The Birth of Historic Preservation in Montgomery

In Episode 2 of Montgomery Memories, hosts Tracy Henao and Kevin Chesar take listeners back to the beginnings of historic preservation in Montgomery. From grassroots efforts to save the Universalist Church to the community response that followed the loss of the Presbyterian Manse, this episode traces how citizen advocacy, private investment, and local leadership shaped preservation policies that still define Montgomery today. It’s a story about protecting identity, honoring community memory, and ensuring Montgomery’s history remains part of its future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome back to Montgomery Memories. I'm Tracy Annell, Assistant City Manager.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

And I'm Kevin Chezar, Community Development Director. Today we're talking about how historic preservation took root in Montgomery, why residents began to rally around history, the city did in response.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

So I think it's important to understand the Montgomery's preservation story, to step back and kind of think about what was happening across the region, especially in Cincinnati during this time period, which was like the late 60s and 70s.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Right. And for much of the mid-20th century, cities like Cincinnati were transferred by urban renewal. Neighborhoods were demolished for highways, parking lots, and new development. By the early 1970s, many residents began to question whether progress was coming at too high a cost. I know, even from an urban planning perspective, and as you know too, Tracy, just from an educational perspective, we look at that time as sort of a uh a very controversial aspect of what was occurring in in cities and and uh trying to get new development to occur and highways, things of that nature.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Um we're both urban planners by by training, so we can geek out on discussion about urban renewal for a long time, and we won't we won't waste the listeners' time doing that. But you're right, it was a very controversial controversial period in our history, and it was, I think truly people were trying to improve cities, but it often had uneven impacts, and many communities of color um had the greatest losses. They were ripped apart by highways and um, you know, new construction development. So it really um was a tough time, and it's still we still feel the impacts of it today. Um, now, of course, this is a really big conversation. We don't have time for that here today. Um, but we just want to talk about what those lessons meant for Greater Cincinnati and and how that spilled over to Montgomery. So, in response to these urban renewal efforts, strong historic preservation movement really started to emerge, not only in Montgomery, but in Greater Cincinnati and neighborhoods like over the Rhine, where residents were organizing to save these buildings and to push back against widespread demolition, not only for preservation, but uh more about preserving our stories and about protecting the community identity, not to mention housing, um, and then just the local history. So it really is a very complex issue when you step back and look at it from a higher level.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Those efforts eventually led to stronger preservation policies in Cincinnati, including local historic districts and design review, and that regional shift in thinking, the idea that old buildings were assets and not necessarily obstacles, influenced communities throughout Greater Cincinnati, uh, specifically including Montgomery.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

That's right, Kevin. And so long before historic preservation was part of city planning, urban planning, part of any of our regulations here in Montgomery or even in Cincinnati, it often started with ordinary citizens who simply just wanted to see their communities preserved and didn't want to see these meaningful places disappear.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Right. And there was no formal group, I guess, at the time. Many of the early preservation efforts were led by civic groups, church members, local historical societies, people acting out of a sense of stewardship for community memory. Over time, those grassroots efforts laid the foundation for today's preservation laws and practices.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, and one thing that's really interesting with a lot of movements at this time period, a lot of early historic preservation movements across the country were led by women. Um, they might not have had a lot of formal political power at this time, but they did have a lot of community influence. And through their churches and the civic groups they belong to, they really pushed this idea of saving our history and sharing these stories for the future. So it's just an interesting fact about preservation efforts uh throughout the country.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Now, for everyone out there, I'm not trying to bash my fellow man, but it really was all about the ladies, wasn't it? I mean, in the Northeast, they're the ones that took a foothold to preserve buildings down in Savannah, Georgia. They're the ones that saved a lot of the buildings down there.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

So yeah, you're absolutely right. Maybe they just drugged their husbands along by their ears and said, You're gonna care about this too. But but yeah, it was a very uh female-led effort very early on. Um, and then as we talked, I mean, obviously here in Montgomery, there are a lot of a lot of men that were very much involved. We're not trying to say that they weren't, they were um and still are to this day. So um just an interesting tidbit about history since that's what this podcast is about. Um, as we talked about in our last episode, Montgomery really changed and grew after World War II, as many communities did throughout the country. And this kind of harkens back to some of our urban planning training is a lot of um a lot of white flight happened during this period where people were moving out of the inner cities and into the suburbs. Um, a lot of veterans were moving out into the suburbs because they were given cheap land or opportunities to purchase homes for much cheaper than it would have been in the in the central city. So again, this is a time period that was instrumental in building our building out our suburbs. Um, some would say urban sprawl to some certain extent. Um, and it is another controversial time period in terms of urban planning because it did leave the central core business district uh struggling a bit. And we're now starting to kind of reverse that thinking and bringing people back down to the to the central business district. But alas, I'm geeking out on planning again, so I'll stop doing that.

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Right. Montgomery is uh basically a first-ring suburb. Right. Even that's important today because suburbia is even further. So reinvesting in Montgomery has been uh you know a great effort that's occurred by our local residents with new homes where they can put infill, things of that nature. Um, they get back sort of that historic aspect. Uh, you know, residents and city leaders by the mid-70s were starting the question that many community had the same question, I guess, that many communities had at the time. How do we grow without losing that sense of identity and what makes our our place, Montgomery, special? So uh, you know, that question is still being asked today. We had our our recent comprehensive plan approved, and we're still looking at how do we balance that preservation effort with a lot of times that's policies or regulations, specifically for our heritage district, and still allow growth and um modernization to occur, I guess, appropriately.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

So right, right. And it's even a part of our vision statement is making sure that we're a premier community, but maintaining that small town feel. And I think a lot of that has to do with maintaining the historic district and historic Montgomery. So let's talk about kind of what really prompted historic preservation in Montgomery. So one of the earliest signs of the preservationist concern in Montgomery was a threat to the Universalist Church at Montgomery and Remington Roads. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Right. And so in the 1940s, and I love the name of this, it's members of the old-fashioned garden club. Old fashion. The old-fashioned garden club versus just the new garden club or just the garden club. Um, they were led by Harriet Swain, raised funds to stabilize and repair the building, um, including work on the cupola roof and the general interior. They tried their best to fix what they could. Um it but it basically was an early example of residents stepping in to care for a historic structure before formal protections even existed at all that we have today.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah. And then by the 60s, there was even more threat to this church. And it this church really, I think, is a kind of a symbol of Montgomery. It's even part of the landmarks brand, uh, in their little logo, but people really identify with this church. So in the 60s, it was facing serious threats with structural damage, deterioration, and there was a developer circling around wanting to build a gas station, which um was was pretty common for Montgomery in this era. So at one point, we actually had five gas stations, three of them at Cooper and Montgomery. Um, another Maine and Montgomery. And so this was pretty common, but that was the last thing we needed was another gas station, especially if that meant tearing down the Universalist Church. So what happened there?

SPEAKER_00 9:01

So the gas stations existed all at the same time, all five?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, all five at the same time. Only have one in the city today at UDF. So it's uh a little bit different, but you know, we talked about in that first episode how Montgomery was always kind of a stopping point along the road from Cincinnati up to Columbus, and so we were we were servicing the travelers um because that's what they were stopping in Montgomery for gas and maybe to get a drink or stay overnight on the way up to the up to the Capitol.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So the answer was no to a gas station for the Universalist Church. Yes, and then in 1962, Tom Barons, who was a former mayor of Montgomery, and his wife Edith, purchased the property, Universalist Church, and saved it uh from demolition, which be and started beginning much-needed repairs to the structure again. Um, and I think their actions ref helped everyone reflect in the community about a growing awareness that historic buildings both required community support as well as private investment.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Absolutely. And by 1970, the Universalist Church Historic District was formed. And so this is a national register list of historic places. So you can have local and federally listed, and this is both. Um, so this includes Universalist Church, the Crane Conklin, which is directly south. It's a white building with star anchors on the side, if you ever see that one. The Presbyterian Mance and the Pioneer Building. They were all listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Um, and it was, interestingly enough, one of the first and still one of the smallest um national places in Hamilton County alone.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

And I think it's important for everyone listening to recognize that national designation alone doesn't guarantee protection. Uh, and in 1971, the Presbyterian Mance, uh, despite its historic status, was still demolished. And a lot of that has to deal with property rights within uh the United States and how we view them. Tracy, can you just talk a little further about yeah?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

That's one of the things that we talk a lot about in our Montgomery Citizen Leadership Academy classes and on the walking tour is that you can do all of this preservation work. And unfortunately, at the end of the day, a lot of times property rights will trump in this country. Um luckily, we have very strong landmark regulations that will deter these buildings from being torn down, but national really doesn't, really doesn't save it. Um so at the time, you know, tearing this down was not a violation of anything. There was no regulation here locally that didn't do anything wrong necessarily. There was nothing that we could the city could have done, and the owner was well within their rights to to do that. Um, but it struck a chord. Uh the residents really didn't want to see this building come down. Um, it was a turning point for the community, and people were protesting, speaking up. Um, they were going to council meetings and and you know, telling the council, hey, we really want to do something about this. We don't want to lose these historic buildings. Um, and there became this understanding that you needed to have broader action at the local level, and that Montgomery really needed to be part of preserving these buildings. And so this is um this was really the birth of that movement, and it was led by this strong reaction to the destruction of the Presbyterian manse.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Right. That that demolition really helped lead to the formation or building of the Montgomery Historical and Preservation Association, and it actually prompted City Council to take a more active role in the preservation uh of Montgomery.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yeah, that's right. So by 76, the the city had established the landmarks commission. Um, this commission is a volunteer commission of seven that are tasked with identifying significant buildings, reviewing all their changes, educating the public. Um, so any any landmark comes before the landmarks commission if they're making any changes to the exterior of the building, so we can make sure it's keeping in the character not only of the time period in which the building was built, but in the character of historic Montgomery. Um, and it really became part of how we plan uh moving forward.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

And today there are 32 locally designated landmarks. Many of those are also listed nationally or at least on the national register.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

And I I think it's important for people to understand it's what 50 years, I believe, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, 50 years after 50 years, something can be that old can be considered historic, but there's other things to take into consideration too, besides age. There's, you know, was there a significant uh event that happened at this location? Was there a person of significance that was associated with the building? You know, so just uh does the architecture in keeping with the all these different things you want to start thinking about? Um, like for instance, if there was just uh an old building that was built in 1950 that didn't really have much significance, it architecturally didn't look that great, nothing of significance happened there, you're probably not gonna want to put that one on a national register or even a local landmark just because of age. So you have to think through the reasonings for listing something.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

And even those 32 landmarks that we have locally, uh, part of our process is to make sure that every property owner was on board for listing them. So part of that uh is that the landowner must agree to become that local landmark. So it it it does twofold. It doesn't have a city coming in being heavy-handed saying we need to, in a sense, take this property or have it utilized for historic purposes and then regulate it that way. But it uh gives the opportunity for a landmark owner to recognize, hey, I have something special here, I want to preserve it. And I think that's what we even see today with people buying our local landmarks. They really are into the history aspect and take great care to try to preserve the structures that they are holding for at least their point in time of the history.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So yeah, I mean I couldn't agree more. They people that are buying these landmarks really care about history and they care about preserving them. Um, they go to great care to track down the exact type of uh doorknob to use on their door and things like that. So it's really it is really cool to see um and they're proud to own these buildings and to share the history with the with the community. Um, and as you were talking about, we do have we people have to volunteer to list their properties, but we also have something called contributing structures within the the district, which would be properties that may not be listed, but definitely could be, um, are qualifiable, I guess, and they contribute to the overall character of our downtown. So, you know, eventually we might get a couple more. Uh that's the hope anyway.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Um and our and our landmarks commission works when anyone wants to have any type of exterior exterior change to the building. Uh, the property owners, we take them through a process and try to work with each one of them for their unique needs and still trying to preserve the history, but allowing that modernization to occur. And I think the end result has still to this day, we've done a really good job because we have a great walkable uh heritage district where you could visibly see that 19th century architecture and how well preserved it's been and how that can coexist with some newer uses that are even in the downtown area. Um, and it's just the whole experience that you have, I think, walking into Montgomery. One of the things we don't even talk about too is the 2200 Kelvin uh requirements. Oh my goodness, we're gonna get off on 2200 Kelvin. Because if you look at our our street lamps, we want that warm yellowish glow, not the uh the bluish tone of some of the new modern lighting or LED lighting. So we're very specific about what we want to see and how just that overall ambiance is downtown, specifically with the heritage district.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, for sure. I mean, we talk about it all the time that our historic Montgomery is is part of our brand. It's one of the reasons that people come here and come to Montgomery is to kind of step back in time. So we are very, very specific about it and how it looks. So um, one of the things that that I get asked a lot and I kind of forgot to mention is how we name these landmark buildings, how they got their name, because a lot of times you'll hear them called the Crane Conklin um or the Wooly Hattersley. There's going to be different names associated. So for our listeners, that uh usually what it'll associate with is the first name is the last name of whoever built the house or lived there first. And then the second name is whoever nominated it for designation. Uh, so we're giving kind of a little nod to both the those who originally purchased the house or built it, and then those who nominated it for landmark status. Um, so you know, preservation, it's really just not about old buildings. It's about identity, it's about sharing our stories. It's part of our brand here in Montgomery. And it is one of the things that really makes us stand out. Um, when we preserve these places, we're preserving our stories for the next generation and even the ones that follow. So it's it's really important uh to do.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

I think that concludes our podcast, uh, at least our second one now, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

And we'll do more in the future about each individual landmark and kind of do a deep dive into the history of each of the buildings. This is just just the start, just the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Well, we'd like to thank everyone for listening. And if you have stories or questions, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at memories at montgomeryohio.gov or connect on social media. Until next time, keep exploring.