Walnut Hills Historical Society uncovers neighborhood’s layered history

By Robin Gee

When JoAnn Morse and her husband Geoff Sutton moved to Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills neighborhood, they decided to pursue their passion for history.

“We both have degrees in history, but we were in business until we retired. But when we moved here, we said to ourselves, ‘Gee, it would be really nice to learn about the real history of our neighborhood,’” Morse said.

The couple joined their neighborhood association, the Walnut Hills Area Council. There was a history committee as part of the council, but it had not been very active, Morse said.

“We joined and supported some of the things they were doing, but we also used that as an official guide to our research. We set up the Walnut Hills Historical Society website, which is walnuthillsstories.org, and we use that as well as Facebook to publish our research,” she said.

The site became a repository for articles, information and research projects focused on Walnut Hills. As part of that work the historical society reached out to interested volunteers, especially to students in area colleges and schools.

They worked with interns from Xavier and the University of Cincinnati on research as well as students from the Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students and Frederick Douglass schools. They worked with local churches on archiving and other volunteers on gathering oral histories from neighbors who have long connections in the community.

A key collaboration has been with students from the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. SCPA social studies teacher Brynn Thomas teaches a highly regarded college-level African American History class, and students in the class work on community history research projects as part of the class. The Walnut Hills Historical Society has been partnering with the class to provide information for the student-led research.

Rich insights from a new and valuable tool

The historical society now has a valuable new tool in its research toolbox. The late Bob Kibbee, a former map and geospatial librarian from Cornell University, had an idea to overlay information from census records onto historical maps. He brought his idea to staff at The History Center in Tompkins County (Ithaca, New York) and from there programmer David Furber went to work to bring the idea to life. He developed a website known as History Forge.

With History Forge, census data and historical maps can be rearranged and overlaid on top of Google maps, adding a wealth of information based on the combined data. The site is open source so that it can be adapted and used by any community. 

The Walnut Hills Historical Society is one of only nine areas across the country using History Forge, said Morse. 

History Forge allows users to put up georectified maps. Georectification is a process of digitally aligning aerial, satellite or scanned historical maps with a known map or reference. 

For their project, the historical society has taken very old insurance and business maps of the area and worked to fit them over the current Google map of the Walnut Hills neighborhood.

“Most of the historical maps, like the Sanborn maps, are just small rectangles. You can rectify those, twist them around, so that they overlay a Google map — which means that you can see street by street by street what that street looked like in various periods,” Morse explained.

The Sanborn maps, for example, were created in the mid-19^th through mid-20^th centuries to detail buildings for fire insurance companies to assess the risk and value of properties. They can contain information about buildings on the property, windows, doors, etc., lots of information on a property over time.

The History Forge site also allows users to enter census information. Census information is available from 1850 to 1950. 

“We are concentrating on the 1940 census, that’s going to encompass about 30,000 records, and we’re at about 22,000 now. I’m hoping that by the end of the summer into the fall we will complete the 1940 census, which would be amazing,” she said.

Deep learning about Walnut Hills

The 1940 census was rich in data, and that data can be used with the historical maps to learn all sorts of information about the people, buildings, and homes in the neighborhood. The information gathered also gives insight into the broader community in different periods of history. 

Looking at the History Forge site, Morse pointed out the information gleaned by adding the 1940 census data. Users can look at race, gender, age, where people were born and lived before moving to the area. They can look at things like home ownership, education, income and more.

“This is the full census, each row on the census, so you get lots of demographic information, age, where they were born, last year of school or graduation from college, what their job was, their industry, how much they made in 1939…not every census asked the same set of questions, but the 1940 census was incredibly rich,” she said.

“I know most people come to this doing their own genealogy. My husband and I are historians, so we’re interested in the larger, broader picture. So, for example, we can find out what the income difference was between males and females working in the same kind of profession, we can find out whether a college education actually led to more income, things like that.”

For example, the data in History Forge shows evidence of very early Black home ownership pre-dating the Civil War. This home ownership was very unusual for the time and ties into the history of the community, said Morse.

In 1791 Reverend James Kemper purchased about 150 acres of land from John Cleves Symmes, one of the largest landowners at that time. Kemper moved his family to the land in 1796 and dubbed his hilltop farm “Walnut Hill.”  

Kemper was a predominant Presbyterian minister who established several churches in the region. He established the First Presbyterian Church of Walnut Hills in 1819. About a decade later, the Kemper family sold property to brothers Ebenezer and William Lane who in turn supported the establishment of the Lane Theological Seminary, which covered much of Walnut Hills. 

The school was supported financially by tuition and donations but also by the issuing of land leases. Some of those leases went to African Americans living in the community at the time, said Morse. This home ownership helped in the establishment of a Black middle class and a thriving business community in the early 20^th century also documented in the History Forge data.

Learning and sharing more 

Morse said moving forward the plan is to add more census data and dive deeper into specific blocks, such as those surrounding the original Frederick Douglass School or Harriet Beecher Stowe House or the southwest portion where there was a strong Italian presence. 

The research into the neighborhood is ongoing and shared on the historical society’s website. While the history of Walnut Hills institutions, schools and churches is ongoing, but well documented, the students and other volunteers are focusing on the stories of the individuals and families who have been part of the fabric of the community. 

You can learn more about the Walnut Hills Historical Society projects and research at walnuthillsstories.org and on their Facebook page, “Walnut Hills Historical Society.”  To see the Walnut Hills data on History Forge go to walnuthills.historyforge.net.