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809 Miami Avenue

PhotosLegacy Version

General Information

No:   809  
Street:    Miami   
House Name:     
Historic Plaque:     
Owner Info:   N  
Built:   N  
Sec:   22  
Subdivision:   Sibley's 2nd BL 12  
Lot:   pt 4 & 5-10  
Architect:   2nd - a Linden Kit House  
Cont/build:     

Description:    1 1/2 story vertical siding Ranch, gable roof.  "Linden" kit home is the basis for the present home.    
Original Use:   Residential (1st - summer cottage)  
Current Use:   Residential  

CHANGES:
As Built:   N  
Added To:   Y  
Subtracted From:   N  
Replaced:   Y  

Description Of Changes:    1964 - S. M. Smyth added a 29' x 13'6 bedroom, bath and study. 1967 or 8 - John S. Reece moved the garage and put on a 12' x 26' addition. 1977 - Isabelle Schwarberg remodeled the interior. Remodeled by Pat & Karen Gallagher in the 1980s or early 90s. 1990 - new deck and steps. 2000 permit for John & Louise Stalnaker to make an addition and remodel. Jane Yancey architect. 2002 addition of garage with upper floor with plumbing.  
Deeds
Shows earliest property ownership records

Stories:

Story 1: Originally the Traxel/Gellhaus cottage (1899/1900). William Traxel owned the Traxel Art Company on Fourth Street in Cincinnati. Gellhaus, his son in law, headed Viking Sprinkler Company. The 3rd generation with parents and grandparents enjoyed summers in Terrace Park. When school was out they moved from Avondale to Terrace Park for three months of freedom in, on and by the Little Miami River. When they weren't in the river, they fished for crawdaddies with bacon rinds, picked blackberries, helped their grandparents tend their large garden, roamed the Park or read books. They were used to the Robinson Circus animals and not bothered a bit by the roar of the lions. ..... Each morning they biked to the post office to get their mail, and in the evenings thought nothing of walking into Mifford to see a movie for a quarter. Jean Gellhaus, of this 3rd generation, spent every summer here until she married Bob McSpadden, a voice teacher and ... supervisor of music for Cincinnati Public Schools. Jean's parents held onto their Terrace Park property as long as health permitted. They had hoped to build a retirement home here in 1944. But just before ground breaking, the government put a freeze on all private construction. By the time World War II was over, their plans had changed. (from an article by Camilla Warwick in the May 1993 Village Views - copy in TPHS house notebook)
Story 2: From THE CENTENNIAL REVIEW OF CINCINNATI 1888 (Copied from the volume in the library of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio: The Centennial review of Cincinnati: one hundred years. Progress in commerce, manufactures, the professions, and in social and municipal life. Ed. by John W. Leonard. Cincinnati, J. M. Elstner & Co., 1888 page 140) Closson, Traxel & Maas.- Manufacturers and Importer of Artists' Materials, Architects' Stationery, Etc.; 186 West Fourth Street. - Mr. A. B. Closson, Jr. has long been prominent as a dealer in artists' materials, etc., having established this business twenty-two years ago. About five years ago Mssrs. William Traxel and J. B. Maas became members of the firm, but the style of A. B. Closson, Jr. remained unchanged until September 1887, when the present firm name was adopted. They occupy a handsome store, eligibly located at 186 West Fourth street, embracing a large two-story and basement building, 25x100 feet in dimensions, with an elegant art gallery in the rear, where they hold from time to time exhibits of oil painting, watercolors, etc. Employment is given to ten clerks and assistants and a large business is done in artists' materials of every description, including paints, canvas, easels, pencils, palettes, brushes, plaques, studies, etc. art novelties, high class proof engravings, etchings, and fine picture frames, and every thing in the line. The trade of the firm, which is very large, is principally in the city and its surroundings, and also includes a considerable transient trade.
Story 3: Virginia Lance (m Ross Lance) is a daughter of Edward & Irene Gellhaus. 806 & 308 Miami. Their daughter is Judy Lance Schneider (later back to just Judy Lance).
Story 4: J. E. & Marcella Weiler at this address in 1953 (moved to 811 Miami). She sang in the St. Thomas choir as did their daughter Judy. Walter & Linda Budd later also sang in the choir.
Story 5: The Smyths had an auto agency on Kellogg Avenue. During the big flood in 1977 they brought their hearses from there and parked them in their driveway. (Information in stories 3, 4 & 5 from Marie Stoecklin)
Story 6: Eugenia Darling lives in Symmes Township in 2006 - friend of Peg Pettit. Has pictures of the house as a summer cottage, the way it was when they lived there.Husband Doane was always watching the bank behind their house since it seemed about to erode away. There was evidently a tree there that helped hold the bank in place. Evidently when the next owners lived there the tree went down and the kitchen was in great danger so they had to take the kitchen off and move it around to the side.
Story 7: The information on this house needs to be revised and clarified. There was an original summer cottage built here in 1900, probably for the Gellhaus family. At least by the time the Darling family lived here it was in very bad condition. I do not think the original house survives in 2009 (see story 1).

Louise Statnaker died 25 August 2017.