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Town Hall, Commonwealth & |
The Erlanger - Fort Mitchell |
| The Bentler Building “was originally built by Robert James Scott, a druggist who built the building in 1892. Scott manufactured two of his own products: Rose Glycerin Powder and Scott’s Headache Powders. He sold these nationwide and on the first floor was the drug store, the second floor included a stage and dressing rooms and served as the community meeting room and social center. The third floor contained two lodge rooms. The building was the most suitable place for meetings, dances and lectures and Chautauqua performances and became know as the 'Towne Hall'” - Patricia Hahn, commenting on Facebook | |
Commonwealth, 1944
From a Facebook post by Frank Smith
Looking East on Commonwealth
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| Erlanger Tollgate. At 14 Erlanger Road |
Erlanger Tollgate. Same scene as at left. Fritz Scheben owned the house |
The Bentler Building was on the nw corner of Dixie and Commonwealth.
From a Facebook post by Frank Smith
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| Digging the Underpass From a Facebook post by Beverly Sturgeon |
Parade, c. 1958, looking south From a Facebook post by the Erlanger Historical Society |
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| Henry Childress, in his history of Erlanger (below) says “The railroad reservoir (Silver Lake) was about one-half mile north of the depot, and called Greenwood Lake, in honor of Miles Greenwood. The station was named the same.” | |
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| Looking north on Dixie, before the underpass. | Underpass construction. The track curves because it's temporary, to go around the construction; in railroad terms, a “shoofly” track. From a Facebook post by Beverly Sturgeon |
Here's something you don't see every day: a 1937 flood picture from Erlanger! Cincinnati Bell deployed generators at their sub-stations to insure the phone system worked, even as the area suffered from severe power outages. Note the Erlanger depot in the background. |
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| Three more shots of the Bentler Building, one with lots of pedestrians, and one with a jitney (bus). | ||
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| Knapmeyer's, looking south on Dixie | Dixie Highway, c. 1965 |
| From a Facebook posts by Beverly Sturgeon | |
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| Stevenson Road, looking toward Dixie (Dixie and Commonwealth didn't always line up.) |
Dixie Highway Scene The building we remember as the Community Bank is on the left; underpass ahead. |
From a Facebook post by Steve Morgan |
from a Facebook posting by the Erlanger Historical Society |
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Dixie at McAlpin |
Erlanger, c. WWI |
Dixie Highway, Erlanger |
| It's 1921, and they're planning Big Doings for the opening of the Dixie Highway between Erlanger and Florence. |
| In 1924, the Kentucky Post ran this 4-page feature on Erlanger (pdf). |
| The first word in Erlanger history is Henry Childress' History of Erlanger, here. |
Erlanger's application to be on the National Register of Historic Places differ from most, insofar as it actually uses historic rather than contemporary pictures. Lotsa good background on Erlanger. |
The Q & C Depot, Erlanger
(The Queen and Crescent, later the Southern, later
the Norfolk Southern. It started out
as the C. N. O. & T. P - the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas
Pacific.)
The depot burns in 1906
| The depot above was later converted to the location of the Erlanger Historical Society, which revitalized, maintained, and even added a caboose to the structure. The City of Erlanger rewarded their hard work by booting them out and confiscating the site.
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| The Erlanger Historical Society | |
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| Erlanger Life Display | Erlanger Civil War Display | Front Room Display |
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| Depot Train Days | The Caboose moves into location |
The man for whom Erlanger is named, Frédéric Émile, Baron d’Erlanger (June 19, 1832-May 22, 1911)
After the Civil War, Cincinnati merchants wanted urgently to be able to sell goods in the south, but could not match prices from Louisville merchants. Louisville simply had to put things on the L&N, and ship. Cincinnati merchants had to load cargo on a steamer, ship it to Louisville, unload it, and then load it on the L&N. Transportation costs gave Louisville a price break in the South. Long story short: Cincinnati built a railroad; the Southern, a.k.a., The Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific, or the CNO&TP. The law said the city couldn't buy stock in a railroad, but it didn't say they could own one. The political battle in Kentucky was fierce. The Courier-Journal didn't exactly feel sorry for Cincinnati. They editorialized “Grass will certainly not grow in the streets of Cincinnati in our day. The merchants of Cincinnati, the railroad men of Cincinnati, are a thoroughly live and ingenious set of Yankee plotters, who propose to swarm upon the Southern country like ducks upon June bugs.” But the Kentucky authorities eventually relented, and various lengths of the railroad, offering a variety of passenger and freight services opened from 1887 to 1880. In 1881, the city leased it's holdings to an English corporation controlled by German-born Parisian banker Frédéric Émile d'Erlanger (Wikipedia). The city of Erlanger is named for him. d'Erlanger's CNO&TP holdings eventually end up, in 1894, joining a number of railroads under the name Southern Railway. The City of Cincinnati still owns a 99-year lease on the Southern. Look for it to be in the news in 2026, when it expires. |
Dr. Paul Tenkotte has written on d'Erlanger, at this site.
| Elsmere became an official city on May 11, 1896; Erlanger on January 25, 1897. You can read that Erlanger incorporated as a separate city from Elsmere to prevent annexation by Elsmere. True? Maybe. |
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| October 10, 1914 | September 6, 1911 |
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| The Erlanger Depot, 1974 |
The depot being moved. It's about 100 feet west of its original location |
Erlanger Depot, September, 1911 (a Kentuckiana Virtual Library image) |
The C. N. O & T. P. |
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Current home of the Erlanger Depot Museum, and the Erlanger Historical Society |
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In the snow, before Dixie was paved |
Erlanger Elsmere Armed Services Roll |
Commonwealth Avenue |
Commonwealth Avenue, 1944 |
Who is this Erlanger Fair headliner, Lincoln Beachey? Read about him at this site. His biographers almost all agree that there are so many wild antics that they know are factual, that it's very difficult to recognize the fictional ones. Beachey is the first man to fly an airplane straight down, around in a loop, upside down, and, yes, backwards. By 1915, one in every 5 Americans had seen him perform. In person. And one rumor says he had a lockbox full of cash and a fiancee with a diamond ring in every town he performed. Ad is from the Boone County Recorder, July 29, 1914 |
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| Hallam at Dixie | Theodore Frelinghuysen Hallam, (Wikipedia) for whom Erlanger's Hallam Avenue is named. |
See that 2x4 contraption in the lower left? That's a starting box for greyhound racing. c. 1925.
Thanks to Don Sturgeon for this one.
A gate at the Fairgrounds
From a Facebook post by Pat Hahn
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Grandstand at |
Trotters Race at the Erlanger Fair Grounds |
Grandstand at the Erlanger Fairgrounds |
c. 1920 |
The grandstand you see here seated 4,000 people and was located where the Lloyd High School Campus is today. The first Erlanger Derby was run here in 1906. |
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| Read Pat Hahn's history of the track (pdf) at the Erlanger Historical Society's site. | |||
A Kentucky Post preview of events at the 1910 Erlanger Fair, including “the inevitable Oriental dancers,” is here. |
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| Here's the story of the 1914 fair, with biplanes. And well-oiled streets | Here's the story on the fair opening in 1924 | ||
Aerial view of where the Fairgrounds were
From a Facebook post by Paul Jenny Hadorn
Mack Truck Show at the Erlanger Fair
One of four operating between Erlanger and the Fort Mitchell
Car Line
Kentucky Post, August 15, 1922
Erlanger, from Elsmere
From a Facebook post by
Glen Comstock
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| Scenes from an Enquirer article from 1968. | ||
| The Erlanger Historical Society has added a video on the underground railroad and its ties to Erlanger. It's located under articles and videos on their website. |
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| Silverlake. Division St. at lower left; railroad on the right. C. 1949. From a Facebook post by Beverly Sturgeon | Aerial View of Erlanger | Edgewood / Erlanger Aerial. That's Dixie Heights in the top center |
Erlanger Aerial
From a Facebook post by Paul Jenny Hadorn
Aerial view of what will be the Erlanger I-75 interchange.
That's Donaldson running north, to the top of the image.
I-75 will go to the left to Buttermilk.
From a Facebook post by Beverly Sturgeon
Kenton Co Public Library
Depending on how you count, this is either the first, second, or third public library in Erlanger-Elsmere. It's the first stand-alone building which had a library. An earlier library was begun in the old Citizens Bank Building, which is the first library, according to a history of the libraries by Harry Riggs, which you can read here. He read the history on the occasion of the dedication of the above building on May 19, 1957. Evidently, everyone forgot there was an earlier library on Garvey, just off Dixie, as shown in this Sanborn Fire map c. 1940. More on Sanborn maps below. |
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Looking East in 1911 |
Erlanger Scenes after the |
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| Dixie Highway, 1960 | Riggs Avenue |
Russ Garnet Excavating, building the Erlanger Road |
Clicking on this image will take you to Railpics.net, where you can see an enlarged version of this picture by Jesse Cornelius, and a view of Erlanger you don't usually get to see. |
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| Child Life in Erlanger | Seining for Minnows in Dry Creek on the Sunset Poultry Farm, near Erlanger |
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The map on the left is from a Sanborn Fire Map of Erlanger from 1909, and the map on the right is excerpted from a Lake Atlas of 1883. You can see more expansive versions of both. Learn how here. |
The City of Erlanger was first incorporated on January 25, 1897.
Their brochure, Lookin' Back, a detailed look, street by
street, and house by house, of old Erlanger, is
here. (pdf)
Plat for an 1879 sale of lots in Erlanger. Note that north is toward the bottom right.
from the Covington Daily Commonwealth, April 4. 1879
The Covington-Erlanger Stage Schedule
Kentucky Post, August 20, 1895
Great Mountain Scenery in Erlanger!
Delightfully cool breeze at the summit!
Or maybe 15,000 showed up. Story here, and another here.
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| The Triple E (Erlanger, Elsmere and Edgewood) Swim Club, 2006. From a Facebook post by Kris Payler Staverman | |||
| “The Triple E Swim club, a fixture in Erlanger since the late 1950s, is gone. The pool, concession stand and basketball courts have been razed to make way for two office buildings, said David Hahn, Erlanger's director of economic development. The privately owned pool was sold to Terrace Holdings, an Erlanger developer, who plans to build two two-story office buildings on the three-acre site bordered by Graves Avenue, Commonwealth Road and Watson Road, Hahn said.” The Kentucky Post, April 6, 2007 | |||
Erlanger historian Pat Hahn has written (all pdf's) on
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| “Miss Anna E. Cahill, of Erlanger, Ky., became deranged by the blowing of whistles while at Cincinnati and Covington, New Year's eve. She will be taken to the asylum.” Indianapolis News, January 24, 1898 | |||||
Two murder stories from 1890's Erlanger, here. |
The City of Erlanger was first incorporated on January 25, 1897. |
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| A 1926 history of the Erlanger Women's Club is here. | Christmas shoot-out between Boone Countians and the Erlanger guys: here. | ||||
The Erlanger Historical Society is here. |
The official City of Erlanger site is here. |
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| “In Silver Lake [Erlanger], on the Cincinnati Southern railroad and Lexington pike, there are two groceries, one dry goods store, a lumber yard and a coal yard.”from the Courier-Journal, December 18, 1880 | |||||
| The Thin Rind Hog Association held their 1897 convention in Erlanger. | A few words on the Presbyterians of Erlanger | ||||
| Heard of Erlanger? 1899 | |||||
| The 1897 Erlanger bicycle races. | Electric lights first turned on in 1914. Celebration ensues. | ||||
| Fire, in 1879, here. | Feud settled (?) in Erlanger in 1900. | ||||
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“Cincinnati Furniture Exchange - The big outing of the Exchange took place on June 22. This is the twentieth annual outing which members of the Exchange have had the pleasure to attend. This year's big outing was at Cody's big farm in Erlanger, Ky., the place where all had such a grand time last year. Promptly at 9 o'clock in the morning Kentucky burgoo was served, after which a round of mint juleps was presented to the members buy Colonel Cody, the host. At 1 o'clock a big chicken dinner was served and during the afternoon there were roasting ears and a barbecue. In the evening, a real old-fashioned Kentucky supper gave the members a chance to fill up - those who had any room left in which to put it. There was a band and orchestra to make things merry during the day, and Goetz's entertainers were there to drive the blues away.”A 1918 issue of The Furniture Worker |
You can read about other folks who had their annual soiree's at Colonel Cody's farm in Erlanger:
| Cincinnati Jewelers | Cincinnati Shoe and Leather Club | Lumbermen's Club of Cincinnati |
The Erlanger Historic Society presents The Civil War in Erlanger
We're indebted to the Erlanger Historical Society for many of the pictures you see here. Thanks, folks.
