A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Warsaw Avenue in Price Hill around 1940.Timothy Kirby was born in Middletown, Connecticut in 1797. His father “...ran a schooner in the WestIndia trade.” 24 He walked across the Catskill mountains to Pittsburg and came by raft to Cincinnati whenhe was 17. He taught school, passed the bar in 1825 and attended Cincinnati College in 1828. He thenbecame a land agent representing the Bank of the United States. In this capacity he purchased tracts ofland when the original owner defaulted on the loan. He was a student of geology and once drilled a hole600 feet deep planning for an artesian well. Instead he accidentally struck natural gas - and capped thewell as he didn’t know what to do with the gas. According to the 1911 Souvenir History ofCumminsville “...for a short time a column of gas giving a flame forty feet high illuminated the fieldsround about. He built a fine brick house in 1843 on a knoll overlooking the community he helped tofound, Cumminsville.” The property ended in a large pond which today would be at Chase Street andPitts Avenue. His land was adjacent to Waggoner’s Run. He helped to build St. Philip’s Episcopal Churchand the first Kirby Road school was built upon land he donated.Edwin Knopf was a member of the College Hill Council (1901-1907) while College Hill was a village.His father, Julius Knopf came from Baden, Germany and served in the Civil War. Julius died in 1890,leaving his wife, Caroline, and his minor children; Otto, Alma, Walter, William, and Helen. The Knopffamily lived for many years in College Hill. When Edwin was elected to Council, a party was given in hishonor by Peter G. Thomson at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. The following were guests: Eugene Lewis(auditor), Jacob Bromwell (Congressman), Geo. E. Henshaw, Joshua L. & N. L. Pierson, John E. Bruce(Mayor), H. G. Pounsford, T. W. Pyle, John Wilson, W. R. Goodall, A. J. Willey, William Strasser, W. C.Hayden, J. Ed Deininger (Marshall), Dr. Charles Ferris, F. R. Strong, Frank Bowman, D. E. Pottenger, A.T. Deininger.Charles Louis Laboiteaux was the final Laboiteaux in College Hill. He was the son of Isaac NewtonLaBoiteaux/Laboyteaux. Charles founded the LaBoiteaux Company, and the Republic Paper BoardCompany, box manufacturing and paper specialties companies. He owned a large tract of land on the eastside of Hamilton Avenue inherited through his wife, Edith Cist. The Cist’s originally owned that side ofHamilton Avenue down the hillside into Northside. The property had an octagonal house and a largewhite frame house, the latter still standing, where Frank Cist, Edith’s brother, and his wife lived. Charleswas a member of the Park Board and donated, along with Mary H. LaBoiteaux, and Constance andThomas E. Drake, LaBoiteaux Woods. The city purchased additional land to comprise the 53 acrepreserve. The entrance was built through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The landmarkoctagonal house was torn down and Hammond North was built on the site. Charles’s father was IsaacNewton LaBoiteaux who worked for Duhme & Company, jewelers.The octagonal house was built in 1855 by an attorney. It had eight gables, each one with its ownbalcony. Each gable was supported by a pillar resting on the porch, which extended 232 feet around thehouse. The central room was 28 feet square. There were 60 doors in the house. The view must have beenspectacular, sitting on the top of a ridge.While the house was unusual, it was not unique. In 1849 Ordon Squire Fowler wrote A Home forAll where he promoted the octagonal shaped house as being the most aesthetically pleasing andeconomical for encompassing the largest interior footage. What he didn’t consider was the amount ofunusable awkwardlyshaped rooms created when a rectangular floor plan was inserted into a multi-sided perimeter. Manycommunities had one of these oddly shaped houses, but usually only one. An example of an octagonalhouse, restored and open to the public in Hamilton, Ohio, is the Lane-Hooven house. Built of brick in24 Cincinnati Selections: an Omnibus, B. Klein.184