When Chester's Road House in Montgomery closed this month, it ended more than a good meal and a 30-year family tradition.

        Preservationists in the city of about 10,000 people no longer felt totally confident that the past would survive. They wondered about the future of another historic building in a region that's losing-and sometimes saving-older icons and buildings besieged by suburban expansion.

Dick Conklin, treasurer of the Montgomery Historical Preservation Association, stands by the former Chester's Roadhouse. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        “Montgomery has a long and successful history in historic preservation,” said preservationist Mary Lou Rose, “and we are determined to retain that record.”

        But growth affects the communities it invades as well as the cities it leaves behind. While this happens in Greater Cincinnati and the nation, there is a dual mentality: a desire for community and a sense of place, offset by an interest in expanding business and residential development in suburban areas.

        The Joseph family of car-dealer fame recently bought Chester's and its two-acre lot at 9678 Montgomery Rd., from the Comisar family, who own the Golden Lamb Inn in Lebanon and La Normandie and the Maisonette in Cincinnati. Although the Josephs haven't decided what to do with the building, some preservationists fear it could be torn down to make way for a car dealership.

        But such talk is premature, said Janet Korach, president of the Montgomery Historical Preservation Association.

        “Their (the family's) plan possibly includes keeping a portion of the building,” she said. “I think they are interested in doing what they can to maintain the historical significance of the building.”

        Chester's sale surprised some people in Montgomery and Sycamore Township. They hadn't yet recovered from the June demolition of the stone Todd House, built in 1809 and purchased later by racetrack owner Nicholas Todd. The property, at 8765 Montgomery Rd., will be used as a car lot for Dana Motors.

        To make things worse, in March the city lost-for the first time-one of its 33 designated historical landmarks, the Mills-Hellman House, 7913 Cooper Rd. The house, built between 1839 and 1847, was in Montgomery's first platted subdivision in 1803, and therefore an important part of the local past.

        Members of the city's Landmark Commission say the house was torn down without a demolition permit, even though they had already approved plans to renovate the building after a fire.

        “It was devastating,” said Ms. Rose, a commission member. “People are very concerned about these events. Sycamore Township does not have a historical society nor any protection for historic properties through its government. Montgomery has both and still lost a landmark.”

        If such losses can occur in Montgomery, a haven of preservation with a historic downtown district, they can happen anywhere. But Montgomery is only one historic-preservation battleground. As the suburban population moves into rural and sparsely populated areas, landmarks and other icons become involved in the age-old struggle between progress and preservation.

        Growth also indirectly threatens buildings in older towns because it reroutes economic vitality onto the main highways and sucks the energy out of smaller towns, said Kris Krider, an urban planner from Portland, Ore., who formerly lived in Lawrenceburg, Ind.

        “It's drawing the lifeblood out of their downtowns,” he said. “When the buildings start looking pretty sad, people call them eyesores.”

        In 1999, he co-filed a lawsuit to stop the Ohio River town of 5,000 people from tearing down the brick Jesse Hunt House, a Federal-style building that dates to about 1818.

        He won, and now the several blocks on High Street are being restored.

        “You have to have a core,” said Paul Muller of Muller Architects in Walnut Hills. “You can't let the city, whether it's Lawrenceburg or Cincinnati, decay, and still have a prosperous ring. We need a central business district. People want to be able to walk and run into their neighbors. Lawrenceburg has many of these characteristics because it's pedestrian-oriented.”

        In the city of Hamilton, in Butler County, three deteriorating 19th-century mercantile buildings sit side by side on High Street, in a newly landscaped and renovated area. Earlier in the 20th century, the buildings housed a bank, dry goods store and 5-and-10-cent store-all-important businesses in a then vibrant downtown. Today, it is being replaced by a strip of chain stores on Main Street.

        Vacant for two years, the old buildings detract from improvements made around them. Facades are covered with painted plywood storefronts.

        Three years ago, the city bought the buildings for $475,000. This spring, council hired a Cleveland architectural firm to determine if the buildings are worth renovating.

        “Old buildings everywhere are endangered,” said Ms. Korach, of the Montgomery preservation association. Despite the loss of some buildings, preservationists have won victories in Montgomery. In the 1990s, the old Barton's Bakery building, next to the Montgomery Inn, was rescued by the city and authentically reproduced as the Sage Tavern of the early 1800s. Today, Starbucks occupies most of the building, with a French antiques and fabric store upstairs.

        Fortunately, Montgomery is one of the older communities in Hamilton County's suburban north, so its identity is settled. Other developing communities don't have that luxury. They are losing everything from old barns to community markers.

        “The sprawl communities have a hard time establishing identity,” said Mr. Muller, president of the Cincinnati Preservation Association. “They have an icon here and there, and an original farm house and tavern. Those buildings are under tremendous pressure. . . .It's a shame to throw away any kind of important piece of our history, because we can't get it back.”

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