Between Wilmington and Washington CH...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The quality of architecture in these dying small towns is so impressive....  makes your soul ache to see it all just slowly disintegrate.

Better than I thought.

Thanks, ink, for yet another eye-opening photo session!  (like taking a time-machine back into Ohio when it was so much younger)  However, I can't close my own comments here w/o relaying a rather ghastly non PC (yet hilarious and true) anecdote about that town from eons ago...  When I was an undergraduate back in the '60s who periodically traveled from OSU to home in Cincy with my buddies, we would ALWAYS stop in Sabina to see the mummy "Eugene" (if I correctly remember his nickname...)  This macabre attraction sat in a little hut behind a funeral home and anyone was welcome to stop and see it.  Sadly, it was the well-preserved remains of a little old black man (immaculately-dressed/origin unknown) who just "sat there," inside his little cubicle, for all to see. (somebody in town had discovered his body and the funeral home had agreed to embalm him)  What was hilarious about all this, however, was that OSU students would routinely "steal him" and set him on the front steps of the OSU library on the Oval!  This prank was repeated for years before everyone got smart and gave the diminutive gentleman a real burial.    :roll:

Some nice Victorian era survivors in the town but overall looking faded and a bit sad. One has to wonder how much longer these will still be around? Thanks for the photos, Ink.

I thought it was one of the better rural towns when I passed through last year. The city hall was one of the most impressive for a city that size.

I can personally vouch that Sabina has extremely effective speed cops who monitor everyone who should be slowing down from the mind numbing 55 MPH drive on arrow straight US 22 once they cross into town.  :whip:

 

Is that Kim's Diner any good?

Cute, I like the municipal building.

The large structure at the rear of the municipal building may be a gymnasium/auditorium. Some small-town city halls of that period had those.

The building extending over the sidewalk in photo#4 looks like something out of medieval Europe or Asia. It is an example of something not often seen in Ohio.

 

Ink, I don't always comment on your threads but I want to say thanks for posting. I have been able to see things that I would not have been able to see otherwise. You have a good eye for these small towns, and I am always happy to open a new Ink thread.

 

 

There is a thread on Shawnee, Ohio - a dead and crumbling coal town in SE Ohio - that has similar buildings with rooms overhanging the sidewalk. They are in much worse shape than this, though.

 

Ah, found it - http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=14323.0

 

Most of em are second story porches but I see one room in one photo.

Oy! I love Sabina. Yeah, I'm from Wilmington, so it is nearby, but I often times go out of my way to go through Sabina - visiting friends in Athens, on my way to Jeffersonville Outlets. They have the best homemade cookies at Uhl's IGA! I get them every time I go through!

 

The quality of architecture in these dying small towns is so impressive....  makes your soul ache to see it all just slowly disintegrate.

Sabina isn't in that bad of shape. Take the pictures with a blue sky background in the summer, and surprisingly, the buildings change.

 

The people out in the sticks are slowly realizing the gems they have and slowly re-understanding their place within rural and urban relationships. From farmers replacing their commodity crops with organics, community gardens sprouting up everywhere, and agri-tourism on the rise, these are just a few factors in small rural towns recognizing a new importance in a regional market. I'm excited for rural America, just about as excited I am for Over-the-Rhine.

^ Really appreciated your observations, exurbkid!  Your positive and provocative comments have challenged my standard, lethargic view of what riches really lie between the two "lower 3-Cs."  In so many ways, maybe what's old is new again--or at least our urban perceptions of the rural are gradually changing.  Thanks!

Better than I thought.

 

I thought so, too.

 

I've been through here and when I saw the title I thought "Oh brother, another of inks small-town-sameness thread"...but we see some good detail here.  ink has developed an eye for that, finding these gems even in prosaic places like Sabina.

^ Really appreciated your observations, exurbkid!  Your positive and provocative comments have challenged my standard, lethargic view of what riches really lie between the two "lower 3-Cs."  In so many ways, maybe what's old is new again--or at least our urban perceptions of the rural are gradually changing.  Thanks!

 

I'm glad I can garner up some spirit for those things rural. Living in Cincinnati for the past 3 years has certainly made me fall in love with the place I am from, only for its proximity to a few incredible cities and its ability to share in their prosperity. Rural and urban are inextricably linked, and that needs to more explicit in the policies and priorities of both.

 

And not to take any of the shine away from Ink, but here are my shots of the place Summer 2010: