far-off St Bernard every school day, that was that for that. He was a good kid, fairly athletic with pale blonde hair and a prematurely deep voice, and lived on West Charlotte Ave - close by Westendorf's, naturally; that much I remember. I hope he landed on both feet after the shutdown of what had to have occupied a huge space in his existence from birth to middle age.
Thank YOU, mwestendorf, for opening that compartment of my memory vault. My condolences.
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Aside from the cafe (which, sad to say, has no kitchen) and the long-lived and sweetly named Hug Jewelers next door, tain't a blessed thing on that stretch of Vine St which was there even twenty years ago. 
I doubt anybody shed a tear when Revco bailed out. Here's hoping Cramer's Hardware holds out better in this big-box store age. My worry is that the building which started out as a Liberal supermarket, was later a Thriftway, and now houses a furniture outlet no one seems to patronize, is being eyed by Lowe's or Home Depot. 
My condolences.
