819 Douglas Avenue
PhotosLegacy VersionGeneral Information
No: 819
Street: Douglas
House Name:
Historic Plaque:
Owner Info: Y
Built: 1954
Sec: 28
Subdivision: Thomas R. Biggs-Gravelotte
Lot: most of 4 & 5
Architect: Ferd B. Critchell Sr.
Cont/build: Hoefler & Sons (in 1940 Census on Wooster Pike. Don't know where.)
Description:
As first built this was a split level, frame/brick front home with
vertical siding & wood shingle siding, gable roof: living room, dining room, kitchen, breakfast
nook, 4 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, porch, entry, 1 car garage .
Original Use: Residential
Current Use: Residential
CHANGES:
As Built: N
Added To: Y
Subtracted From: N
Replaced: N
Description Of Changes: 1955 - Critchells finished the third floor bedroom. Dr. Lloyd Owns used Steinkamp & Nordloh, architects, to add a family room, 2nd floor bath and enlarge the kitchen. In 1961 he added a jalousied porch behind the kitchen. He turned the existing porch off the living/dining area into a room with built in shelves and a double fireplace facing into the new room and jalousied porch. The natural wood in the living/dining area was painted white. Also, the 3rd level of the house, playroom, was plastered and made into a master bedroom. The unfinished storage area off the old playroom was divided into storage and a full bathroom. In 1970 the Stites made a 23' 6 x 16' addition. They made the jalousied porch off the kitchen into a room and built an adjoining large pool (table) room across the back of the house with a half bath and patio. This addition also had a basement underneath, reached by spiral steps and an outside cellar door. The architect was Thomas Wiggers. The builder was Don Curless. In 1982 the Stites used Kenneth G. Weiss to finish off the unfinished storage room off the master bedroom as a walk-in closet. In 1995 a portico (porch) was added to the front of the house. The architect was Jane Yancey (Seeley), their 811 Douglas neighbor; the builders were Hall & Elliott. 2008 - permit to BRE Investments, LLC for interior alterations (Mike Wentz, architect, Oakley Home Improvement, contractor).Also for new front porch (Jane Yancey, architect, Oakley Home Improvement, contractor).
Shows earliest property ownership records
Stories:
Story 1: Hoefler & Sons, builders, are listed as family 245 in the 1940 Census on Wooster Pike but we don't know where. The father, John, was born in Austria. The mother is Dorothy, born in Ohio. John and his son Louis are listed as Carpenters - Own business. The other 3 sons, George, John Jr. & Charles, may have been carpenters too by the time this house was built in 1954. There are 2 daughters, Betty & Bonnie.Story 2: Douglas was a paper street in 1953. Ferd Critchell Jr. bought the ground that had belonged to John Robinson (of circus fame) and Carl Keyser (nephew or cousin). In 1954 it was replated into 5 80' lots, 200' deep. In 1956 the 2 lots at the end of the street were bought from Kessler Smith (who lived at 906 Stanton) whose sister, Leonora, was married to John G. Robinson III, the last operator of the Robinson Circus (see information with 1 Circus Place).
Story 3: Lloyd Owens lost a long battle with Parkinson's disease, June 19 [2009] at the age of 80. Lloyd served as a family physician for 35 years in Milford and Madeira. He attended Denison University, University of Cincinnati Med School, and completed his residency at Cincinnati Jewish Hospital. He was an officer and flight surgeon for the U. S. Air Force, a member of Sigma Chi at Denison and a 50 year honoree of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine. He did hospital work at Mercy, Mariemont and later Mercy Anderson with concurring privileges at Jewish and Bethesda North. Lloyd retired to Key Largo, Fl in 1993. He volunteered at John Pennekamp National Seashore Rescue Team. He and his wife returned to Ohio in 1998. His greatest retirement achievement was being grandfather and Papa Doc to Gavin and Kevin McGowan, sons of daughter, Lynne McGowan of Sitka, AK., Leezann Colby, daughter of step-daughter, Kristen Colby, and Sam and Faith Duncan, children of step-son Bob Duncan (Lisa) of Lebanon, Oh. He also leaves his devoted wife, Carlotta, and brother, Bennett (Beth) Owens. A memorial service was held June 27 at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, Lebanon, Oh. (from Greater Loveland Historical Society Museum newsletter, Summer 2009)
Story 4: Pete Stites died 16 October 2013. Edna Ingles Stites was born in Indianapolis in 1931 and died in Cincinnati in November 2015