General Information

Stories:

Railroad Houses
James Whitelaw Sibley is responsible for developing more of Terrace Park than any other person. He was born February 20, 1816 in Montpelier, Washington County, Vermont and came west through New York state where he married Mary Alida Hastings in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, September 9, 1840. He settled in Cincinnati as a Commission Merchant. By 1880 he and his family were living on Grandin Road in Hyde Park where he remained until his death, April 6, 1893. It wasn�t until 1886 that deeds show him buying up land in what became Terrace Park. He established four subdivisions: South of Oxford to the north side of Amherst in 1886, Myrtle to Miami and Marietta beyond Stanton to the bluff in 1890, Amherst to Marietta and Yale to Miami in 1891 and the south side of Amherst from Elm to Floral in 1892. By then he was 76 years old.
Once he had some land he needed to start building houses. It looks as if he then found a Cincinnati architect, bought plans for a house from him for $25 and started building homes using this plan. These are the ones that have become known as �railroad houses�. Perhaps they should have been called �Sibley houses� since all of them are in his subdivisions. Why they were called �railroad houses� remains a mystery since it does not appear that they were built either by the railroad or for railroad employees. Certainly it was well know that there was easy rail transportation from this newly developing area into Cincinnati for work.
The first home he built still stands, now greatly enlarged, at 311 Harvard Avenue for his eldest son James Hastings Sibley. He too was first listed in the 1880 and 1890 census as a Commission Merchant like his father but by the 1893 Cincinnati City Directory was listed as a Real Estate agent living in Terrace Park. Before that he and his brother were �helping father�. In 1887 J. W. Sibley built 306 Rugby Avenue, also now greatly enlarged, for his next son Frank Hastings Sibley. He also built homes for the West (203 Marietta Avenue) and Bellville families (710 and 716 Floral Avenue) as well as for the Lucius and Amanda Conking family at 615 Amherst Avenue in 1892. Stella Galloway Boone wrote a paper for the Terrace Park Garden Club in 1942 in which she lists 17 �railroad houses�. Exactly how each one looked when it was first built we will probably never know, but there seems to have been some variation as in 615 Amherst Avenue. Most have had significant additions but are still recognizable as houses built by the Sibley family in the 1880s and �90s. It seems sad the James Whitelaw Sibley died just as Terrace Park was becoming incorporated. According to Ellis Rawnsley both he and his son, Frank H. Sibley, were among the founding fathers of Terrace Park.