Contents
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- A Short History of Mt. Washington

- Stanbery Park

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Mt. Washington is a family-oriented neighborhood located at the eastern edge of Cincinnati's city limits. Once part of the vast Virginia Military District, Mt. Washington has existed since 1790. The soldiers of Virginia, including George Washington, were rewarded for their service with land, but few settled it, choosing to sell it instead. Mt. Washington was first settled by Baptist minister John Corbly and farmer Stephen Sutton. Corbly Road and Sutton Avenue still pay homage to those two men.

A Short History of Mount Washington
By Stephen B. Smalley

(1) Soon after the close of the American Revolution six men became the owners of what is today considered Mount Washington. They were soldiers of Virginia and it this land was part of the Virginia Military District. Virginia's surveyor, Richard Clough Anderson, marked off the limits of their property. Anderson Township and a Clough Creek are indebted for to him for their names. These six men did not settle on their property—they sold it to others who did the pioneering.

(2) Indian troubles were not yet over in this region when the first white men developed a settlement near the foot of today's Beechmont Hill and by 1805 were developing farms on the top of the hill.

(3) The first village to develop was called McCormick's settlement, and later Salem. By 1805 Rev. Francis McCormick had founded the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church and his large family had settled around present Salem Road and Sutton Avenue.

(4) The next village to develop was called Mount Washington. Stephen J. Sutton probably gave the name. Sutton opened his store at what is now the corner of Beechmont and Corbly in 1846 and the village developed around it. His boyhood home was the little log cabin his father had built in 1804 and which still stands at 1712 Longbourne.

(5) A third village developed around today's Birney and Beechmont and it was called Cedar Point. Vincent Shinn, who owned much property along the narrow lane, gave it the name Birney Lane because he admired the presidential aspirant of 1840, James G. Birney.

(6) The first post office was established in 1830 at Salem. It was called Mears Farm. It stood at the corner of today's Sutton and Mariwood Lane. Stephen Sutton managed to have it transferred to his village and to his merchandising establishment when he opened it in 1846.

(7) The first three churches established were Methodist. First was the Salem M. E. in 1805, and in 1851 both the Mt. Washington M. P. and the Mt. Washington M. E. The former was later abandoned, then its place of worship moved to Corbly near Sutton. Several other churches have used it including the Lutherans. In 1866 the Baptists organized under Rev. B. F. Harmon. He was the father of Judson Harmon, who became governor of Ohio. The Harmon's were residents of Mt. Washington. This church was abandoned before the turn of the century. Next, in 1892, came the Roman Catholic Church of the guardian Angels. In 1912 the Presbyterians organized. In 1927 the Nazerene's and in 1929 the Church of Christ organized. In 1951 to churches organized – the Faith Evangelical and Reformed and the Zion Lutheran. In 1953 the present Baptist Church was organized.

(8) From its conception the village was never without schools. As early as 1836 there was a school where the Water Tower now stands. In 1847 one was built in the settlement at the foot of Beechmont hill. Salem had one next door to the church, it was preceded by a log school. In the 1850’s an Academy stood where 6110 Corbly is now.

(9) In 1859 a part of the Odd Fellows Hall was used as a school. It stood where an earlier school had stood --where the water tower now stands. Mount Washington was incorporated in 1867 and two years later the Odd Fellows gave the building to the village. The public school we made they air until 1933 when it moved into its present building on Mears Avenue. Sunnyside Seminary, a boarding school for girls, was organized in 1872 and located in the building, which still stands at the end of Wasigo Drive. In 1892 the Roman Catholic seminary, now named St. Gregory, was established and Guardian Angels School followed two years later. In 1914 St. Joseph Academy for Girls was organized and in 1951 it became McNicholas High School.

(10) On June 5th, 1911, most of Mt. Washington was annexed to Cincinnati and almost every street name had to be changed. Some of the old names still remain in corner sidewalks, as at Cambridge and Mears, where the names Woodburn and Harms appear.

(11) Transportation to and from Cincinnati was always a problem. Stephen Sutton, who, in 1847, operated omnibus line from Amelia through Mt. Washington to the Linwood Station of the Little Miami Railroad, now the Pennsylvania, first solved it.

(12) Next, in 1876, Henry Brachman, who lived on Beechmont near the street that still bears his name, organized a steam narrow-gauge railroad company. It became the Cincinnati, Georgetown and Portsmouth Railroad and operated from the East End to Georgetown.  In 1902 it became an electric interurban line which was abandoned in 1935. The station, built in 1902, is used today as the American Legion Hall on Sutton Avenue.

(13) In 1897, Nicholas Wolf, another wealthy Village resident, operated an omnibus line from Cedar Point to Linwood. John Widman drove the four horses and the coach and finally became the owner of the line. He had to give it up when, in 1903, the Interurban Railway and Terminal Company began operating streetcars from Cincinnati to Bethel through Mt. Washington. Even before this interurban folded in 1918 a bus line was being operated from Cedar Point to Cincinnati. Buses and private cars have linked the two places ever since.

(14) One of the earliest industries in the village was the brickyard operated by A. A. Rebold near Corbly and Oxford. He made the bricks that built many of the early public buildings and residences. George Strasser made carriages, wagons, plows and other farm implements. W. E. Dunham had a thriving print shop where the old Kroger store stood until the present one was built on the corner of Beechmont and Corbly in 1999.

(15) A. A. Colter canned the thousands of bushels of tomatoes and other farm products at his cannery on Plaza and Beechmont. Later the Frugal Electric Range Company used the building.

(16) The first bridge across the Miami near Beechmont was built in 1836, a half mile below the present one, where the old road forded this stream. It was replaced in 1875 by a beautiful suspension bridge just above the present one. This in turn was replaced after the 1913 flood by the one abandoned in 1954.

(17) A tollhouse and gate stood near the foot of Beechmont hill, also another stood at the foot of Salem and Kellogg – and still another stood at Salem and Sutton. These roads then were privately owned.

(18) There were no less than two town pumps before city water was supplied. One was located at Plymouth and Oxford and the other at Beechmont and Roxbury near LeClere's grocery store.

(19) Bucket brigades were the first form of fire protection and the volunteer firemen came running at the sound of a bell, that stood opposite LeClere's grocery store. Later, horse-drawn equipment was bought. One piece is still preserved by the Ohio Mechanics Institute.

(20) Beautiful Stanbery Park contains over 30 acres of ground. It had been the property of Brigadier Sanford B. Stanbery, whose widow sold it to the city for less than it had cost to build the beautiful residence which stands in the park. The park was dedicated in 1940.

(21) The water tower was built soon after the public school moved away from Campus and Beechmont in 1933. It is now a landmark that can be seen from miles around.

Stanbery Park


Stanbery Park is named in honor of Brigadier General Sanford B. Stanbery who had his home on the park site and was the highest ranking officer from Hamilton County in World War I. The 125.509-acre park is located at Oxford Avenue, north of Corbly, in Mt. Washington. The first parcel of land was purchased in 1938.

The park features areas suited for picnics, band concerts and community gatherings, and a more rugged terrain with old and beautiful trees and a sparkling stream. The hiking trail, which extends to the Little Miami Scenic River Park on Elstun Avenue, is part of the National Trail System of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Along the Albert Shoop Trail, named in honor of Stanbery's caretaker who planted wildflowers for visitors to enjoy, you will find trillium, Dutchmen's breeches, several varieties of violets, Jack-in-the-pulpit, blood root, and celindin poppy.

Located in the park is a bronze statue of a boy reading, sculpted by Arthur Ivone. This World War I Memorial was moved to Stanbery Park from its former location near the water tower in Mt. Washington in 1940 when Stanbery Park was dedicated.

Stanbery Park is noted for the landmark decision of April 5, 1973, when a Common Pleas Court Judge ordered a developer to pay the Cincinnati Park Board of Commissioners $18,489.05 for 56 trees on park property which were mistakenly bulldozed by the developer. The case set a precedent and sent a warning to all those who would infringe on park property since the value of the trees was assessed on their beauty, not as timber.

Park facilities include picnic tables, grills, open shelter, playground equipment, and softball field.

Related Links:

Cincinnati Parks