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

Diehn’s candy store was on the northwest corner. I used to go in to buy tobacco for my father andMrs. Diehn would give me a peach stone candy. She would always watch to make sure that Mr. Diehnwasn’t watching her-he didn’t give out treats.I can remember the huge oak trees on Hamilton Pike down near Llanfair on the east side of the Pikenear Deininger’s blacksmith shop-mother had me take my tricycle there to have it welded when it broke. Ialso walked that way to go to Sunday school at the Presbyterian Church. Before you got to theblacksmith shop you had to cross the traction tracks where the line came out onto the street. Just beforeyou got to the tracks was a long driveway leading back to the Simpson house. Before that was the yard ofthe old Hammitt place which had been changed so that it was on (5819) Salvia Avenue . A path startednear the fire house and angled across the field to end up on Hamilton Pike near the Hammitt yard. Weused to go that way to go to Thesken’s butcher shop in the red brick building on the west side ofHamilton. Later on that same store became the Public Library for College Hill.In the spring mother would order coal for the next winter. When she knew it was going to bedelivered, she would go down to see Mr. Banks about putting it in the coal cellar. The Banks family livedin an old cottage next to the little African American church (site, 1310 Cedar Ave.) on the corner ofPiqua. The coal would sometimes be put up in the driveway, earlier it had been dumped in the street.Several doors past Bank’s house was the Jesse Locker home set down below and well back from CedarAvenue. Jesse was a city councilman, later being appointed Ambassador to Liberia. He was very highlyregarded by most of the people of College Hill. His wife had beautiful flower gardens and teachers wouldbring classes down to see them.One good friend was Louella Buenger, who lived on Argus Road just north of Cedar. They had alittle farm there with greenhouses and gardens. Mr. Buenger worked at Procter and Gamble. They had ahorse and buggy and Mrs. Buenger would drive down Groesbeck Road to meet him after work. I used togo there to play. Their house was built into the hill with a kitchen and dining room at the back and cellarsinto the hill, with the other rooms on the floor above. There was a porch all across the back of the house,and the barn down hill immediately behind the house.Lou and I used to go to their back fence, climb over and go down into what we called CataractWoods, the area in the deep ravine below Groesbeck Road. It was full of wildflowers in the spring and weused to find beechnuts. It was wonderful for children.Some years later I became friends with Earline Chambers, who lived in the old Harbison house onthe west side of Hamilton north of North Bend Road. Just past it was a frame cottage that the Harbisonshad built for their own use. The old house stood just about where Harbison Avenue is today. On thenorthwest corner of North Bend and Hamilton was the old car barn-the street cars would pull in under thesheltering roof off the street and wait there until the next car came along before leaving. It was the ‘end ofthe line.’Occasionally mother would take me downtown with her on a Saturday. I can remember riding thesummer cars-all open with running boards all along the side and seats clear across the car. Before theLudlow Avenue viaduct was built the cars would go over bridges crossing Mill Creek, the canal, and therailroad and up onto Ludlow Avenue.When I was very small I remember crossing the canal bridges downtown. In high water Knowlton’sCorner would be under water and they would build up the street car tracks with ties placed under them. Itwas scary going up so high above the street level. When you left College Hill about at Windermere Waywas the cross over-cars going down on the left side of Hamilton until about Rockford Place-then goingonto the center of the street again. The northbound cars went up on the left to the cross over. This wasdone to prevent cars going over into the deep ravine below the Methodist Home. The old pumping stationwas on the east side of the cross over.When I was a little older, we were allowed to take the street car to Cumminsville to go to the oldLiberty movie house. We also went to the Cumminsville playground to swim in the summertime.Finally Hamilton Pike was brick paved in 1916. The interurban gauge was narrower than that of thestreetcar and there had to be three tacks on the northbound side. The streetcars only traveled north onHamilton between Belmont and North Bend Road, but the traction went both ways.229