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415 Terrace Place

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General Information

No:   415  
Street:   Terrace Place  
House Name:   Terrace Market 1903-1980  
Historic Plaque:   Y 2008  
Owner Info:   Y  
Built:   1903/1980  
Sec:   23  
Subdivision:   Sibley  
Lot:   114  
Architect:   James L. Chapman Sr.  
Cont/build:     

Description:    Simple 2 story, aluminum siding, gable roofs building.     
Original Use:   Commercial  
Current Use:   Commercial  

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

Description Of Changes:   Fire (probably in the late 1930s) destroyed some of the 2nd floor of the original building so the roof was lowered. With Paul Kennedy's addition the roof line again went up to a peak. Kennedy's addition was 1990/91 on the north side. 1982 - built a detached garage. 1989 - added a driveway and parking lot. Obviously there have also been other changes especially to the front of the building.  
Deeds
Shows earliest property ownership records

Stories:

Story 1: In 1903 the Village owned this building and used the 2nd floor as a Town Hall, council chambers and polling place. It also served as a community center where functions, including dances, were held. (Both Mrs. Startsman, who came down from Indian Hill to attend school, and Mrs. Rixey had fond memories of this.) A side entrance on Harvard led to the 2nd floor. The Village rented the 1st floor to Lucius Conkling and his wife who served successively as grocers and postmasters from 1903-1921. Then came Louis Bosch who rented the store, and the post office returned to 411 Terrace Place.
Story 2: From Village Views September 1980. (This is the time when Paul Kennedy bought the building. No one was interested in buying and running a small independent store.) Originally 2 stories high. Village Council held meetings on the 2nd floor before the move to the Community House in 1922. The first village post office was there (no, at Mrs. Gegner's), as part of the grocery, it had one of Terrace Park's first telephones, and the storekeeper doubled as railroad ticket agent. The roof and part of the second floor burned in 1932 during Louie Bosch's long tenure. According to the story, Louie had just bought a new meat grinder, painted bright red and his first anxiety was to save that new and expensive machine, putting it out in front of the store. Terrace Park was served by Milford's fire department in those days, and a fond village legend has it that an excited Milford volunteer mistook the grinder for a fire hydrant and tried to attach a hose to it. History is hazy as to just when the building was put up. Court house records on that point are missing, although indications are that it was built sometime before the turn of the century. (?? The land itself first appears on the records in 1886...Sibley sold the lot to Barbara Keene for $282.50?) All early recollections identify Lucius Conklin as operating the store through all the early years, but apparently he was a tenant and not the owner. Deeds on record at the courthouse show that George Kaiser acquired the property in 1898 and transferred it to Emil Rauscher in 1899. The biggest mystery surrounds the record that the village owned the property from 1903 to 1925, apparently using the second floor and renting out the space below. The long association of the Bosch's, known to many villagers, began in 1925 when Anna K. Bosch took title. Although Louie and Elsie Bosch were active in the store, their title dates from 1942. Turnover thereafter was rapid. Durwood and Helen Hughes, now living in Florida, ran the store for several years after buying it in 1945, and it then passed on to Al Huber, Robert Ruhl, Hugh and Elizabeth Gallagher (with Mrs. Gallagher still resident in the village), John Barnett, William Vinnage, Lou and Carol Fahrnbach and, finally, Gerda and Jerry Braunheim.
Story 3: Paul Kennedy says there are still mementos from the past in the attic of his building: cases of wicks for kerosene lamps; old black stove paint; rat traps; 1930s and 1940s old glass jars on tripods for crackers, candy and bubble gum to sell to the children; 1946-8 ride tickets. This was a regular meeting place especially for the children of Terrace Park. They came often after school to buy ice cream and other goodies.
Story 4: The Drinking Fountain (in the bend of the walk between 413 and 415 Terrace Place). Council Minutes May 13, 1910. To proceed to put a drinking fountain in front of the Village Hall (corner of Harvard and Terrace Place) at expenses not to exceed $40 and if they find they can put a drinking place for animals with the added cost of not more than $10 to include that also. The actual cost when complete was $33.92.
Story 5: The front entrance to Kennedy Associates looks very different from the store front of C. W. Conkling's Grocery. In later years the store entrance was similar to Kennedy's but we do not know when the change was made.

From the Village Views article for January 2008 by Carol C. Cole - after further research on 415 & 411 Terrace Place.

          James W. Sibley established his first of four subdivisions in 1886, south of Oxford Avenue to the north side of Amherst Avenue.  Probably that same year or a bit later he had a house built facing Terrace Place (411 Terrace Place) a couple of lots down from where the Terrace Park Market later stood.  That was a Victorian Queen Anne style three-bedroom frame house, bought by Mrs. Harriett Gegner in 1891.  The 1893 Hamilton County Directory lists �Gegner, Mrs. Harriet M., books, post master and railroad agent.�  The building shows on the 1892 map of Terrace Park, the only building in that block and is marked Post Office on the 1892 map of Sibley�s subdivision.  On Sibley�s map there�s also a train station across the tracks of the Little Miami Railroad and a Grocery store marked on the corner of Amherst Avenue and Newtown Road, later renamed Elm Avenue (Beck's Grocery). 

          Terrace Park was incorporated early in 1893 and obviously needed a place for its Council to meet.  At first they had an arrangement with Dr. Langsdale to meet in his Elm Avenue office. (2011 - After more investigation Esther H. M. Power has concluded that Dr. Langsdale's office was at 609 Amherst Avenue, clearly in sight of Elm Avenue, but not actually on Elm Avenue.  Dr. Langsdale lived there and had his medical office there. That would explain why we'd never been able to find his office on Elm Avenue.)  For some reason by September of 1893 their meeting place was changed to the room over the Post Office, which they rented from Mrs. Gegner.  It�s interesting that there were then nine places where public notices had to be posted: Beck�s Grocery (corner of Amherst and Elm?), the Station, Iuen�s Tavern (at the crossroads on Wooster Pike), the house of Village Clerk Voige (101 Miami), the large sycamore in front of Mr. Floto�s house (211 Terrace Place - he was mayor), the School, near the Baptist Church (Community House), Robinson�s Station and the big tree on Marietta Avenue. 

          A resolution was passed on January 30th, 1903:  �On November 19th the Council of this Village adopted a resolution for the issuing of bonds in the sum of Fifteen Hundred and Fifty ($1550.00) Dollars for the purpose of raising money to purchase real estate for a Town Hall and Offices for the Village.�  Thus it looks as if the Village wanted their own building and not to have to rent from Mrs. Gegner.

          [The TP Historical Society has] the original plans for that building on the corner of Harvard Avenue and Terrace Place, drawn by James L. Chapman Sr. The plans show there was already a building a bit back from the corner with a door opening onto Harvard Avenue.  The new building just added on to the front with a much grander entrance opening onto Terrace Place.  In fact it was a building very similar to Mrs. Gegner's.

          We do not know whether James Sr. had any formal education to become an architect or may have just been apprenticed to an architect and learned that way.  However, he designed the Terrace Park School as well as the store and 618 Yale Avenue where they lived for a while.   Later they bought 100 acres on Shawnee Run and ran the Chapman Dairy.  It may have been in one of the dairy farm�s barns that the plans for the Terrace Park Market were found.  Mary Chapman also gave us blueprints � but neither copies include dates. 

          Lucius Conkling was a relative of James Chapman and had his home built at 615 Amherst Avenue in 1891/2.   His family had been in the area since 1803 when Lucius� grandfather, Abraham, moved from Morristown New Jersey to Indian Hill, buying land where the Camargo Club is now.  There were 10 children, five of whom remained in the area.  Son, Lindley, built the mansion that is now the administration building for Stepping Stones.  Lucius� daughter, Sidney, married the architect, James Chapman.    Their son James Jr. married Mary Ernst of Milford and it is she who has given us so much information and pictures of the Conkling and Chapman families. 

          The land where the market was built was owned by James W. Sibley in 1886, the year he established his first subdivision.  It was sold to Barbara C. Keene that year, then to George B. Keiser in 1898, then to Helen Barnett�s relative, Emil M. Rauscher, in 1899 and finally to the Village of Terrace Park in 1903 for the purpose of building a �Town Hall�.  The ground floor was rented to Lucius Conkling.  He and his wife served successively as grocers and postmasters from 1903-1921. The Village used the upstairs as a Town Hall, council chambers and polling place.  It also served as a community center where functions including dances were held.  One reached the 2nd floor through the old side door on Harvard Avenue.  The Village owned the building until 1925 when they no longer needed it for Council Meetings or other activities because they had moved to the present Community House on Elm Avenue. 

          The Conkling�s daughter, Lillian, was postmaster for about a year in 1920-21 in a small building on what later became the Village Green.  Mrs. Gegner sold her home in 1921 to Lulu Tarvin who then became postmaster, followed in 1925 by Lillian Droescher for 25 years, until Effie Miller took over and built the present Post Office in 1953.  Harriet Gegner, Lulu Tarvin and Lillian Droescher all were storekeepers at 411 Terrace Place.

          The Conkling home facing the Village Green stayed in the family until probably 1950 when it was sold to Bolton Drackett.  Store keepers after the Conklings included Louis & Elsie E. Bosch, Hugh M. & Elisabeth B. Gallagher (732 Miami), John Barnett, Durward Hughes (329 Rugby) William R. & Carolyn M. Vinnage, Louis & Carolyn Farnbach (600 Myrtle) and Juergen & Gerda Braunheim.  Unfortunately in 1980 no one seemed interested in buying and running a small independent grocery store so it was sold to Paul Kennedy where he and his brothers now run Kennedy Associates.  We are very fortunate that Paul grew up in Terrace Park and remembered fondly visiting the market almost daily.  Thus rather than tearing down the building that had served the community well for so many years, Paul restored the original peaked roof, destroyed in an earlier fire, and set his addition back on one side so the original dimensions of the market are still clear.