Continuing from the previous sprawl to stall post, we’ll look evidence of the collapse of the development and homebuilding activity in certain subdivisions of the 1960s, and its revival decades later, and a closer look at an unusual 1970s subdivision.

 

Starting out with the key map and some of the growth diagrams, the arrows point to the growth areas we will be looking at.

 

 

 

 

And a better key map of the specific study areas with subdivision names (based on the county auditors records).

 

 

The inspiration for all this was based on my looking at some ariel surveys done by the Soil Conservation Service,  where I was noticing that the subdivisions were platted out but never built out until years later (in some cases still not built-out).

 

Looking at unit counts from the census, going back to 1970, one can see how development in the study area plateaued after 1980.  Based on my research I think the growth in the 1970s came in the early part of he decade.

 

 

Opening up the counts by census tract.  First, a key map showing tracts as of 1980.  I had to do some juggling of block counts due to shifts in tract boundaries, and aggregating of split tracts, so these are the boundaries I use back to 1970 and into 1990  & 2000

 

 

And the unit counts by tract plus trends per tract.

 

 

 

Tract 701 is the growingest tract, and is the outer belt of the study area.  The big jump between1970 & 1980 is probably due to apartment construction as well as early 1970s build-outs.  Early 1970s build-out, Newfields, and apartments probably accounts for the 1970s growth in Tract 705.

 

Yet the census data only goes so far, and doesn’t really reflect the way this area was built out, or what I was seeing on the ariels.  Instead I did a very in-depth look at certain subdivisions, the ones on the key map above to see how they built out.  In some cases I look at individual streets.

 

Brookside Park

 

The first plat is Brookside Park, west of Denlinger Road, in Tract 70s.  One can see Burleigh Drive cul de sac shovel ready by 1970, but not built out till much later (one wonders if this plat was intended to be larger, given the fencelines visible on the areils)

 

 

 

 

Going into the auditors records, here are the years when units were built on Burleigh

 

 

And for the entire plat

 

 

One can see this was mostly a 1960s development, but build-out slowed and wasn’t complete until the recent past.

 

Glenbury Park

 

Tract 706.  In the same census tract, but east of Olive Road, another 1960s subdivision.  What is very interesting is that the traffic plan from the early 1960s has streets perhaps based on the original plans for this development; execution was less than that.

 

 

 

And two streets from the last section, 1970, 1983, today

 

 

Close up…one can see there are still vacant lots here 40 years after subdivision (though they may be owned by neighboring houses)

 

 

Build out for these streets.  The gap in the 1970s is noticeable

 

 

Build out for the entire plat

 

Again, rapid construction in the 1960s and early 70s, then collapse and revival in the late 1980s (in this case) to complete build-out.

 

 

Westbrook Village

 

This is somewhat northwest of the Salem Mall, west of were Olive meets Salem. I think this was a late 1960s plat, so there was a lot of building going on even into the early 1970s.  This is also in tract 701, which saw a lot of units come online in the 1970s.

 

In this case I don’t look at the entire subdivision, but just one street.

 

Westbrook Village in 1970, where you can see construction still underway.  This was one of those 1960s developments that had a pool and tennis courts and such (a development fad of the area to have a “country club” associated with a subdivision.  Marinole in Kettering is another example).

 

 

In the early 1980s.  One can see the new apartment construction just to the north.

 

 

Looking at just one street, Northridge.  Layed out and some construction underway by 1970, moribund in the early 1980s, and mostly built out today.

 

 

 

And a development history, showing most of the build out happened in the 1990s.  So, if you built here in, say, the early 1970s, you had to wait 20 years for new neighbors

 

 

Broadmoor

 

Tract 705.  I don’t have a detailed unit construction count here, but maybe I should as this was built out in the 1970s and was probably the last conventional plat in this area until maybe the 1990s. 

 

The interesting thing here is that perhaps one is seeing a failed planned unit development, incorporating single-family, apartments, and commercial, given the way roads are layed out and the timing of the initial development on the 1970 ariel (note the road leading from the soon-to-be apartments and single family complex).

 

Then not much by 1983 (but note the new 1970s-early 80s apartments across the street, contributing to Census tract 701s numbers).

 

 

A close up of the boxed area, with some notes.  I am not sure what the plan was here.  But someone bought a few acres and built a house on the north side of that street.

 

 

Freedom Acres

 

Tract 706.  Closer in, off Denlinger and Free Pike, this is another development that the traffic plan shows as being more ambitious than what as built.  This subdivision is just the inner streets as the lots on Free Pike and Denlinger where developed in the 1950s.

 

 

 

..and an enlargement of the boxed area, still with some vacant property.  Vacant from 1970 through 1980, with build-out in the later 1980s and 1990s.

 

 

The entire plat, still with some vacant lots.

 

 

Alden Acres

 

Tract 706.  Just south of Free Pike, between Denlinger & Wolf Creek, this small plat, with a similar pattern of delayed build-out, with a number of vacant lots still left.

 

 

 

 

Sunnybrook

 

Tract 704.  This is the furthest out tract, west of Union Road and just off Post Town Road.  Its also in the area south of Trotwood that didn’t see much new platting development in the 1960s.  This was an early 1960s development that still has a few vacant lots (dotted red lines)

 

 

Putting the numbers together for the sample subdivisions one can see how the individual patterns repeat in aggregate…high-volume the 1960s and early 1970s then a stall in the mid 70s, with drawn out low-volume construction after the 1970s, with a pool of vacant lots still left at the end of the period.

 

 

Taking a look at some things that may have caused this, or really a combination of things:

 

1. The economic situation in the 1970s and early 1980s might have killed construction Add to these macroeconomic aspects the declining local economy leading to out-migration killing demand.

 

 

2. Racial change, which implies a dual housing market reducing demand.  This deserves more study on a future thread as this is a touchy subject.

 

 

3. And finally, basic demographic shifts based on social change.  In other words less of a market for single family houses if there are more and more singles and non-family households.  We’ve already seen how this was the case in Montgomery County, that there was a spike in non-family households after 1970.

 

1965-1970; Where the New Residents Came From

 

The 1970 census has info by tract as to where the people came from who moved to a unit between 1965 and 1966.  Taking a look at the tracts investigated here, just over 50% were new residents, and around 30% had moved from Dayton proper, showing the city was still a source of new suburbanites as late as the 1960s.  But already we see a large slice for people moving from “elsewhere in the metro area”, probably other suburban areas.

 

 

Taking a look at the individual tracts, where the new movers came from.

 

 

It would be interesting to wok with these numbers for all of Mongt. County, to see where the city people were moving to.

 

Twin Creek West

 

I did not include this subdivision in the above numbers as it is, well, different.  At first I thought it might have been part of the failed Newfields development, but after looking at the maps of that, maybe not.  It was built during the Newfields era, though (early 1970s).  It was also built in the area between Trotwood and Drexel, which hadn’t seen a true subdivision plat since the 1950s. 

 

 

Twin Creek was substantially not completed (though a lot of the open space is a park), with the largest vacant lot pool of the plats we’ve seen.

 

 

Architecturally these are smaller, and the last two look a bit more modern design than one usually finds in the area.  I was thinking these might be 235s,  but not sure.  They are a bit nicer design than the 235 developments I recall from Louisville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and sometimes a plat never goes anywhere.  This looked like it was going to be an extension of Westbrook Village to Shiloh Springs, but nothing was built and the property is now forest.

 

 

All that for that little area!  Wow!

^

yeah census is fine but I wanted to get into the weeds to see how these plats developed.  Interesting stuff, and I'm old enough  to remember the 1970s...but not here. 

 

Looks like things just stopped after '74.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great stuff. I think the racial component is probably essential to this narrative (along with the fundamental issue of economic decline). Andrew Wiese is the historian of African-American suburbia. Cincinnati had suburbs that became friendly toward African-Americans (Lincoln Heights-classic pre-war AA community), later Forest Park, Mt. Healthy, and bits of Blue Ash. These never really developed into an empty quarter. Cincy's two potential empty quarters both have clear environmental reasons for their lack of development, Campbell Cty, KY and the great swath of Western Hamilton Cty.

Cincy's two potential empty quarters both have clear environmental reasons for their lack of development, Campbell Cty, KY and the great swath of Western Hamilton Cty.

 

Both of which are not Cincinnati.

 

 

This home is hideous. 

^

Weise has influenced a lot of my perception of local geography here...ive cited his book in those earlier posts on black historical geography in Dayton.  The section in his book about Atlanta is relevant, but for the area south of this township.  That's yet another thread, I think. 

 

Im still looking at this, but i dont want to speculate too much just yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm wondering if Twin Creek West is a Huber development?

 

 

That looks exactly like the neighborhood in Avon Lake where my parents bought their first house in the 50s.

I would be interested to hear what you find out about the racial element. Was the adjoining section of Dayton predominantly African American?

 

Keep up the good work Jeffrey.

I have family who live over on Sunnybrook.

 

Its really quite strange how things are around that area. You have these little suburban zones, but if you drive 5 minutes away, you literally end up in sprawling farm fields. This is especially evident the further you head towards Westbrook Rd.

 

Clayton (where I grew up), and to a lesser extent Englewood is a more modern example of the strange suburban sprawl. I remember cruising around the plattes where my friends lived in high school, not being able to tell one house from the other, and then heading out onto National Road for a couple of miles and entering a completely different era. Nothing but old Amish farmhosues and soybean fields that stretched over the horizon.

 

 

Toledo has a similar feel in that the line between urban/rural/suburban is very complicated and not as clear as historians and geographers often make it out to be.

 

 

I have family who live over on Sunnybrook.

 

Its really quite strange how things are around that area. You have these little suburban zones, but if you drive 5 minutes away, you literally end up in sprawling farm fields. This is especially evident the further you head towards Westbrook Rd.

 

Oh definetly. With Sunnybrook, if you come out on Post Town road you wouldn't know a plat is there as the Post Town frontage was never developed and it's all woods.  It's all open country south and west beyond that plat, then Sycamore State Park.

 

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Leapfrog development out into open country is pretty typical for suburbia, but what I found interesting is that these plats are older...1950s & 60s leapfrogs....and the expected infill (like one sees in Kettering and Centerville and a bit in Beavercreek) never happened. 

 

Another neat thing is heading north and west out of Trotwood, no development..almost what, say, Centerville would have been like in its early suburban era.

 

So its sort of like a certain period of suburbia frozen in time (to some degree).  In some ways I find the vibe here really laid back & pleasant, particularly the older part of Trotwood.  I really lke that town.

 

 

 

The pictures of those houses look like an extremely austere version of Landen (the older bits, built in the 70s.) I wonder if this resemblance is the fault of Ryan Homes? :)

 

"Frozen in time" and laid back describes most of western Montgomery county well. I always preferred to (bike) ride out in that area when I was in college in the 70s, even though I lived in Belmont and had to either ride directly through town, or drive out and park.

 

I always wished that Beavercreek could have retained some traces of that "edge"  rural flavor, and it really hasn't. If Beavercreek had developed like the "empty quarter", there probably would have been traces of the 1800s Shaker (Watervleit) settlement at the Montgomery County line into modern times, yet it was all erased by the early 20th century. And I remember seeing a sign along Dayton-Xenia Rd at Fairfield Rd in the late 70s denoting "Zimmerman". You can find stuff like that all over the western part of Montgomery. In the yuppie burbs to the east and south such traces have been "ethnically cleansed".

Toledo has a similar feel in that the line between urban/rural/suburban is very complicated and not as clear as historians and geographers often make it out to be.

 

yes, there are quite a few wide open spaces in the southern annex area (former adams twp i presume) where development leapfrogged over, with no infill.  notably along hill and dorr between byrne and reynolds. 

 

Jeffrey Posted:

"So its sort of like a certain period of suburbia frozen in time (to some degree).  In some ways I find the vibe here really laid back & pleasant, particularly the older part of Trotwood.  I really lke that town."

 

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I spent a lot of time in that area of Montgomery Country growing up, especially the Trotwood/Englewood/Clayton/Union area.

 

It would be interesting to see how class and demographic distinctions manifest in these areas, especially Trotwood. I remember how "Old Trotwood" around the old railroad tracks and Iams homestead was very, how would you say...quaint. Predominantly white, rural, and country. While if you look at areas closer to Salem Avenue, it becomes very African American, Urban, and almost faster.

 

Talking to some people in Trotwood it was always a source of friction, since the old High School was in the "old" part of town, while there was an influx of newcomers from closer to the city. So there was this clash of cultures in this little suburban town.

 

The same thing started to happen in Northmont when I was there in the late 90s. More people were migrating from North Main into the area, and was causing a degree of unease with the old farmer families.

 

 

 

 

  On the macroeconomic trends, I just checked my Hamilton County Data Book. There is a chart for number of units built in Hamilton County from 1960 to 2001.

 

    The overall trend is a decline from 7665 units in 1960 to 2308 units in 2001; however, there is a funny peak in the early 1970's, with 8611 units built that year, and a rapid decline to about 2,500 in 1974.

 

    Keep up the good work.