As a valued partner of the East Walnut Hills (EWHA) Assembly Board and Business Association, the DeSales Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (DCDC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit community development corporation collaborating with business owners, developers, the City of Cincinnati, and other key partners on the strategic growth of the East Walnut Hills community. DCDC improves the lives of residents throughout East Walnut Hills and the neighboring communities of Evanston, O’Bryonville, and Walnut Hills by focusing on equitable, inclusive development, while acting to preserve historic buildings and places and the unique history of East Walnut Hills.
DCDC’s elected officers:
Drew Gores, President
Ben Strohm, Vice President
Freeman Durham, Treasurer
Steve Ramos, Secretary
Tony Fischer
Michael Murrison
DCDC is currently collaborating with the East Walnut Hills Assembly Board and Cincinnati Preservation on the possible expansion of the Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District.
Help DCDC to determine what an expanded Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District could look like. Help us to preserve the unique historic structures and stories of East Walnut Hills.
Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District Proposed Expansion
Preserving, Protecting and Celebrating the History of East Walnut Hills and Cincinnati
The DeSales Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (DCDC) is the community development corporation for East Walnut Hills. DCDC and EWHA are seeking your input regarding a possible expansion of the existing Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District north to Dexter Avenue and south to William Howard Taft.
There are 27 Historic Districts in the City of Cincinnati. Our neighborhood is fortunate to have four of these: Cleinview-Hackberry, East Walnut Hills, Uplands, and the Woodburn Avenue Neighborhood Business District. Each historic district provides guidelines for future changes, ensuring that the historic physical character of our community remains intact and distinct.
The four East Walnut Hills historic districts (some dating back to 1988) have ensured and will continue to ensure that our neighborhood’s unique history and architecture are not lost to unsympathetic alterations, demolitions, or out-of-scale new construction.
The many architecture styles found in the Cleinview-Hackberry study area for the proposed expansion include Italianate, Queen Anne, Second Empire, vernacular styles and others and reflect the varied history of the families who lived and worked in early East Walnut Hills.
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The Cleinview-Hackberry proposed expansion study area (see map below) documents the story of Cincinnati’s growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the perspectives of its diverse residents, as East Walnut Hils transitioned from the Village of Woodburn to a neighborhood of Cincinnati, following annexation.
Expanding the Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District will help preserve the character, heritage, and historic significance of our neighborhood, stabilize property values and continue to preserve the existing economically and architecturally diverse mix of properties in the district. The expansion will reduce the pressure created by relaxed zoning laws that could otherwise lead to the demolition of historic houses to build new multi-family apartment buildings or luxury condominiums and townhouses.
Historic preservation celebrates the unique stories of real people, like the history of Herbie’s Lounge, a former jazz club located in this proposed expanded historic district.
Historic preservation also protects and celebrates previously landmarked buildings like the iconic St. Francis De Sales Catholic Church on the corner of Woodburn Avenue and Madison Rd. We hope to be able to add the former firehouse at Woodburn and Hackberry Aves to the list of preserved historic properties.
Please click here for the presentation made at the initial meeting on the proposed study area at the February 4 2026 EWHA meeting. No decisions were made at that meeting.
If your property is in the proposed historic district, you have likely already received a letter addressed to you at your property informing you of this meeting and presentation. You will receive future mailings as well.
What Does This Mean for You?
EWHA and DCDC will continue outreach in the community on the proposed expansion of the Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District. There will be more public in-person meetings (following the initial meeting held on February 4 at the EWHA Assembly meeting) and more outreach via direct mailings (to property owners in the proposed study area) and social media. No decision on the proposed expansion is likely to take place until the fall of 2026, at the earliest. A professional historic preservationist has been hired to help EWHA and DCDC to identify and tell the stories of the historic properties that could be included in the proposed expansion study area.
If the expansion is approved by Cincinnati City Council, the Cleinview-Hackberry Historic District will be expanded to include those historic properties and sites that are included in the approved study area.
When a property is within a historic district, changes to exterior architectural features visible from a public way are reviewed through the Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) process by the Historic Conservation Office or the Historic Conservation Board. This process is incorporated into the zoning and building permit review.
Minor alterations are often approved at the staff level within two weeks; major projects require Historic Conservation Board review and a public hearing.
Inclusion in a historic district does not affect the underlying zoning or permitted uses of a property. It does make it less likely that someone will buy historic properties to tear them down.
Contributing properties may be eligible for State Historic Tax Credits and a $50,000 tax abatement bonus for historic rehabilitation projects.
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