Price Hill History

Price Hill, in its heyday, was a white man's community. (If you can think of a less-offensive way to communicate this truth, I'm open to a post-edit.) The economic apex of the neighborhood is long gone and the prestige of living there has also passed. That being said, we are only interested in living there because those truths about the past are indeed in the past.

A few excerpts from the Price Hill Historical Society's official website:

• "It was a neighborhood where one could escape the smells of the city and enjoy the comforts, peace, and prosperity of living in a hilltop resort community."
• By 1877, "many wealthy and prominent families realized that this was truly the place to live", and I highly doubt there were any prominent minority families just 12 years after the Civil War. (The house we just bought was built in 1890.)
• "Even the simplest Price Hill home often had a rich and varied interior, showing the conscious attempt of the inhabitants to strive for improvement and progress in their lives, or, in the words of Gustav Stickley, 'the reality of the worldwide movement in the direction of better things.'"

As sprawl has led the "prominent" further away from the city, much of the charm has faded. Price Hill is no longer the place to live. Now, in addition to the boatload of beautiful old homes, there's also a boatload of Section 8 housing.

In a post from a few days ago, I said that the neighborhood is full of people "young and old, white and black and Hispanic, drunk and sober, friendly and not-so-much, richer and poorer." I'll take today over the commonly accepted "heyday" any day of the week. The world looks alot more like today's Price Hill than it does the Price hill of yesteryear.