How The Streets Got Their Names - Hyde Park

While I was researching a home in Hyde Park for a client, I saw on a map from 1869 some names that looked familiar.

Click for a larger view. 1869 Titus Map - Source

As you might be able to tell, I had to take two maps and splice them together to get a better view of the area before it was called Hyde Park. In 1869, it was part of two townships, Columbia to the north and Spencer to the south. Observatory Road, then called City Road, was the dividing line.

Starting with the blue box on the left, you can see the name Grandin and the road of the same name to the right. Grandin Road is named for Phillip Grandin:

Philip Grandin was an early resident of Cincinnati. He arrived in the city in the first years of the 1800s. He owned several hundred acres of land near modern-day Grandin Road in Cincinnati. The road was named in Grandin's honor. He was a real estate speculator and sold much of his land for a great deal more than he had originally paid for it. He also partnered with John Piatt in a bank as well as a steamboat business. By the 1870s, Grandin's former land had become one of the finest and wealthiest neighborhoods in Cincinnati. - Source

Moving directly to the right, the purple box had the name, J. Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a Spencer Township pioneer from the early 1800's and the namesake for Edwards Road.

Stettinius Home - Oatfield; Hamilton County Auditor 1999-2003

Above J. Edwards in the green box is J.L. Stettinius. John Longworth Stettinius was the son of John and Mary (Longworth) Stettinius and the grandson of the wealthy Cincinnatian, Nicholas Longworth. The Stettinius home, called Oatfield, still stands at 3264 Stettinius Avenue. John L. Stettinius' grandson, John Longworth Stettinuis II, was a lawyer and one of the founders of the firm, Taft, Stettinius & Hollister.

It is seldom that men who have opportunities in the business world, turn from these and take up a labor that has its root in a life of humanity and a desire for continuous helpfulness toward others. Such, however, was the record of John Longworth Stettinius, who not only brought to his position as president of The Children's Home of Cincinnati, splendid executive ability and a spirit of enterprise, but a love for the unfortunate little ones of the world that made of his work a success. Mr. Stettinius was a member of one of the prominent old families of Cincinnati, being a grandson of Nicholas Longworth and a son of John and Mary (Longworth) Stettinius, of Washington, D. C. He was born at the home of his grandfather, Nicholas Longworth, on Pike street, in Cincinnati, August 15, 1832. His youthful days were passed in this city, where he attended the Brooks school, while later he became a student in the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. He served as a member of the commission to rebuild the courthouse, but never sought to figure prominently in public affairs. His activity centered in those interests which seek to ameliorate the hard conditions of life for the unfortunate. He was an Episcopalian and served for many years as vestryman and senior warden of the Church of the Advent in Walnut Hills. Mr. Stettinius was in hearty sympathy with the benevolent spirit of Masonry and on the 10th of June, 1870, was made a Master Mason in Kilwinning Lodge, No. 356, F. & A. M., of Cincinnati. On the 3d of April, 1871, he became a Royal Arch Mason in Cincinnati Chapter. No. r, and in December, 1870, and January, 1871, he took the degrees of the Scottish Rite, including the thirty-second in Ohio Consistory. On the 13th of November. 1873, he became an honorary member of Supreme Council, A. A. S. R., thirtythird degree, and on the 22d of September, 1881, was made an active member. Social pleasures had their part in his life. He belonged to the Union Club of New York city and to the Queen City, Country and Cincinnati Golf Clubs.

On the 15th of June, 1854, in Cincinnati, he wedded Eloise B. Olmsted, a daughter of Henry Olmsted, and they became parents of two children: Mary Longworth, who became the wife of James Handasyd Perkins; and Henry, who married Mary Burnet Foster. - Source

In the white box on the north side of present day Observatory Avenue, is R. Shaw, for whom Shaw Avenue is named. Robert Shaw was a doctor who immigrated from near Belfast, Ireland. He died in 1884 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.

The orange and yellow boxes are related, as the came from the original parcel owned by Henry Morten, namesake of Morten Avenue. In the orange is John Morten and Thomas H. Morten, sons of Henry. In the yellow is C.B. Cryer, for Charlotte B. Morten Cryer, daughter of John and is how Cryer Avenue received its name.

Henry Morten and Mary, his wife, came to America from Amersham, which is twenty-six miles from London, England, together with their sons, Henry, John, Joseph, and Richard. They had another son, Thomas, who was the eldest of the family. Coming west from Baltimore in wagons through an almost unbroken wilderness, they located in Cincinnati in the spring of 1809, but preferring farm life settled in Mt. Lookout in the fall of the same year. The son, Henry, married Catherine Armstrong, second daughter of John and Tabitha Armstrong, and settled in Mt. Lookout; they had eleven children: Henry (who was for many years a resident of Covington; he was in the tobacco business before his death, which occurred in 1890; he removed to Mt. Lookout); James, William, Edward, Aaron, Richard, Tabitha and Catherine, all living at the present time. John was married in Baltimore to a distant relative, Nancy Morten, and came to Mt. Lookout to reside; eight children were born to them, of whom four are now living: Mary, Mrs. Sam Leeds, of Mt. Lookout; Mrs. Cryer; Andy, and John. John died in 1879 at the age of ninety-one, his wife surviving him but two months. - Source

Charlotte Morten was born in 1827 and married Thomas Cryer, who served in the Civil War. Thomas died before 1870, leaving Charlotte to raise their four children. She lived in her home at 2891 Observatory Avenue until her death, sometime after 1910. Her home is no longer standing.

Lastly, in the red box, is a name well-known to those in Hyde Park, John Kilgour, namesake of the street and the school.

The Kilgour name is familiar to most Cincinnatians as the name on the fountain in Hyde Park Square. There were two John Kilgours - senior and junior. John, Sr. came to America in 1811 and made a fortune in groceries but is best remembered for his philanthropic efforts in saving The Little Miami Railroad, which was failing. Junior, pictured (below), rose from a clerk in the depot of The Little Miami Railroad to President of the Cincinnati Street Railway Company, a company he created by consolidating the city's many streetcar companies. He was also a founding father of the Bell Telephone Co., which began in Cincinnati. - Source

John Kilgour, Jr - Source

The land was bought in 1818 by James Hey, a wealthy English merchant, who built a three story mansion on his estate named Beau Lieu Hill Farm. John Kilgour, Sr. purchased it in 1863 and renamed it The Pines, for the large pine trees on the estate. More detail of the history of The Pines can be found in the article, Hyde Park linked to The Pines, where you can also find many more pictures of the home, which was demolished in  1966.

The Pines, built 1832, demolished 1966 - Source

That is how at least seven streets in Hyde Park got their names, from the settlers that made Hyde Park their homes in the early days of Cincinnati.