History
Madisonville was founded in 1809. Oakley was founded in 1852 as a coach stop. Both were in Columbia Township. Industrial growth expanded the area. Streetcar service between the neighborhoods was available from 1900 - 1910. Madisonville and Oakley were annexed by Cincinnati in 1911 and 1913 respectively. The nearby Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., today known as Milacron, built in 1911, had relocated to the nearby industrial area of Oakley. This company brought many prospective homebuyers to the area (see attached digital photo). World War I brought employment and the postwar era generally brought a building boom between these two neighborhoods, despite the Great Depression. In 1926 the Mill was the country’s “largest machine tool company” according to the Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati. The company remained prosperous by selling a variety of products, because the auto industry was growing and because the company was exporting to the USSR. “By the late 1930s, (they) led the world in making machine tools”. The William’s Cincinnati Directory of 1929-30 notes in its forward that after “the World War” the government lifted a ban against “unnecessary building.” A streetcar route ran nearby and Cincinnati Milling Machine was served by railroads. These lead to the development of the area. The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati calls Oakley-Madisonville a “streetcar and railroad suburb”.
Eastwood was a planned neighborhood which started as a 60-acre (240,000 m2) wood and farmland. Platted in 1922, Eastwood Subdivision largely developed beginning in the 1930s and continued gradually through the early 1950s, during the time of the Great Depression, World War II and the post-war housing boom. As a result of the increased vehicular mobility and access offered by automobiles and buses, suburban development began to fill in Cincinnati’s larger undeveloped, pre-suburban tracts. Eastwood was able to develop as a modest, tightly knit middle-class residential enclave despite hard economic times because of its proximity to relatively stable Cincinnati industries, notably Cincinnati Milling Machine, the nation’s largest machine tool manufacturer. Eastwood’s housing development during the 1940s reflects the relatively dependable growth of nearby industries, many of which operated at peak capacity during WW II and after. Of the 34 occupations listed in the city directories for property owners during the 1930s, 28 were identified as managers or professionals.
Original plats show Eastwood Subdivision #1 platted by the Eastwood Realty Co. This is now East and West Eastwood Circle and part of Madison and Duck Creek Roads. The deed records of Hamilton County show Eastwood #2 and Eastwood #3 as Collinwood Place and part of Madison Road, and Overbrook Place and part of Duck Creek Road, respectively. There were 30 acres (120,000 m2) sold from the estate of Phoebe A. Settle (an original Madisonville family) to A. Raymond and Alice G. Kratz on 8/17/22. The Settles had had a farm here with a farmhouse next to the Children’s Home. On 9/1/22 the Kratz’ began to have the land surveyed into the plats that still exist in what seems to be the same form today. Mr. Kratz is listed in the1920 city directory as a music teacher living on Woodburn Av. and in the 1929-30 directory as a teacher at Hughes High School and as living on Erie Avenue.
Kratz’s obituary indicates he was a well-known music teacher and supervisor, bandmaster and author of teaching guides. His brothers were doctors, one of whom was J. Collin Kratz, who owned the house at 4900 Madison Road and for whom Collinwood is named. In his house today exists the original sign he used to sell the rest of the lots of the street of Collinwood. It advertises them for $95.00 each. Dr. J.C. Kratz was a prominent citizen of Cincinnati. He founded an osteopathic hospital. He was a close friend to many in the local political scene and an active supporter of the symphony and the fine arts. He was a writer as well as the developer of many landmark medical techniques. His wife Minnie Kratz was a member of the Vanderhortz family who built many area church steeples. They had a sign hanging during the Depression to indicate to hobos that they could receive a free meal at their house. The father of these men, William H. Kratz (a mechano-therapist), owned the house at 5031 West Eastwood Circle. Plat copy shows G. L. Stichnath as the surveyor. There is a survey tool found in the corner of the attic of 5049 W. Eastwood Circle (a house that is said once belonged to the original builder). The oldest houses are mainly on Collinwood; and on the circle the middle, outside of the circle was built first. The center stayed empty the longest because Ray Kratz, the developer, kept these lots for himself yet never built there.
Read more about this topic: Eastwood Historic District
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.”
—Henry Geldzahler (1935–1994)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)