Walking and Gawking in Avondale, Part 1

As I mentioned yesterday, Dave and I went on a tour of historic mansions in North Avondale over the weekend, and now I have lots of fun photos to share with you.

Avondale was one of the earliest, and toniest, suburbs of Cincinnati. In 1886 Willard Glazier wrote about it in his book Peculiarities of American Cities, calling it a beautiful enclave where “the homes of Cincinnati’s merchant princes and millionaires are found…in elegant cottages, tasteful villas and substantial mansions.”

Avondale itself was modeled on an English town concept with large lots, winding streets, sidewalks, underground utilities, and gaslights that still flicker. The leading local architects of the Victorian era were hired to design fashionable homes for many wealthy German-Jewish families, who had been excluded from Cincinnati’s social circles and moved to Avondale to establish their own community there.

Racial unrest in Cincinnati in the 1960s caused many residents to leave the suburb. Some of these mansions sat empty for years or were turned into apartment buildings. But there have since been successful efforts with the North Avondale Neighborhood Association to promote better community relations within this racially integrated community and to restore the homes to their former glory.

The Cincinnati Preservation Association organized the home tour in the Rose Hill area of North Avondale. It was 70 degrees and sunny on Saturday, which was perfect weather for strolling up and down the streets of this lovely neighborhood, taking pictures as we went. Take a walk and gawk with us now.

We hadn’t even parked the car and started the tour yet when we passed this white house. I yelled “Stop!” so suddenly that Dave nearly ran off the road and hit a telephone pole. But look at this place. It was worth the almost-crash to get the picture of it:

After that we found a good parking spot and started walking through the leafy neighborhood, making picture-taking much safer for everyone involved. I thought this traditional brick home was charming:

Excuse the sun spot on the photo below. I’m not a professional photographer (just a professional gawker). Below this is a close-up of the front door, which I loved:

What was really fun about this neighborhood is how different each home is from its neighbors (unlike new suburbs, where all the houses look essentially the same with minor changes). The ones in the Rose Hill neighborhood each had their own distinct personality. Like this yellow house, for example, with the periwinkle trim:

Here’s an old gas street light. Someone had hung their hat there and left it:

This was an adorable little house with a rambling cottage garden. Right next to it was one of the biggest mansions in the neighborhood, which I’ll take you on a tour of later this week:

Aren’t these fun? But wait–there are more fabulous houses from this tour coming up in the next post, including the mansions we actually walked through. Do you have a favorite of the ones I’ve shown you so far?

If You’re Hooked on Tours of Old Houses:

• The Telford Mansion
• The Spite House
• Cobble Court
• Stokesay Court
• Coco Chanel’s Parisian Apartment
• 1908 Gaslight Mansion
• Mark Twain’s Mansion
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s William P. Boswell House
• Sears Honor-Bilt Home: The Lynnhaven Model
• Sears Modern Homes: House Kits from Catalogs
• Pheasant-Hill Farm