Oakley's History (Cincinnati, Hamilton, Norwood: sale, apartments, city hall)

[MUGuy]

I've lived in Oakley now for around two years and absolutely love it. We live in an arts-and-crafts era bungalow (1920's) that has so much character and history. Add on to this that Oakley's property values keep rising during the housing crisis and that for-sale homes don't seem to last all too long without getting sold.

I've Google'd Oakley history and have found out that Milacron used to be in Oakley and that Oakley used to be an apple orchard and have a horse track (not too sure about that one).

I'd like to find historical information regarding Oakley as well as my house and previous owners. Does anyone have good points of references to start with?

Thanks a ton in advance.

[goyguy]

You could spend weeks in the downtown library! They (and City Hall) would have all sorts of old city directories so that you could trace past owners of your house. Visit the courthouse if you'd be interested in viewing former deeds, titles, etc - they'd all be stored there. Also check out the Cincinnati Historical Society.

When you shop at "Tarjay" or one of the other big-box stores at Center of Cincinnati, you're communing with the spirits of Cincinnati Milacron workers. That retail area is where the plant used to be. And every time you buy candy or ice cream at Aglamesis Brothers, a tradition going back nearly a century is carried on.

I have no plans to return to Cincy permanently, but if fate decrees it I'd have Oakley on my list as a neighborhood to house-hunt in. Those bungalows like the one you have are the greatest, sitting there resembling funky little 1.5-story cottages on the outside only to reveal unbelievable space over as many as nine rooms once you've walked in. You never know, I might be a potential buyer minus realtor commissions! For a long time, people used to ridicule Oakley as "Hyde Park, near" - I'm loving how it's come into its own.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by MUGuy

Add on to this that Oakley's property values keep rising during the housing crisis and that for-sale homes don't seem to last all too long without getting sold.

I lived on Brotherton Road. My car was stolen and wrecked on Bramble. That ain't why I moved, I moved because illegals were moving into all the apartments on Brotherton, including the building I lived in.

Property values might be rising now, but they'll be dropping soon enough.

Originally Posted by MUGuy

I'd like to find historical information regarding Oakley as well as my house and previous owners. Does anyone have good points of references to start with?

I think there's a library right there on Montgomery Road, and Bigg's has some nice giant photos of Hyde Park/Oakley in their store.

The Hamilton County Auditor's website should give you info on the property, including previous sale prices, and whether or not the land was ever sub-divided.

[Cincy-Rise]

Originally Posted by Mircea

I lived on Brotherton Road. My car was stolen and wrecked on Bramble. That ain't why I moved, I moved because illegals were moving into all the apartments on Brotherton, including the building I lived in.

Property values might be rising now, but they'll be dropping soon enough.

As a Realtor that works in the Oakley area a lot ... this won't happen. The area is extremely stable and at worst will stabilize -not drop.

[davidmt]

I lived in Oakley for 20 years and remeber the Cincinnati Milling & Ginding Machines (Milacron. Where the big box stores are was the recreation area for the Milacron employees. Oakley once had a horse race track it was located in the area of Minoit Ave and Robertson Rd. When I was a kid you could do all your shopping right in Oakley.

[Crew Chief]

So what's the abandoned(?) factory-sized building behind the "Tarjay" and Meijer stores? One of the Meijer managers told me that the guy who owns Jungle Jim's wanted to put a store in that building but won't do it unless he could be freed from environmental liability and that the Norwood Lateral/Ridge Avenue/I-71 mess got fixed. Anyone else know anything about that?

[GManorborn]

Here's the Milacron plant:


http://www.bing.com/maps/default.asp...cl=1&encType=1

[gman5431]

The comment about Oakley property values dropping couldnt be further from the truth. Hyde Park already blew up and Oakley has in spots and the rest of it will soon follow. My parents own a home in Oakley and the value has been on the rise steadily for the past 3 decades.

G Man

[jetster]

My Grandfather owned a bakery in Oakley on Madison Rd near Taylor ave. I believe it is a fifth third bank now.The name of the bakery was Bruestles. I love to know if anyone remembers it or has any information about it.

[kjbrill]

At one time, Cincinnati Milling Machine, before they got class conscious and renamed it Milacron, was the largest machine tool company in the world! Of course they had other holdings, with plants in England and Europe. The name Cincinnati stood for the epitome in machine tools world wide.

I worked for a smaller company, not really a competititor, by the name of LeBlond at the intersection of Edwards and Madison Rds, no slouch in its own right. The Rookwood Commons now occupies that property.

Cincinnati Milling Machine built what its name implies - milling machines. In later years these were changed into machining centers once CNC came along.

LeBlond built what were called Engine lathes. Never could figure out where the term engine came from. For years they advertised themselves as the world largest builder of a complete line of lathes. I will say it was complete. They built small what were called tool and die lathes to huge lathes used by steel mills to turn rolls. During the space race, I remember us building one huge lathe in a tent in the parking lot which was destined to turn the entire integrated body of a liquid fuel rocket.

They also had a specialty line of machines which turned automotive crankshafts for virtually every car builder in the world. I remember walking through the plant and seeing the names of the world's elite painted on the side of the machines. One of the most amusing points of my career was going through our plant and seeing this huge machine set up to produce a Briggs & Stratton crank.

The vast majority of the residents in Oakley will neither know, nor frankly care, that at one time this was the center of the machine tool capital of the free world.

Oh, BTW, in that era the workers earned wages which is what gave meaning to the term American Middle Class. Guarantee you the employees at Target are nowhere near there on the relative economic scale.