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

lives for so many years. The cadets dated some of the College Hill girls. Some of them used to come tothe Presbyterian Sunday School. I never got to know any of them very well. After Ralph and I married Ilearned that he had a letter from the Institute offering him a job as a riding instructor, when they wereconsidering adding riding to their curriculum. Ralph had been in the cavalry stationed at Monterey,California before I met him. I still have that letter.Peggy Ross told me about Bishop’s mound on the grounds of Farmers’ College. In winter the kidswould have snowball fights from the top of the mound-to be king of the mound. Robert Hamilton Bishopcame from Miami University at Oxford to join Freeman Grant Cary at the college. He gave specificdirections as to be buried on a spot he selected in the grounds of the college and specific directions as tothe construction of his burial mound. When he died in 1855 his wishes were carried out. His wife diedtwo weeks later and her casket was slid in beside his. When the Cincinnati Board of Education learned ofthis after buying the land, they insisted that he had to be removed. Miami University learned of this andasked that they be allowed to take the two bodies up to Oxford. They built another mound at the end ofthe Rose Garden next to Fisher Hall, following his directions. Another request that he had made was thatno stone should be erected over his grave, so that unless you knew the story, you would not have knownthat this mound was a grave site. The University followed his directions except that the sides of themound were sloped more gradually so that a mower could be used on it. At the end of the Rose Garden isa circle with an opening showing the mound behind it, a huge boulder is in the center of this circle with abronze plaque telling who is in the mound behind it.At the far end of the O.M.I. grounds was a cottage, and then came a wooded area. Next were severallovely old homes-then came the water tower where our water was stored before College Hill came intothe city. Somewhere close there on the west side of the street lived Tommy Birch, one of our classmates.He was a friend of Powel Crosley’s son and was supposed to have worked with him to develop the radio.At that time Powel Crosley, Jr. lived on Davey Avenue, about opposite the end of Linden Drive. Severaldoors from the Cozy Corner on Davey lived Miss Benson. I used to visit her because she had a big colliedog-I loved horses and dogs and my parents would never let me have a pet. Later on she committedsuicide by hanging herself in the basement of that house.On Llanfiar between Hamilton and Davey all of the houses there were now were built. The Centerfamily lived in one of them. On the north side of the street there was only one house, a big frame, ownedby Mr. Peters, who had the ice and coal business that was in a large metal building at the corner ofLlanfair and Hamilton Avenue. Then came the school property and past that an ugly old square buildingon what was said to be the ‘pound lot.’ The rest of the north side was empty until you got the LathropPlace. On the south side from Davey there were about five or six houses, and then empty pastures untilyou got to the old house about opposite Lathrop. I think that there were several more houses, but thecorner lot was empty. On the north side were two or three old cottages before you got to Flamm’sGrocery (5802 Belmont Ave.). Around the corner on Belmont there were several houses, then the veryold house at the corner of Cedar. On the opposite side was the Pounsford home standing way back on thehill. The came ‘The Oaks’ at the corner of Glenview.I remember a row of frame store buildings built south of Mr. Vail’s Feed Store (who also had astable). It stood back a little way from Hamilton Avenue. With a drive leading into the front end of ittherewere wide doors at both ends of the building so that wagons could be driven through and over thescale inside. These stores were slanted toward Hamilton Avenue, starting from the south end of the feedstore. There was Philip Steinman’s Palace Market in one of them. Shortly after that Mr. Vail had his brickhouse built just east of Miss Miles’ house. It has since been torn down to make way for the present postoffice. The previous post office had been in the little brick building just north of Waldman’s house.Several stories wee built between it and the bank building’s three stores. Diehn’s old candy store had beenmoved around the corner onto Cedar (where the meat and produce store is now located). Then the Dowbuilding was built on the corner. Over the years the buildings between it and Doll’s Bakery were built aswell as the ones between the Hollywood and doc. Schneider’s drugstore. The Hollywood Apartmentswere built in what had been the Hammitt front yard. Just north of it was a two-story frame sitting backfrom the street where Dr. Evelyn Partymiller lived wit her parents and had her office. We got acquainted232