Remembering Van Leunens (Cincinnati, Milford: school, shop, garden)

[Señor Slick]

I worked P/T in the Van Leunens home improvement department (hardware area) for awhile back in the late '70s. It was great place to work and pick up some extra spending money. Great co-workers and great customers! I quit when I realized I wasn't really taking home much extra $$ because a buddy and I would go to the bar across the street (can't remember the name of the bar...a little north of the store on the right hand side...I'm sure kj would know) after the store closed for the night and spend most of what we made drinking beer. :-)

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Señor Slick

I worked P/T in the Van Leunens home improvement department (hardware area) for awhile back in the late '70s. It was great place to work and pick up some extra spending money. Great co-workers and great customers! I quit when I realized I wasn't really taking home much extra $$ because a buddy and I would go to the bar across the street (can't remember the name of the bar...a little north of the store on the right hand side...I'm sure kj would know) after the store closed for the night and spend most of what we made drinking beer. :-)

When you say on the north, that confuses me. If you would have said on the south, that would have definitely been Tommy's Cafe, a fixture for a long time. But on the north I get a little lost. Now going north and passing Snider Rd, there is a strip center, but it is on the left, which has had a local bar for years. It has had so many names I will not attempt to iterate. But is is the kind of place you could just sit at and consume everything you made that night.

[Señor Slick]

kj......it wasn't Tommy's.......was there a place called The Buckeye?

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Señor Slick

kj......it wasn't Tommy's.......was there a place called The Buckeye?

When you go back there that far my memory gives out. For many years the one I am thinking of was Tommy's. But it has not been that for a long time. The one I am thinking of is now called Win, Place & Show. But for almost 40 years ago, who knows?

[Sportster Guy]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

Sportster Guy ...

I live very close to where Pine Hill was. When we first moved here my two older kids would walk across the fields to Pine Hill to go swimming. They would also sneak over at night to go fishing without paying. Do you also remember Al-Char Lakes in southern Warren Co.? It also had a swimming area which I believe was a part of the lake. Took my kids there a few times as young people always want to join their friends.

I certainly miss Van Leunen's. Being a DIY guy I was always there constantly buying something. As I said, for a discount place they carried all first tier products in the home and garden division. Really missed when they closed.

kjbrill,

Yep, I remember Al-Char. My wife went swimming there because it was closer to her than Pine Hill. If you remember Al-Char, I'll throw another swimming pool at you. Glen Island, under the viaduct in Fosters.

Another place that I frequented a lot was Alpine Ski Resort just outside of Morrow. It had a REALLY good pool and in the winter it was a ski resort. My uncle ran it in 1974. The ponds around it had some of the biggest bass I had ever caught.

Ah, the good old days!

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Sportster Guy

kjbrill,

Yep, I remember Al-Char. My wife went swimming there because it was closer to her than Pine Hill. If you remember Al-Char, I'll throw another swimming pool at you. Glen Island, under the viaduct in Fosters.

Another place that I frequented a lot was Alpine Ski Resort just outside of Morrow. It had a REALLY good pool and in the winter it was a ski resort. My uncle ran it in 1974. The ponds around it had some of the biggest bass I had ever caught.

Ah, the good old days!

When you talk about Glen Island, I remember my parents referencing it as Glen Island Casino. Apparently a whole lot of years ago there was some gambling going on there also. That was a hopping area long before the viaduct was ever built, back when US 22 was a major road prior to the interstates and wound down over the Little Miami.

[Sportster Guy]

kjbrill,

You're absolutely right about Glen Island being a gambling resort. My Grandpa worked on the viaduct when it was being built. There use to be a bar called Herb's on the corner just north of Glen Island just as you went on the bridge across the Little Miami. Then there was a bar called the Blue Danube just on the other side of the bridge and then at the corner of 22-3 there was a little Catholic church. (go figure!)

Do you still reside in Mason? I grew up in the last house on west Church Street. There are still fields just to the west of our old house and the fields were owned by a Tracy (last name) family.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by Sportster Guy

kjbrill,

Do you still reside in Mason? I grew up in the last house on west Church Street. There are still fields just to the west of our old house and the fields were owned by a Tracy (last name) family.

Yes I still reside in Mason. I moved here in 1975, the year after the tornadoes. Part of the roof of my house had been torn off by the tonadoes which leveled the Thriftway market, which they rebuilt and several other establistments in town. I bought the house after it was repaired. I vaguely know where Church St is, but don't hold me to it. Our area was known as the Heights, to the west of the Jack Nicklaus golf course (Golf Center). We love it here and hope to stay until we croak, but health problems can turn everything upside down. So we are getting on 38 years here, probably already passed that.

My older kids were totally pissed we moved them from Madeira to the podunk, cowtown of Mason. They were in middle school at the time. The two younger ones, including the youngest one delivered two days before Christmas at our home in Mason, went all the way through Mason schools and are no more worst for the wear. This is as a great area to build up children.

[verminthrash]

I remember going to the Delhi Van Leunens all the time when i was a kid. It was China Town before that, now it's a Krogers.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by verminthrash

I remember going to the Delhi Van Leunens all the time when i was a kid. It was China Town before that, now it's a Krogers.

The Van Leunen's here in Mason was a large well run store. It originally had a grocery store at the north end, the general merchandise department store in the middle, then a pet shop which also sold tropical fish, then the home improvement store, and last a seasonal store which completely rotated merchandise according to the season. Off the south parking lot was a series of open front buildings which stored everything from garden mulch to lumber to building supplies such as pipe, cement, sand & gravel, etc.

The first thing which gave way was the grocery. This became a sporting goods store. The store was a good space, probably the size of the average Dick's today, and I felt they had good merchandise, but they didn't last. The space is now an unfinished wood furniture business today.

When Van Leunen's made the decision to close, Thriftway made the decision to move from their location nearer downtown Mason into the original department store, they remodeled into a Thriftway Marketplace. While the space was larger in square feet I felt it was a bad move. First of all the ceiling height was low which made you feel like the store was cramped. When you had the aisles of grocery products on shelves, to me it felt like a cave. The Thriftway store nearer to downtown, while smaller, was a much more pleasant shopping experience. The original building had been demolished by the tornadoes of 1974, and the replacement had high ceilings which permitted lighting to spread giving a light airy feel, and to me was a pleasant shopping experience. Thriftway sold that property, the grocery was demolished, and now St Susanna Catholic Church occupies the location.

Portions of the original Mason Van Leunen's are still sitting empty. A few store divisions have been made for such as Dollar Store, Harbor Freight, and the like. But few people get excited over these stores. And the open air storage buildings on the south portion of the property just continue to decay. You can say they are beginning to get decrepit and a blight on the neighborhood. I realize the times do change, but in this area of Mason I am very despondent that Van Leunen's did not fight the forward trend. They were one of the best and we MISS THEM!