1950's Swifton Village Memories (Cincinnati, Mount Vernon: 2013, apartment, rental)

[goyguy]

Some background: Not all of the streets in Swifton Village retained their names when the complex was demolished in favor of the "Dreesville" development which took its place. As you've seen, Snowhill Dr became Faith St. I guess the deep-pocketed church which purchased the property (and is now looking to unload at least part of the shopping center) wanted to re-dub some of the streets. This would serve the twofold purpose of 1) Removing association with what had long ago devolved into a crime-plagued and largely deserted community, and 2) signaling that the land's now owned by a religious institution. It wouldn't have been practical to try and change what Langdon Farm Rd, Seymour Ave, and Rhode Island Ave are called. Each of those is fairly heavily trafficked and extends outside the neighborhood. But other than that it was fair game.
Swifton Village's successor is known as The Villages of Daybreak. Several years have passed since its inception, yet some of the homes that have been constructed have either never been lived in or are already up for re-sale. Quite a few realty listings depict the schematic drawings for a planned residence at a given address rather than the actual structure. The obvious intent of the landowner and developers was to offer the option of newly-built dwellings to middle-class aspiring deed-holders. The target demographic would be interested in either helping to stabilize the area where they grew up or to be "urban pioneers" drawn to the convenience and energy levels no suburb can hope to offer. Police blotters never include locations within that enclave, so at least one goal was achieved. But OTOH "Jordan Crossing" remains almost completely devoid of retail tenants, not even every fast food outlet with high-visibility Reading Rd frontage has stayed open, and the relocation of the area's DMV office farther north in Roselawn took away another reason to go there. And why buy an unimaginative residence on a treeless lot, in an area with little shopping within walking distance, where the local schools are terrible, when you can get the same "package" but with good schools in the mushrooming sprawl north of 275?

[GoBucks0477]

I wonder if there is some kind of new use for the property.

I know it takes significant financial commitment, etc... but with a plot of land that (as others pointed out) has such a large potential there off Reading and Seymour... You'd think it'd attract SOMETHING. Especially with Club Aqua closed down, that was a huge scourge for the area.

Woodward has been updated / added on to. The old PNC tower is there, although they lost the Kroger. Quick to the interstate down Seymour (and the area near Paddock and Seymour is light industrial, I work back in that office park). Who knows!

[Mumser]

Does anyone have any photos of this memorable shopping area? In the late 50's early 60's, this is where my family shopped for just about everything. We lived in Sharonville and the anticipation of the planned shopping day was too much for me to handle. Please help, I'm having a nostalgia attack.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Mumser

Does anyone have any photos of this memorable shopping area? In the late 50's early 60's, this is where my family shopped for just about everything. We lived in Sharonville and the anticipation of the planned shopping day was too much for me to handle. Please help, I'm having a nostalgia attack.

I think many people will have fond memories of Swifton from the 50s. We lived in Madeira and I remember driving down Montgomery Rd to what was it, Langdon Farm Rd over to Reading and Swifton? Even after the original Kenwood Plaza outdoor strip mall was built, I used to travel to Swifton to shop at the original Gentry Shop since they carried clothes in my large 2X size at prices I could afford. Later on, I would meet Gene Elkus on flights to or from New York where he made the purchases to stock his stores. Eventually they opened a store in Kenwood near the intersection of Galbraith and Montgomery Rds. Shopped there religiously for many years.

Others have mentioned shopping at the Palm Beach factory and Hyde Park clothes across the river in NKY. Certainly remember going there also. Also remember the Polly Flinders outlet downtown where we outfitted our girls with their great hand smocked dresses.

[Novellaa]

This is all so interesting to read. I too was a resident of the old Swifton Village as the transition began from Hillcrest Garden Apartments (Snowhill Dr) to Huntington Meadows (Faith St) around 1999. Now Glen Meadows is still there (neighboring project) Woodward High School has been completely remodeled (BIG AND BEAUTIFUL). You can still get Bean Pies and Newspaper from the Muslims (if that was your thing) on a good day! As for the old Swifton Commons now Jordan Crossings it's nearly empty. The old Elder Beeman Dept. Store is now the Bond Hill/Roselawn division of CAA (community action agency) and public library. The CAA provides great service for seniors and other income qualifying services. Anyone remember the a store in the plaza known as J.J. Newberry? The hair store is still there and I believed it's the same owners. I was a faithful client of the popular hair salon -Accent (Regis subsidiary) this was on the lower level of the plaza as Regis was upstairs across from the License Bureau. For a long while it housed the popular local radio station 100.9 WIZF the WIZ. There were like over 60 retail spaces I'm sure of it then it seemed like only 10 were actually occupied. So many retailers have come and gone. It's now a total eye sore! Surely there's a lot of money that would have to be put into getting that plaza up and running again. I don't see that happening anytime soon. The only restaurant still standing in Captain D's. The parking lot is that of a ghost town. They finally tore down the check cashing place that stood there forever at the corner of Reading and Langdon Farm. The Hillcrest Shopping center however is now flourishing so to speak, thanks to several new stores: Roses, Citi Trends and Save-A-Lot. You still have the car wash, McDonalds, Beauty Supply store, Family Dollar (guys out there hustling DVD/CD's, incense, knock-off hand bags, etc.) and Simply Fashions. Few others still occupied too. Across the street facing McDonald's stands Popeyes and a beautifully gated Walgreens! Behind them you have your parking lot full of potholes that leads to the city's most notorious club ... no need to mention the name as it changes every 3-5 yrs. Swifton aka Hillcrest Garden Apts aka Huntington Meadows have all been torn down and replaced by a new development of beautiful homes. Some of the for sale signs are quite pricey ("higher than a cats back"). 120k+ ... Surely that sign will stay there with such listing price. Great memories ... 😊😃

[goyguy]

As of Halloween, Swifton has met the wrecking ball! Most of the old shopping complex is due to bite the dust if it hasn't by now. What's being saved is the south end of it - the part originally anchored by Rollman's, followed by Mabley & Carew and Elder-Beerman. Once the rest of the lot is cleared the plan is to construct a new building containing apartments as well as retail spaces. It's to be given the unimaginative name "Midpointe Crossing."
That this latest project will succeed isn't something I'd wager much on.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by goyguy

As of Halloween, Swifton has met the wrecking ball! Most of the old shopping complex is due to bite the dust if it hasn't by now. What's being saved is the south end of it - the part originally anchored by Rollman's, followed by Mabley & Carew and Elder-Beerman. Once the rest of the lot is cleared the plan is to construct a new building containing apartments as well as retail spaces. It's to be given the unimaginative name "Midpointe Crossing."
That this latest project will succeed isn't something I'd wager much on.

I will go further than that, it is another project pouring money down a sewer. How much do you want to bet the new apartments will all be Section 8?

[goyguy]

It's kind of like a planned failure to give the project a stupid name like that. Surely there's a noteworthy person (living or dead) from the Bond Hill and Roselawn area deserving of recognition. Or they could even revive "Swifton."
There are some signs of the area's struggle to revive succeeding. It was mentioned up-thread about a few stores which have managed to stay open. "Rose's" was an unintentionally appropriate name for the neighborhood, and is a self-labeled "upscale dollar store" - remember when they were called dime stores? They just went in last year. The Save-A-Lot seems to be better than the "ghetto grocer" many feared and what Kroger's had descended to. An independently owned sub shop on Seymour, using homemade lemonade as their unique marketing tool, has gotten great Yelp reviews from the all-important and elusive demographic (White folks with discretionary income.) Walgreen's...eh. They're willing to locate stores anywhere to keep visibility high, and can write off losses from being in low-income or sketchy areas.
What's encouraging is the shutdown of not only Club "Whatever" at that end of Woes Lawn, but also the long-desired demise of Vito's at Reading and Summit. That takes out two "shooting galleries" - now to go after Celeberties (actual spelling.) But two key pieces of the puzzle remain stubbornly in place. The district schools, after the closing and tear-down of Crest Hills Junior High, are still in the rankings cellar and the charter schools that have sprung up are hardly any better. And two once sought-after but now avoided apartment complexes keep hitting the crime blotter, Glenmeadow much more often and for worse things and Roselawn (once "Colonial") Village on occasion. Many of the classic brick box buildings on Eastlawn Dr and Losantiville Ave are also harboring a bad element now that their rents have gone way down and the market for controlled substances never sees a recession. (To say nothing of those along and north of Summit.) And overshadowing all the good and not-so-good is the popular perception of Swifton and vicinity having hit the skids ages ago.

[zach_33]

Interesting. Must have been 1991 when me and my brother were driving up Reading in his p.o.s. car when it broke down just south of Seymour, right in front of Swifton Commons. There was a auto garage right there, I believe it was a satellite business on the outskirts of the parking lot there. We pushed the car up into the garage to have it serviced. Seemed a little downscale but we could barely afford beer and cigarettes back then so we didn't really notice that aspect of the area. I'm gathering from this thread that it has gotten considerably poorer in that area since the early 90s.

[GManorborn]

Picture of Swifton Village in 1953:




More at Browsing Street Construction and Improvements by Series "Street Improvement Photographs -- Box 43"