wild mansions (Hamilton, Perry: to rent, weddings, school)

[t45209]

Originally Posted by skippercollector

Years ago, when I took a bus tour of Savannah, the tour guide said that the definition of a mansion is a house that had 16 or more rooms. I don't know if that's a correct definition, that's just what I remember.

This is what I think that could translate to: parlor/sitting room/living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast room, den/office, music room/family room, conservatory, and numerous bedrooms that might include servants' quarters on the third floor.

I don't know if there is an officially recognized definition of what a mansion is, at least based on a number of rooms. I think the term is applied on a more subjective basis as a way to describe a house that is not only big, but perhaps ostentatious.

[skippercollector]

There are a lot of new McMansions out there. I don't know if they have 16 rooms, and they definitely don't have servants' quarters (maybe an au pair), but they definitely meet the ostentatious part!

[Cincy Rider]

Interesting topic! only thing I can add is I've been inside Mr. Chesley's place...pretty big, lol.

Oh and I would love to have that Diehl House (with the 50 acres of course). Beautiful land where it sits.

[t45209]

Since this thread sort of began with the Werk houses, it's interesting to note that there is a connection between the Werks and the Oskamp homestead on Harrison Avenue (now the Judson Retirement Home). William Oskamp was married to Thomas Werk's daughter, Adele. The Oskamps called their home "Willadel" and it was built around 1895 or 96. Harrison Avenue must have really been a sight to see at the turn of the 20th century! Many Cincinnatians probably remember the Oskamps as jewelers. My grandmother used to take me into the old Oskamp Nolting store on 7th Street downtown which I think at the time carried a lot more than jewelry, everything from gift items to toys (I was only interested in the toys). I think the building is still marked with the Oskamp Nolting name.

Fortunately, Willadel is still standing, but there is another interesting story about the Andrew Jergens mansion in Northside which unfortunately had a sad end. Andrew Jergens, who founded the soap company that bears his name, built a beautiful Gothic Revival home at the corner of Hamilton and Bruce in the 1890s. After Andrew Sr died in the 1920s, his son, Andrew Jr, lived there. In sort of a weird twist, Andrew Jr put it in his will that if none of his children were to live in the house, it should be torn down. Why, I have no clue, but unfortunately none of his children wanted it and it was razed in the late 1960s. Some of the architectural features of the home were saved and relocated to other parts of town or given to the Art Museum. The land was donated to the Cincinnati Park District and now bears the name "Jergens Park."

[sandasene]

Originally Posted by Sarah Perry

The Diehl House is looking really nice, pretty much completely restored at least from the exterior at this point.

Was there a large mansion on North Bend just east of Colerain Avenue, where a condo development now sits?

Yes, there was a large house where you are thinking. Drove past it many days on my way to McAuley. Was a sad day when it was torn down...

[skippercollector]

For the first time in years, I drove down Diehl Road in Green Township. It's a different planet than it was 10 years ago.
I don't know if the house was moved, or if the road was moved, but the house and road are much closer together now. The house looks awesome. The brick was painted cream/yellow and there are green shutters along the windows.
Much of the hillside is gone and there are paved roads going in various directions. I understand there are baseball diamonds being built there, which are appropriate given the house's history.

http://issuu.com/communitypress/docs/greentwn_4web

[Sarah Perry]

I think I heard at one point they did relocate some part of Diehl. But that was before I returned to the area going on 10 years ago. The house appears a lot closer to the street now than it did before they cleared the vegetation around it, removed an addition and renovated it.

[goyguy]

That was an interesting pic of the Girls Town building. It doesn't seem at all ominous in the photo, but always looked foreboding whenever I drove by. No one's mentioned its eventual fate. Sometime during the '90s it was demolished, ironically in favor of tennis courts for St X. Ain' no girls in that town!

I'm a Herschede Mansion fan (3886 Reading Rd, east side of the street at the SE corner of Avondale Ave if you want to drive by.) From time to time it goes on the market and then - unsold - vanishes from the listings again. The main thing deterring would-be buyers is of course the fact that the neighborhood goes from iffy to sketchy within two blocks (though of course all the side streets in the immediate vicinity are in excellent shape.) But the thing that bugs me the most is how much of the land surrounding the place was sold off over the years. The driveway and portico on the south side don't overlook the adjoining post-WWII brick box apartment building, they bump right up against it. It must've been a pleasure to linger on the front porch and look down the slope to watch horse-drawn buggies and carriages lazily passing; watching cars and trucks go by, not so much. My consolation is that the current owners, whether descendants of the jewelers or not, appear to be in no great rush to unload the property. Too many spectacular homes in Avondale and Walnut Hills did get unloaded in a great rush, and wound up as either a pile of rubble or with an unseemly new use such as a nursing home or funeral parlor.

Another "compromised" estate that I lament is the mansion opposite Mt Storm Park along Lafayette Ave in Clifton. It served as Sacred Heart Academy until the end of the '60s. At present it's been carved up into condos as part of a development called The Windings - since winding is precisely what Lafayette does at the fringe of the property as it descends to Ludlow Ave. To add insult to injury, townhouses were haphazardly put up all over the grounds.

A similar fate was met by the Liddle mansion in Wyoming, which once presided over about 14 acres of wooded hillside along Reily Rd. Built around 1840, it has its place in history as the location where the charter founding the Village of Wyoming was signed in 1874. By 1968 the house - having aged gracefully - was draped with wisteria and for sale. At that time Wyoming was in the midst of a building boom, and drooling developers were scrambling and clawing to get hold of the land. There was an ad hoc group of preservation-minded people who pooled financial resources to try and keep everything as is, but they were steamrollered by speculators who were willing and able to bid as much over the asking price as they had to. End result: The street behind the mansion was extended practically onto the back porch, complete with new homes, and the hillside in front gave way to a brand-new street bearing the name Liddle Lane. Happily the house is still there and looking good, but now all it presides over is some grass and other people's back yards.

Better news - The Powell Crosley mansion in Mt Airy is moving right along with renovations. Mr & Mrs Goyguy Sr toured through it when there was a public opening, and went on and on about all of the features (like an intercom system) which were way ahead of their time when installed.

Better still, to me, is hearing the latest about the Werk Mansion, b/c the last thing I'd learned was that it was still foreclosed and cannibalized. I wish the new owners - and the house - all the best.

[Sarah Perry]

That reminds me...anyone familiar with the yellow brick beauty that's I think out on Mulhauser in the middle of industrial park sprawl? It's been on and off the market for years.

[t45209]

Originally Posted by Sarah Perry

That reminds me...anyone familiar with the yellow brick beauty that's I think out on Mulhauser in the middle of industrial park sprawl? It's been on and off the market for years.

Do you mean Mulhauser, or perhaps Mosteller?

The John Hauck Estate is a yellow-brick mansion on Mosteller Rd. in Sharonville that is surrounded by industrial development and has been for sale for several years.

That house was built in 1904 by Louis Hauck (John's son) as a summer home. John Hauck was of course John Hauck of the Hauck Brewing Company. Many of the Cincinnati beer barons had homes and farms in Butler County where they grew the grains for their beers.

The house has been variously proposed as a music school, a wedding venue, and I think was used as offices at one point. The house is seriously threatened as it has no practical use in the area that it is located.