Thomas Foertmeyer
History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Dayton Street and ‘Contested Ground’ in Cincinnati’s West End
In Cincinnati’s early days, the city’s population was confined to the urban basin. Even in
1900, after the advent of the streetcar and the early hilltop suburbs, roughly 50 percent of
Cincinnati’s growing population resided in the basin.1 At this time, the West End neighborhood
grew increasingly crowded with low income Black and Jewish tenants, and mansions such as
those on Dayton Street filtered down to middle-class homeowners. Meanwhile, during the first
half of the twentieth century, crime, delinquency, and preventable disease were rampant in the
West End.2 In short, the West End was precisely the kind of ‘slum’ that President Truman sought
to lift poor Americans out of with the Housing Act of 1949. Not long after the Housing Act did
Cincinnati’s City Manager appoint an Assistant in Charge of Urban Redevelopment and hire
planning consultant Ladislas Segoe to begin using the federal money to reshape Cincinnati’s
urban core in the mold of Modern ideals.3 The Dayton Street Historic District, however, stands
as an exception to this wide-sweeping land clearance in the West End during the mid-twentieth
century era of urban renewal in Cincinnati and in American cities across the country. While the
majority of the West End was razed for low density housing projects, the Mill Creek
Expressway, and the Queensgate Industrial area, Dayton Street and its ornate Italianate mansions
(fig. 1) were largely preserved. This is thanks to opposing interest groups whose contradictory
real estate interests in the upper West End stood in the way of wholesale land clearance of this
‘Contested Ground.’
The Changing Face of the West End
The built environment of the West End has changed dramatically over the years.
Originally a smattering of dairies, farms, and truck gardens, the West End grew to include
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August 7th, 2015
slaughterhouses, soap factories and tanneries as Cincinnati’s industry blossomed and population
boomed from 1820 to 1860. The land that eventually became the Dayton Street Historic district,
originally purchased by Jonathan Dayton in the 1790s, was developed by wealthy beer barons,
factory owners, and businessmen. They built their lavish Italianate homes that the area is famous
for today. Later, warehouses and tenement housing dominated the landscape as the industrial era
charged into full swing. The housing fell into ‘slum’ conditions due to overcrowding, disrepair
and flood damage. The worst conditions could be found down near the river. At the turn of the
20th Century, Cincinnati was still growing and those with the means took to the new hilltop
communities. Down in the basin the West End developed into a crowded, racially-segregated
African American ghetto. In 1900, ten percent of the West End’s 36,216 residents were black.
By 1930, 63 percent of the West End’s 46,875 residents were black. Perhaps more telling is that
the West End accounted for 88% of the African Americans in the basin, and 61% citywide.
Segregation and poor housing conditions set the stage for the huge changes that city planners
would implement beginning in the 1930s.
Prior to the Housing Act of 1949, Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court were Cincinnati’s
first public housing projects in the West End. These projects were built by the Cincinnati
Metropolitan Housing Authority in 1938 and 1942 respectively, using funds from the National
Recovery Act of 1933.4 These early forays into public housing suffered from the fact that they
displaced more residents than the new housing could account for.5 Nonetheless, after the Second
World War, with suburbanization in full swing and with money to go around thanks to the
Housing Act, Cincinnati increased the scope of its public housing developments. Later housing
projects in the West End included Parktown, Richmond Village, and Stanley Rowe towers. By
1970, the city “eliminated between 13,147 and 22,354 low-cost dwellings in the West End,
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August 7th, 2015
displacing a predominantly black, low-income population of between 50,561 and 54,471.
Residential development of West End sites that had been cleared by urban renewal produced
only 1,038 units, housing 3,152 people.”6 Urban renewal greatly changed the face of the West
End. Blocks that had been tightly packed with buildings (fig. 2) gave way to modern public
housing complexes (fig. 3) inspired by Le Corbusier’s ‘Radiant City’ model. Prior to urban
renewal, the architectural character of the West End largely resembled that of the less
ornamented sections of Over the Rhine (fig. 4), with brick Italianate buildings, three to four
stories each, and dominating the landscape.
A major reason for the dramatically large displaced population was the construction of
the Mill Creek Expressway. Part of the United States’ interstate freeway system, the Mill Creek
Expressway (now known as I-75), was constructed directly through the West End. Land that had
been previously used for housing was then dedicated to moving cars and suburbanites in and out
of the city; this left less room for new housing projects that already did not satisfy housing
needs.7 The city even briefly considered constructing a cross-basin expressway as well as
additional West End exits from northbound I-75.8
Another radical departure from row houses in the West End was the creation of the
Queensgate industrial area. Queensgate is a symbol of the historical shift in city planning from
mixed-use neighborhoods to compartmentalized, single use neighborhoods. “An unordered
procession of industrial, commercial, and residential uses are frequent sights in the West End,”
claimed a 1968 West End Task Force progress report.9 In this case, a densely populated black
section of the West End known as Kenyon-Barr was razed wholesale in favor for exclusively
industrial zoning.10 Queensgate is, of course, home to Cincinnati’s famed Union Terminal. Aerial
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photos reveal the stark difference between Cincinnati pre-urban renewal (fig. 5) and post-urban
renewal (fig. 6)
Controversy in the Upper West End
The one part of the West End that never succumbed to large scale urban renewal was the
upper West End. The saving grace of the upper West End was real estate, although real estate in
the upper West End has been hotly contested. In the 1960s, the middle class population of the
West End was concentrated north of Poplar Street, where over 300 African Americans were
owner-occupants.11 While owner-occupied units comprised a modest 10% of dwelling units in
the upper West End, over 50% of the owner-occupied units in the entire West End were located
north of Poplar. Had the city attempted to bulldoze the upper West End, it would have had a
much more difficult time acquiring entire blocks of properties through eminent domain than it
had in other parts of the West End. “Most outstanding here are the incidence of home ownership
and relatively better condition in Dayton-Findlay,” said the West End Task Force in a July 1966
report on population and housing in the West End.
Further large-scale urban renewal was a realistic fear, as the nearby neighborhood
surrounding Crosley Field was demolished for parking lots around 1960 in deference to baseball
fans (fig. 7). Furthermore, recent housing projects such as Parktown, Richmond Village and the
Stanley Rowe towers rose up on cleared land. Although vacancy rates and poverty rates rose in
the upper West End throughout the 1960s, white, well-to-do preservationists entered the scene at
this time. These preservationist brought with them outside investors who drew the ire of many
longtime residents of the West End. Although the two groups had competing visions of the West
End, their combined interest in West End real estate prevented a third interest, city planners,
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from swooping in and enacting the same type of urban renewal that swallowed every other part
of the West End at that time.
Preservationists successfully lobbied for a “historic interest area” around Dayton Street in
1965. Three years later, the Miami Purchase Association (MPA) moved its offices to 816 Dayton
Street. In 1972, the MPA made a formal request to the Department of the Interior to add several
blocks of the West End to the National Register of Historic Places. The department created the
Dayton Street Historic District the next year.12 With this designation, property owners were
restricted by a host of rules before they could demolish a property in the historic district. Around
this time, outsiders began to search the West End for affordable historic homes. Despite the
impoverished community and difficulty securing loans from banks, many investors shared the
MPA’s enthusiasm for restoring the neighborhood to its 19th century glory, when it was known
as “Millionaire’s Row.”13 Fifty new homeowners settled in the West End between 1975 and
1980. Of these fifty, thirty-two were white.14 New residents aligned with the MPA to form the
Dayton Street Neighborhood Association (DSNA) in 1978 and offered tours of their renovated
historic homes, including the home of former beer baron John Hauck (fig. 8). Outside investment
slowed, however, as bargain properties became scarce, interest rates soared and the Reagan
administration cut back on federal programs for housing and rehabilitation.
The biggest hurdle for outsiders looking to buy property in the West End came in 1980
when the Community Land Cooperative of Cincinnati (CLC) was formed with the intention of
retaining as much low-income housing in the West End as possible. The CLC often worked in
direct opposition to the CPA and DSNA for fear of being spaced out by gentrification in the era
of the Union Terminal shopping mall. By the end of the 1980s, the CLC owned twenty-five
buildings, whose residents were referred to as “resident owners.”15 Whether by amassing
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History of Cincinnati
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properties or by frustrating outside investors, CLC and other West End interest groups largely
succeeded in preserving the West End as a haven for low-income renters. To this day, the West
End is nearly exclusively African American, nearly exclusively renter occupied and nearly
exclusively low-income.16
Present and Future Conditions in the West End
In 1992, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development established
HOPE VI, a program designed to revitalize housing projects in the United States into mixed-use
and mixed-income developments based on the principles of New Urbanism.17 HOPE VI funds
helped establish the City West development in Cincinnati’s West End, built on the land that once
housed the Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court projects of the 1930s. At the turn of the twenty-first
century, the City West developments (as well as additional CitiRama homes) introduced over
500 new homeownership units to the market.18 These new townhouses attempt to mimic the
architectural style and dense layout of the row houses of yore (fig. 9), and have led to modest
gains in the white population and median income of the West End. The Linn Street commercial
corridor of City West, however, has failed to attract much business beyond cell phone retailers.
The retail space and one could argue, City West in general, stand as a building block for possible
future development in the lower West End.
Besides falling population (under 7,000), high crime, and the continuing the story of low
income, today’s West End faces plenty of challenges. Past street widening of Liberty Street, Linn
Street, and Bank Street create unfriendly conditions for pedestrians. Furthermore, large swaths of
undeveloped and underutilized parcels leave much of City West and the Betts-Longworth
historic district (another small remnant of the historic West End) cut off from Over the Rhine and
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
the Central Business district, despite geographical proximity. Among those underutilized
corridors, Central Parkway is a wide and unattractive road, even after road diet attempts such as
separated bike lanes. Along Central Parkway, the Charles Street Substation, Towne Center
parking garage, the WGUC broadcast center, and the bricked-in back of Music Hall all create
physical barriers to pedestrian movement. I-75 also maintains its loud and unsightly presence.
Despite the restoration efforts of the MPA and DSNA, over 700 West End properties sit vacant,
roughly half of which are uninhabitable.19
The West End, however, is uniquely situated to become a strong real estate market in
Cincinnati. Thanks to renewed interest in city living and the emergence of Over the Rhine as a
hot real estate market, the West End is poised for increased investment. The upper West End still
boasts plenty of historic properties which will always inspire dreams of restoration among the
preservationists; the lower West End contains plenty of vacant land that could be built upon
without facing all of the same strict historic guidelines of Over the Rhine and the Dayton Street
Historic District. Furthermore, the underground arts scene in Brighton has attracted artists and
visitors to the upper West End. Development often follows artistic communities, as one could
argue for many of New York’s neighborhoods and even Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine. As of this
writing, galleries such as LOHIOH, The Ice Cream Factory, and Semantics (along with the
Rake’s End bar and the Cide Central venue) draw modest crowds to Central Avenue during
gallery openings and performances.
The ‘Contested Ground’ narrative of the West End continues to this day. Per the
Hamilton County Auditor’s website, the CLC still owns over twenty properties in the West End,
including a concentration of properties along Dayton Street east of Linn. In the 1970s, the
Dayton-Whiteman Community Association of homeowners successfully fought to keep this
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block of Dayton out of the Dayton Street Historic District.20 Along with the CLC properties,
which are generally in poor condition (fig. 10), the CLC also owns several vacant lots in the
West End. Another major landlord in today’s West End, according to the Hamilton County
Auditor, is the Abigail Apartments Limited Partnership. The Abigail Apartments, recently
redeveloped by the Model Group, comprise of 71 units in 14 historic structures, and are rented
out to low income families. These apartments, if nothing else, prove that low income housing is
not mutually exclusive to real estate development and well-preserved historic structures. Another
point of contention is the concentration of social services occurring in the West End. The social
service mall called CityLink, largely funded by Crossroads Church, sparked controversy in the
mid-2000s, erupting the debate over whether the West End should remain a concentrated era of
poverty.21 Fast forward several years and 3CDC is relocating several social services from Over
The Rhine to the West End, including City Gospel Mission and the Drop Inn Center.22
One recent announcement is creating a buzz in the Dayton Street Historic District. In
early 2015, the Zada Development Group, based in Brooklyn, New York, revealed plans to
renovate two vacant historic Dayton Street schools into market rate apartments with retail (fig.
11). Zada has aligned with the DSNA for this endeavor, and has made it clear that their goals are
very different from the goals of the CLC. Zada’s website claims:
“The project seeks to achieve three primary goals:
1.
To address the need for well-managed, new, safe market rate housing in a setting that will encourage resident and
neighborhood connectivity.
2.
To leverage the redevelopment to assist in the creation new unassisted housing that targets a broader mix of incomes and
community interests.
3.
To assist in establishing a climate that will un-bridle existing stakeholders. These stakeholders have for over four decades,
demonstrated commitment to the area’s re-vitalization in the cause of safe-guarding its unique legacy and exemplary
historic inventory, but are reluctant to take it to the next level under current conditions.”
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August 7th, 2015
Time will tell how successful the DSNA and Zada are in encouraging a more mixed income
West End.
After years of disinvestment in the West End, the neighborhood has struggled with high
crime and low income in recent times, but there is reason to believe that for better or worse, the
area could soon change rapidly. The planned redevelopment of the Heberle and Bloom schools
by Zada Development Group, the underground arts scene in nearby Brighton and drastically
increased investment throughout Cincinnati’s urban core could spell a second era of prosperity
for the streetscape which was once known as ‘Millionaire’s Row.’ In the least, the West End may
soon be home to an increasingly mixed-income population and an increasingly renovated
housing stock. It is clear, however, that the West End remains ‘Contested Ground,’ and that the
future of the West End hinges on opposing views of what the neighborhood is and what the
neighborhood will be in the future.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Endnotes
1. Davis, John E. Contested Ground: Collective Action and the Urban Neighborhood
(New York, Cornell University Press, 1991), 105.
2. Crime, Juvenile Delinquency, and Preventable Disease in the West End of Cincinnati
(Cincinnati, Cincinnatus Association, 1942).
3. Redevelopment of Blighted Areas (Cincinnati, Cincinnati Planning Commission, 1951),
21.
4. Kessinger, Thomas A. Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority (Cincinnati,
Cincinnati Museum Center, 2004)
5. Davis, 121.
6. Davis, 131.
7.Stradling, David. Cincinnati From River City to Highway Metropolis (Charleston,
Arcadia, 2003), 127.
8. West End Development Plan. (Cincinnati, Cincinnati Planning Commission, 1974), 26.
9. A Community Organizes for Planning. (Cincinnnati, West End Task Force, 1968), 4.
10. Davis, 138.
11. Davis, 179.
12. Davis, 180.
13. Writer’s Program (Ohio). Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and its Neighbors
(Cincinnati, Wiesen-Hart Press, 1943), 433.
14. Davis, 181
15. Davis, 213.
16. 2010 US Census Data. Cincinnati-oh.gov. Accessed July 2015.
17. Varady, D., et al. “Atrracting Middle-Income Families in the HOPE VI Public
Housing Revitalization Program.” (Journal of Urban Affairs: Volume 27, Number 2, 2005), 149–
164.
18. Klepel, Dan. “Drees signs on with City West.” (Cincinnati, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov.
2003).
19. 2010 US Census Data. Cincinnati-oh.gov. Accessed July 2015.
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20. Davis, 191.
21. Carter-Novotni, Stephen. “CityLink Divides West End.” (Cincinnati, CityBeat, Dec.
2005).
22. “Current Projects.” 3CDC.org. Accessed July 2015.
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Illustrations
Figure 1. Two examples of beautiful homes in the Dayton Street Historic District. 938
and 936 Dayton Street, looking northeast. Cincinnati 9 Dayton street view. From: Flickr user
John S. https://www.flickr.com/photos/11236515@N05/3534062875/in/album72157618123919235/. Accessed May 2015.
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Figure. 2. A typical “before” scene in the West End. Cincinnati Planning Commission.
From: Redevelopment of Blighted Areas (Cincinnati Planning Commission, 1951). Accessed
May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 3. The plan for the same block, featuring public housing and the Mill Creek
Expressway. Cincinnati Planning Commission. From: Redevelopment of Blighted Areas
(Cincinnati Planning Commission, 1951). Accessed May 2015.
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August 7th, 2015
Figure 4. Street view of project area LA-3. This is looking west toward Union terminal
from Laurel Street (now Ezzard Charles) and Baymiller Street. Cincinnati Highway Department.
From: Street Construction and Improvements, Box 38, Folder 47 (Laurel Parkway) – negative,
1932-07-01. University of Cincinnati Digital Resource Commons. Accessed May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 5. Dayton Street, Laurel Homes, and Lincoln Court can be seen from this 1949
aerial view of the West End. Smith, Michael. 1949 Aerial View of Cincinnati’s West End and
Over-the-Rhine. From: Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelgsmith/4214008202/in/photostream/. Accessed May
2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 6. This 2014 Aerial view of the Mill Creek Valley demonstrates the results of the
dramatic shift in land use in Cincinnati. Public housing, I-75, and Queensgate comprise much of
the contemporary West End, although the Dayton Street Historic district retains the classic row
house structure. Spitzig, Brian. From: Instagram. https://instagram.com/p/u6UgtQBhJy/
Accessed May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 7. The evolution of the parking crater near Crosley Field. From: “Crosley Field:
100th Anniversary,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2012. Accessed May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 8. The home of the Dayton Street Neighborhood Association and the former home
of Cincinnati beer baron John Hauck at 812 Dayton Street. Menninger, Dave. Untitled. From:
Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/34817627223@N01/2411562001 Accessed May 2015.
Figure 9. City West townhomes along Betton Street. From: New Urbanism Architect.
Accessed May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 10. A boarded up building at 1806 Freeman Avenue owned by the Community
Land Cooperative. Google Street View. Accessed May 2015.
Figure 11. Rendering of the proposed Heberle School redevelopment, looking northwest
from Freeman and Dayton. From: “$11.2M Redevelopment of Historic Heberle School to
Breathe New Life Into West End,” UrbanCincy, 2015. Accessed May 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 12. The extent of public housing projects in the West End. 1974 West End
Development Plan, Cincinnati Planning Commission.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 13: A charming streetscape which no longer exists in Cincinnati. For reference,
someone standing at this spot today would see straight through to the back of Music Hall, with
Taft High School on the left. Cincinnati Highway Department. From: Street Construction and
Improvements, Box 25, Folder 50 (Laurel Street) – negative, 1932-06-30. University of
Cincinnati Digital Resource Commons. Accessed June 2015.
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History of Cincinnati
August 7th, 2015
Figure 14. Roughly the same view, with CityWest and Taft High School to the left.
Laurel Street is now Ezzard Charles Drive. Google Street View. Accessed June 2015.
Figure 15. Fifth Street, 1929 vs 2014. Cincinnati Highway Department. From: Street
Construction and Improvements, Box 35, Folder 27 (Fifth Street) – negative, 1929-05-15.
University of Cincinnati Digital Resource Commons. Accessed June 2015.Google Street View
Accessed June 2015.
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