By Selean Holmes
Avondale History
Project Planning Team
Avondale today is Cincinnati’s largest African American neighborhood with a population of 12,093, 85% of whom are African American. Bordered by North Avondale, Evanston, Walnut Hills, Corryville and Clifton, its rich and vital history is experiencing significant physical change risking the loss of long-term residents’ sense of place, memory and history. With your help, The Avondale History Project is ready to preserve the neighborhood’s history. To spearhead an initiative to help preserve the culture of the community, a $74K grant was received from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH).
At the helm of the Avondale History Project is Anne Delano Steinert, University of Cincinnati Research Assistant Professor in History and Director of the Center for the City, in partnership with the Avondale Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library and the Avondale Development Corporation. The development grant is also intended to lay the groundwork for a future grant to fund a multi-location history exhibition, Black history walking trail, oral history project and school programs throughout the neighborhood.
“Avondale has a rich heritage of both Black and Jewish,” Steinert says. “Both those groups are underrepresented in Cincinnati history, so this project is a huge opportunity to discover and celebrate the diverse history of the city.”
The Avondale History Project is seeking past and present residents of Avondale to help research and explore Avondale’s rich history that includes the people, buildings, and organizations. Do you have Avondale history you’d like to share? Project Community Researchers are being hired and will be trained and compensated at $15 an hour for part-time work on this project over the next 18 months. Family stories, photographs, and documents will be collected to help build an archival collection. There will be project orientation meetings on December 16 and January 13 at noon at the Avondale Public Library, 3566 Reading Road. For more information contact Dr. Steinert, Project Manager by email at steineao@ucmail.uc.edu.