Huber Heights is one of those suburbs where years can go by and I will never visit it, as there is nothing to bring me there.  I am probably more familiar with the inner city of Dayton than I am with Huber Heights and a number of other suburbs to the north and east.

 

Huber Heights is probably unique in Ohio as it is a fairly large suburb almost all built by the same developer, staring in 1956,  using a somewhat limited set of house styles.  Thus it is sort of a Midwestern Levittown, but done up in brick ranches instead of Cape Cods.

 

 

 

My first impression, years ago when I moved to the Dayton area, was a suburb of relentless banality, moreso than what one would expect due to the uniformity of house styles, extensiveness, and lack of any true town center.  The street system was a maze of curves and cul-de-sacs, leading one to easily get lost in “The Huber Zone”. 

 

 

 

With a new interest in mid-century-modern, postwar suburbia, and suburban history, and the fact that this is a rare example of a largish suburb developed by just one developer, I decided to revisit Huber Heights.  To start off I did some runs off of American Factfinder, using the thematic maps feature, to the block group level. 

 

Expecting things to be as demographically uniform as the housing was,  I was surprised to find some pockets of low income and unemployment in Huber Heights, which brought to mind that recent Brookings institution study on poverty moving to the suburbs.

 

So I decided to take a closer look at this “Huber Heights Poverty Pocket”, just west of Troy Pike from the earliest 1950s Huber Heights subdivisions.

 

Some maps from American Factfinder showing how this area differs from the rest of Huber Heights, using various measures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then some ariels focusing in on the neighborhood, showing it to be a mix of higher density housing, with some strip centers facing Troy Pike,  It looks like apartments closer to Troy and lower density housing further back in the neighborhood.

 

 

 

On the ground.  It looks pretty suburban.  The lower density housing area.

 

 

 

Basically a a lot of doubles created by joining two L-shaped ranches.  I am not sure if these are all rentals, or are owner-occupied (or a mix?).  Note the census maps ID this as a higher vacancy area vis a vis the rest of Huber Heights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing that struck me about this neighborhood was the big mid-block open spaces, and lack of mature trees (this does not look like a new area, perhaps developed in the 1970s?)

 

.

 

 

Mixed in with the U shaped doubles are these ranch-style apartments (I think they are rentals)

 

 

]

 

With what might be a lot of vacancys

 

 

 

The backside of this area backs onto a forested area

 

 

 

The occasional tree

 

 

A big cell tower overlooks the neighborhood

 

 

 

 

One can tell this unit is partially vacant as the grass isn’t cut and the privacy fence is deteriorating.

 

 

Suburban visions….the dish to connect one to the mass media, and a little tree and patio with table and unbrella in the backround

 

 

 

 

 

Taking a look at some of the apartments.  There are two complexes, and one stand-alone building here.  The first complex has a very minimal architectural style, but lots of open space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second complex is more jazzed-up with  mansard roofs, but the space between blocks is pretty tight. This complex is seperated from the other complex and the doubles by a chain link fence; there are no sidewalks to permit pedestrian access into the other developments.

 

 

 

Then there is this one stand-alone apartment building, with a bit more elaborate hip roof design.

 

 

 

 

The retail aspect of this neighborhood reminds me a lot of what places like 5th Street in St Annes Hill was like in, say, the 1950s.  Declining commercial strips, with a lot of vacancy, the start of tear-downs, and marginal uses, but in this case, in a suburban context.…

 

 

Nearly empty strip center with a “storefront church”

 

 

“Fringe Banking”.  Payday loans have, to some degree, replaced pawnshops as  source for quick cash (and its interesting to see that the drive through also doubles as a check cashing service)

 

 

 

 

Dead shopping strip.  The only tenant here is an Allstate agency

 

 

I think this is called Imperial Heights shopping center.  Dollar store is the main tenant, and about a third (maybe a bit more) is vacant. 

 

 

Some tenants…smoke shop (next door, off the pix, is a barber) and another fringe banking establishment (this one is part of a chain), and a vacancy

 

 

In an outlot is a true Dayton scene: the neighborhood Chinese restaurant.  Sometimes it seems there are as many of these as pizza parlors in the area

 

 

Dead drive-through something

 

 

Another view, showing the crumbling asphalt and the edge of a vacant lot where there was a retail teardown

 

 

Across the street, to the south, is Powell Plaza, with a flea market and yet even more fringe banking.

 

 

And the flea market is that dead big box to the rear (maybe it was an old Kroger?).  I didn’t check this place out too close, but it looks to be about a third to a half vacant.  This is the location of the neighborhood tavern (“Brownies”).

 

 

 

 

This next map shows this neighborhood in context (red circle), showing the other suburban poverty pockets (by block group) in Montgomery County.  As one can see these are all over the area.

 

 

And, a close up of the south suburbs, demonstrating that lower income areas can be found even there, not just in less-fashionable suburbs.

 

 

 

So, this was a first look at just a part of Huber Heights.  I really don’t know how old this multifamily area is, perhaps the late 1960s- early 1970s at the earliest?

 

I am probably going to be taking a closer look at the rest of Huber Heights later, more at the single family home areas, institutional things, and shopping centers.  It is actually tougher than one thinks to do historical research on postwar suburbia as there really isn’t much out there on these places.

 

The geography of nowhere.

Wow, great essay and photo treatment. You really hit the nail on the head.

 

I want to direct your attention to two pockets in the "affluent southern suburbs" that you identified that may make interesting sub-essays in the same spirit. One is the circled area where Shroyer loops westward into Far Hills. This area, which lays immediately south of Town and Country Shopping Center, is *also* a Huber community, and I believe it is mostly duplex and fourplex rentals built in the 50s and 60s.

 

The other pocket is the one at the northwest corner of Forrer and Woodman, near the top of your map. The circular street in that detail is Wren Circle east and west. I believe the plat contains a collection of flat roofed former military housing, and I also seem to recall that it is set up as a co-op or as some kind of ultra low cost subsidized housing (this is some memories from the 70s.) I recall hearing about people living in those houses for practically nothing, and it really didn't seem to be that bad an area.

 

Anyway, excellent detail. Thanks for posting this.

I never thought I'd see a thread on Huber Heights.  Christ.  My mother moved there after I left Dayton for Columbus and she hates it but isn't complaining (versus the "ghetto" house in Dayton she moved from).

The other pocket is the one at the northwest corner of Forrer and Woodman, near the top of your map. … I believe the plat contains a collection of flat roofed former military housing, and I also seem to recall that it is set up as a co-op or as some kind of ultra low cost subsidized housing…

 

 

Greenmont.  That place should really be landmarked for planning and social history reasons.

 

Greenmont was developed just before WWII,  in 1940-41 by the union,  the local CIO council & United Electrical workers (UE).  They might have received some Lanham Act funding, but I am not sure about that.

 

The union was responding to the housing shortage and rent gouging in Dayton before WWII, as there wasn't any rent control until war was declared in Dec. 1941. The project was opposed by the local real estate community, but the union got a military OK from Washington, so the project went forward.  In terms of design the units themselves are pretty banal on the outside, but the site planning is quite good, influenced by Radburn/Greenbelt principles (it was supposedly based on a project somewhere in New Jersey).  This is one of the better-planned communities in the Dayton area, walkable,  with plenty of open space and community facilities integrated into the design.

 

 

 

The project is sort of quasi-socialist, as it was (and still is) a mutual housing development, which means it is sort of a non-profit co-operative where people own shares in the development.  Overlook Homes is also a co-op, as was Oak Park across Woodman from Greenmont, though Oak Park went to private ownership sometime after the war.  One of the residents told me that the units, or participation in the co-op, gets handed down within families, so this is probably a pretty tight community.

 

 

As you can tell by the organization chart, Greenmont was very organized.  The non-profit co-operative principles extended out to other things in the community, such as the neighborhood grocery store (which, I'm guessing, became Dot's Market).  The place was also home to the UE union organizers, some of them Communist or alleged to be  (they appear in the transcript of the HUAC Dayton hearings, and give their addresses in "Greenmont Village").

 

Two that were indeed communist where the parents of the folksinger "Utah" Phillips, who grew up here before his family moved west to Utah.  He says he became interested in railroads and hobos (two types of songs he collects and sings) when living in Greenmont, because of the railroad that passed just to the east.

 

There is probably a whole history waiting to be explored about WWII housing and defense industry in Dayton.  One sees a bit of this with that NCR codebreakers building, but the wartime urban geography and development is somewhat neglected in this part of the US.  In California there is more interest in this...see the site on Atchison Village Housing in the Bay Area (also, the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Homefront National Historic Park)

 

 

For the Kettering area near Town and Country, link here: Kettering Goes Modern .  The rentals are not only nifty modernist fourplexes, but also some ranch-style duplexes just to the south.

 

I never thought I'd see a thread on Huber Heights.  Christ.

 

Yeah, though in the "city limits" I am not even sure this is a Huber development, yet that big apartment complex has that stripped, minimal Huberesque styling. 

 

Huber Heights would be great to do if I could find some ephemera, like promotional brochures and plans, or old B/W pix of the development in the under construction or in the early days before the trees grew up.  That would make for some great before-and-after sets.

 

As it is I need to do a bit more digging before I can really do Huber Heights the way I’d like, other than just a bunch of random snaps.

 

 

wow, that looks like ass. What a dump!

 

Yeah, it's like Maumee with brick. :)

nice ode to mr. huber, the schlockiest developer in the usa. jeezus.

 

btw huber hts has a twin in columbus on the westerville/columbus border called huber village. i worked there a few days a week for years....i wore dark sunglasses a lot.

nice ode to mr. huber, the schlockiest developer in the usa. jeezus.

 

btw huber hts has a twin in columbus on the westerville/columbus border called huber village. i worked there a few days a week for years....i wore dark sunglasses a lot.

 

And it's mostly a Somali area now.

no kidding? i wondered where they lived excatly. makes sense it had a lot of vacancies. i heard that nabe switched back to columbus schools too (i think the former westerville schools south of rt161 in minerva park did too, not sure).

Huber Heights would be great to do if I could find some ephemera, like promotional brochures and plans, or old B/W pix of the development in the under construction or in the early days before the trees grew up. 

 

That would be cool. 

come to think of it i believ there are some huber home developments in reynoldsburg too.

suburbs (suburban style) look much worse than cities when they age...kinda interesting what most suburbs will begin to look like in 60-100 years compared to downtowns.

There is more than one Huber.  The oldest, the father, was doing development in Dayton as early as the 1920s (the earliest Huber plat I could find was off of north Main), and down off of Far Hills just before and after WWII. 

 

These older developements are rather nice.

 

Then came the the two sons, one of whom did Huber Heights. The other did other things, including that aborted Newfields New Town which I posted on last year, and Madden Hills, which is somewhere in West Dayton. 

 

I havn't yet really posted on Huber Heights proper, just this one multifamily pocket.  If the houses in Huber are really "all brick" rather than brick veneer on stud wall  then it is not that scholcky.

 

 

 

 

I'd be interested in seeing the other parts of Huber Heights that aren't so crappy—especially the really mod looking houses.

^

For Dayton, the best mid-century modern is that neighborhood behind Northtown...between Main and I think Philadelphia, just north of Siebenthaler.  Some of the houses there could be in Marin County or LA (even a few of the apartments are impressive).

 

 

Another excellent presentation, Jeffrey, as usual. That area looks pretty desolate, like it's just a notch or two away from junk pickup trucks up on blocks, with big dogs chained to them. It's not scary, but I'd find living there depressing.

^

For Dayton, the best mid-century modern is that neighborhood behind Northtown...between Main and I think Philadelphia, just north of Siebenthaler.   Some of the houses there could be in Marin County or LA (even a few of the apartments are impressive).

 

 

i notice some fun mid century modern stuff like that south along far hills too.

I have a few friends from college who are originally from Huber, and to be honest, it's really not that bad of a city.  Yes, it has some very dumpy areas, but there also some very nice middle class areas.  It's no Oakwood in the eyes of Dayton area residents, but it's not like you live in a shack if you live in Huber.

I was told from a resident of Huber Heights that there are actually 3 areas.  The first, south of Chambersburg Rd. known as "Huber-tucky".  The second from 1-70 south to Chambersburg Rd. known as "Hu-briar Heights" and the third, north of 1-70 known as "Huber-ville".  And if you look at the maps above it correlates somewhat.

Someone needs to do a photo essay on the "Tuckys" of Dayton. Friends used to refer to a valley off of Eastman Drive (runs east of Woodman) as "Little Kentucky".

^

The only Little Kentucky I knew about was the one in Fairborn (stay tuned for a thread on that shortly...the pix are taken, just need to be tweaked and loaded)

 

Then there is "Dogpatch" in Moraine, which is not Moraine Shores (also somewhat Applachian, I think).  And, of course, Drexel. 

 

I wasn't aware about the Hubertucky thing going on, or that Huber is sort of "zoned" that way (though it sort of fits the age of the housing there).  The one off of Woodman is news to me...I am not sure where that's at (sounds like somewhere in Riverside).

 

 

Someone needs to do a photo essay on the "Tuckys" of Dayton. Friends used to refer to a valley off of Eastman Drive (runs east of Woodman) as "Little Kentucky".

Yeah, I know exactly where you're talking about. We called it Little KY too. It's right around that school Spinning Hills.

we always refered to Huber Heights as "Hu-briar" Heights, like the poster below... hey at least they have a showcase cinema, and a kohls....

I've been there!

I live in a Huber development in the columbus area. I grew up riding through this area in my mom's car, thinking, "Who would WANT to live in a house that looks just like the next, one little brick ranch after another... how sad."

 

Now I live here, and we love our little home. The layout inside is actually really awesome. Got it for a good price, super easy to maintain, nice schools, very peaceful.  I "get it" now. We're putting money away in the bank and enjoy a measure of security. Kind of different from my pals who are mortgaged to death.

I thought of one ironic thing. My first job out of college was in the Bay Area (I grew up in Dayton.) I remember driving around areas like San Jose or Sunnyvale just thinking to myself how mind-numbingly *alike* all of the houses there are. Silicon Valley is like a Mediterranean climate version of Huber Heights. But nobody there ever complained about the mind roasting sameness of the middle class architecture (well, it was cheap slapped together shit when Sunnyvale and Santa Clara were platted out in the 1960s.)

But nobody there ever complained about the mind roasting sameness of the middle class architecture (well, it was cheap slapped together sh!t when Sunnyvale and Santa Clara were platted out in the 1960s.)

 

Bay Region suburbia was famously skewered in "Little Boxes", though the song is about areas closer to the Th City than Sunnyvale.

 

 

 

"Little Boxes". What a topic.

 

Yeah, I remember seeing the actual little boxes driving up into the city in Daly City. Of course, THOSE little boxes are diminutive shacks compared to what the "Weeds" characters live in.

 

And I have had an idea off and on about driving around areas of the tri-state with a camcorder and dubbing appropriate TV-series-based music over drives through the scenery.  For "Little Boxes" it would definitely be a drive down and around the Mason-Montgomery Rd corridor.

When you say "Little Boxes" it instantly brings to mind that area of housing by Woodman and Watervliet.

 

Little perfectly square boxes. Ive never been in any of the houses before, but even as a kid it always struck me as odd that all their roofs were flat.

 

Im sure there is some history to them.

Greenmont Village: http://www.cyburbia.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17511

This area is considered "the ghetto" of Huber Heights. Granted, it's a helluva lot better than many places in the City of Dayton, you could do better, but definitely do much worse.

 

The police seem to be in and out of this area quite a bit. Not sure of what crimes and such are going on there, but I believe many of the units are Section 8 housing.

That set of buildings back by the cell tower, are under foreclosure right now. Google Waynedale Circle Apartments and you'll see the reasons  why :wink2:

Hah..I was just back in this area...as part of a community gardens bicycle tour!    There is a big garden on Troy Street next to that donut place (Granny C),  and an abandonded garden very close to the apartments in these pix....

....was hosted by the Campfire Girls (or "Camp Fire" as they are now called), but Campfire closed and the garden is going to seed.  They apparently were getting vandalism from the apartments (kids tearing up and uprooting stuff)....sounds sort of depraved, when you think about it...vandalizing a garden for kicks....kids these days....

Hah..I was just back in this area...as part of a community gardens bicycle tour!    There is a big garden on Troy Street next to that donut place (Granny C),  and an abandonded garden very close to the apartments in these pix....

....was hosted by the Campfire Girls (or "Camp Fire" as they are now called), but Campfire closed and the garden is going to seed.  They apparently were getting vandalism from the apartments (kids tearing up and uprooting stuff)....sounds sort of depraved, when you think about it...vandalizing a garden for kicks....kids these days....

 

Yeah, on the pictures, the one payday loan place is a Cricket store, the only things in the plaza are Dollar General, Cousin Vinny's pizza, a barber shop and the China one

On a Huber Heights "Facebook" group, one idiot said to tear all of this down(INCLUDING THE PLAZA, HOUSING AND ALL) and start over. He doesn't realize there's about 600 people that live back here and the few dozen jobs that people work at up there.

Hah..I was just back in this area...as part of a community gardens bicycle tour!    There is a big garden on Troy Street next to that donut place (Granny C),  and an abandonded garden very close to the apartments in these pix....

....was hosted by the Campfire Girls (or "Camp Fire" as they are now called), but Campfire closed and the garden is going to seed.  They apparently were getting vandalism from the apartments (kids tearing up and uprooting stuff)....sounds sort of depraved, when you think about it...vandalizing a garden for kicks....kids these days....

 

Yeah, on the pictures, the one payday loan place is a Cricket store, the only things in the plaza are Dollar General, Cousin Vinny's pizza, a barber shop and the China one

 

What's really interesting is that Cousin Vinny's recently moved to that center. Before there was a location by the Huber Heights Wal-Mart (yuck) at I-70 and 201. But then the particular franchisee chose to drop the CV franchise and re-branded as "Wise Guys". CV responded with opening the new location in that plaza, which is at the opposite corner of Huber.

 

Actually CV has opened near Donatos at Old Troy and Powell

 

I've heard on many accounts that the Wise Guy owner doesn't pay his employees. If that's true, he's pretty much done for.

Meth lab, back on Waynedale(where many of those pictures were taken)

 

http://www.abc22now.com/shared/news/top-stories/stories/wkef_vid_18504.shtml

The references to Waynedale are really throwing me because the neighborhood at the southernmost end of Fort Wayne is also called Waynedale. But it was pleasant and blue collar middle class. I have no idea now (last time I was there was in 1987) but most neighborhoods like that are all meth-ey now.

 

Weatherphotographer... OHKID... I've seen you guys hanging around at another place in close proximity.... hmmmm... what a mystery....  :wtf: (not really.) All we'd need is an overbearing"peasant" and we'd be all set. "not."

^hahahahaha

 

Yep, I am a C-D person. I'd post more on UO (much more aligned with my perspective overall), but there isn't much discussion about Dayton here because the Dayton urban community as a whole is not very big (or vocal online, but there is an active community if you look hard enough in the city). I do occasionally post on Cincy topics here when I feel capable of adding to the discussion though, or whenever a Dayton topic comes up.

 

As for the peasant, she has posted a reason on C-D why she doesn't post on here. Can't remember what it is at the time though....

 

 

And for Waynedale - from what I understand, it is how Huber Heights hides its Section 8 population. It is not connected to the rest of the original Huber development, and is rather isolated behind the Imperial Heights shopping center. Then again, Huber Heights is not a wealthy town, so any meth problem that exists likely spreads beyond that development itself.

 

But meth is everywhere. I remember there was a meth lab directly across the street from my high school that was busted probably about 8 years ago... funniest part was that none of us even knew there was a meth lab across the street! (they kept to themselves and us high schoolers must not have been in their target market).

The references to Waynedale are really throwing me because the neighborhood at the southernmost end of Fort Wayne is also called Waynedale. But it was pleasant and blue collar middle class. I have no idea now (last time I was there was in 1987) but most neighborhoods like that are all meth-ey now.

 

Weatherphotographer... OHKID... I've seen you guys hanging around at another place in close proximity.... hmmmm... what a mystery....  :wtf: (not really.) All we'd need is an overbearing"peasant" and we'd be all set. "not."

 

Yeah, I noticed his name, and thought I hit the wrong button, since I have both forums on the bookmark bar. LOL

^hahahahaha

 

Yep, I am a C-D person. I'd post more on UO (much more aligned with my perspective overall), but there isn't much discussion about Dayton here because the Dayton urban community as a whole is not very big (or vocal online, but there is an active community if you look hard enough in the city). I do occasionally post on Cincy topics here when I feel capable of adding to the discussion though, or whenever a Dayton topic comes up.

 

As for the peasant, she has posted a reason on C-D why she doesn't post on here. Can't remember what it is at the time though....

 

 

And for Waynedale - from what I understand, it is how Huber Heights hides its Section 8 population. It is not connected to the rest of the original Huber development, and is rather isolated behind the Imperial Heights shopping center. Then again, Huber Heights is not a wealthy town, so any meth problem that exists likely spreads beyond that development itself.

 

But meth is everywhere. I remember there was a meth lab directly across the street from my high school that was busted probably about 8 years ago... funniest part was that none of us even knew there was a meth lab across the street! (they kept to themselves and us high schoolers must not have been in their target market).

 

Actually, Glenburn Green is the true "section 8" property. It is a smaller version of "Desoto Bass"  :yap:

Large fight on Wayne Meadows late Friday night. They had everything on the ground out here for it too.

 

I just hope there was nothing else going on in Huber Heights at the time.

Really,anything south of Chambersburg might be included in this "dump" thread

What about that gang banger nightclub ("Club Heat") that that lily white suburban lady from Dayton owned that had all the murders?

^It was shut down.

 

She had some amazing acts come through there though. Probably not many of you are into mainstream hip-hop, but 2Chainz and Future both did performances at the club. So she had major connections, major cash, or both.

What about that gang banger nightclub ("Club Heat") that that lily white suburban lady from Dayton owned that had all the murders?

 

There was a total of 2 murders. Both suspects found not guilty on the murders, but one of them is doing a few years on a gun specification(wasn't allowed to own one).

 

Not sure where "all the murders" were, but they weren't in Huber.

 

 

When my parents divorced in 1985-86, the first apartments my father moved into were in the "townhome" style buildings behind that strip mall where the Flicker Palace once was.  He then moved into those little 4 plexes a year later.  It wasn't a terrible neighborhood yet almost 20 years ago, but you could see the signs.  I also was enrolled in the KinderCare that is/was on Buford behind a KFC.  Can't say I miss any of those places though.

When my parents divorced in 1985-86, the first apartments my father moved into were in the "townhome" style buildings behind that strip mall where the Flicker Palace once was.  He then moved into those little 4 plexes a year later.  It wasn't a terrible neighborhood yet almost 20 years ago, but you could see the signs.  I also was enrolled in the KinderCare that is/was on Buford behind a KFC.  Can't say I miss any of those places though.

 

Trying to picture a KFC down here, maybe that's what the Chinese place is now?