![]() A former grand home from the 1880's, it was awaiting caring new owners. My wife and I looked with our realtor at the former Hall-Jordan Funeral Home on Lincoln Avenue last April during our visit. Walnut Hills has some of the most impressive historic housing in the city and many of the grand Victorian era homes are on expansive lots that are generous by Cincinnati standards. Such practices are illegal today, thankfully. And yes, you are absolutely right that practices of "redlining" which curtailed the availability of loans and insurance, and discouraged investment, negatively impacted neighborhoods like Walnut Hills. ![]() The city fathers changed all that.Ĭlara Longworth DeChambrun in her 1939 City history states that Walnut Hills then (1930's) had an African American population of over 8,000 so the roots of that community go back a long ways. It's true that Walnut Hills in the 50's was a diverse neighborhood, but it was also a neighborhood where Blacks owed property and businesses. This was all to be done without the Black owners. The really disturbing thing is that this neighborhood was slated for just this decline as far back as 1948, letting the buildings lose value so they could be bought cheaply and gentrified or torn down and replaced. Redlining, the practice started after WWII of starving Black communities of home and business loans caused the property to deteriorate so that by the time I taught there, my students were living in homes with doors that didn't lock, where they were victims of crime regularly. Douglass School in those days was the premiere school for African American students who intended to go to college. What I didn't know until I taught at Douglass school in the 70's was that Walnut Hills was a thriving Black community of Black-owned homes and business, including classy night clubs and a Black Hotel. I had relatives, babysitters etc who lived in Walnut Hills and I went to dancing school in the ALms Hotel when it was still a hotel.
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