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

as after the water mains, gas mains, &c were put into Belmont Ave., I could not afford to pipe water orgas into it and it was not only unsaleable but became unrentable without these utilities. The street on ourBelmont fronts was raised eight feet and sidewalks of cement put on north side and the assessments werefrightfully high...”The house was sold to a well known building contractor, Reno Runck, in 1920 and for many yearsremained in his family. “Mr. Runck tells us that when he acquired the property a few years ago, the solid,hewn-out beams that were the gutters were still doing valiant service; but they were also supporting anupstart growth of young saplings...The gutters are (now) being used as feeding troughs for the chickens.”A street was opened near the Runck/Witherby house and the families wanted the street to be namedWitherby. This suggestion was rejected because of a Witherby Avenue in West College Hill. Wheninformed of this Ella responded: “You speak of the colored settlement having its Witherby Avenue. Thatwas the beginning of our grief with the property. Charles Steele, a politician...made a proposal to Papaand to Mr. Emerson, an honorable gentleman, whose property like ours abutted on North Bend Roadopposite what he (Steele) had acquired, which they firmly repudiated as unworthy and he told them thenthat he would ‘fix `em’ for defying him. AND HE DID by starting that settlement with huts built ofrailroad ties and old tin and scraps...This ruined that neighborhood and when I was forced to sell, the land- very beautiful- that Papa had held at $1,000 an acre and hoped would remain or become more valuable,I accepted for it $400 per acre from a German gardener... Other factors integrated and I was indeed thesufferer and lost heavily...” 66 For a complete history of West College Hill see: To Better the Conditions: The Annexation Attempts of West College Hill, QueenCity Heritage, Susan Redman-Rengstorf, Spring 1985, pg. 3-14.66