Sunday, March 21, 1999
Sharonville reviving tie to railroad
Depot Square hopes to lure shops, visitors
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SHARONVILLE — The railroad brought prosperity to this town in the late 1800s. Now, city officials hope its memory brings foot traffic.
Workers are creating Depot Square in the heart of downtown at Reading and Creek roads — a new magnet for residents and visitors and a way to rekindle the city's link with the iron horse.
The square is part of a face lift and redevelopment designed to bring folks to town. Foot traffic is much diminished from a decade or two ago since some pedestrian-friendly businesses such as the neighborhood grocery and others left for want of bigger stores and shopping malls, said Audrey Privett, public works director.
To bring back the people, the city has earmarked $470,000 to create a renovated square highlighted by a replica locomotive that spews a cascade of water instead of smoke and soot from its stack. Children will be able to climb through the locomotive and jump on a slide that exits at its front.
The city has courted new businesses for the square. “Already, Nancy's Depot Square gift shop and Mancini's Ice Cream have opened stores” off the square — both pedestrian-friendly places, said Bob Houston, chairman of city council's economic development committee.
“We are going to create replica rails from the locomotive to the caboose that already is in place.”
There will be nine bronze, 20-inch diameter medallions that will follow the track and provide a history of Sharonville.
The square will include benches and tables, trees and flowers. It will host concerts and other activities. A deck will surround the gift shop, and pavers will replace concrete on the dead end of Creek Road between the square and Cliff Hardware store to its immediate north.
Sharonville's link to the rails began in the 1870s when the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad laid tracks through the town, spawning growth. By 1880, the population exceeded 400 and by 1890 reached 600, officials said.
Mr. Houston said that in the 1920s the New York Central made Sharonville a hub, with train yards and a roundhouse near the present day intersection of U.S. 42 and Cincinnati-Dayton Road north of the town center.
Andrea Rosenthal, 36, came with her 1-year-old daughter, Anna, in a stroller along with babysitter, Mary Franke, for an ice cream.
“I'm sure this will bring people out. I live about three blocks away. This is near a residential area. People need a place to congregate. This will be a perfect spot in the summertime,” Ms. Rosenthal said.
Businesses are optimistic.
Lenaia Mancini, 20, daughter of ice cream shop owners Michele and Al Mancini, said: “We think the city is really investing in a great idea. A lot of our success will depend on the pedestrian traffic the square generates. ... The city is giving us a lot of hope and support; we have high aspirations for success,” she said.
Don Tomes, 61, assistant manager of Cliff Hardware, a Sharonville anchor for about 50 years, said, “our business is good, but it has changed. Today we are more of an industrial hardware store. I think this (new square) will increase our business. It will bring in the local homeowners — the kinds of people we had years ago — ... (when Cliff was) more the neighborhood hardware store.”
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