And while I’m wondering, wouldn’t it be interesting if Bond Hill wasn’t named after some apocryphal Bond’s Mill (as George Patmor explains in his oral history) or even after a Colonel Bond who was active in promoting new railroads through Cincinnati and its environs (including the Mill Creek Valley next to Bond Hill). Perhaps, Bond Hill was named after the railroad bonds used that the Cincinnati-Marietta Railroad Company sold in order to aquire the land for its right-of-way? Since the newspapers of the time parrot the Bond Hill developers in stating that the name “Bond Hill” was an older place name the building association had rehabilitated, and since there’s no record on old maps or land title records of that name in use, I’m left with the feeling that Bond Hill was a catchy name that was invented when other new suburban names such as “Pleasant Hill” and “Price Hill” were in vogue. The test of this would be to look at the archives of the St. Aloysius Orphanage (established in 1860) to see whether the name was in use in any of its founding documents. I have a record of calling the current incarnation of St. Aloysius concerning the location of their archives but I failed to follow up before my thesis was due. For folk interested in Bond Hill history, taking a look at what the orphanage might have in is archive should be high on their list of research projects — right next to locating the business records of the Cincinnati-Marietta Railroad Company.

This is the last day of Golden Week, the week in Ohio when the periods for voter registration and early voting overlap allowing new voters to register and vote on the same day. Our teams are working hard to make one final push to get out the vote. I made posters like the one above for Xavier University. (If you like it and want to use it feel free. Here’s the download: Election Day Is Now (poster art)).

Friday night our volunteer groups met up at Baba Budan’s Cafe near campus. There I made the acquaintance of Erik Crew, another local Cincinnatian working on this effort. He’s been writing at rubyhornet about Golden Week (“Golden What?“), his experience registering the homeless, and the issue of ex-felon disenfranchisement. Erik and I are an exception. Most of the volunteers have come in from other states (California, Michigan, Kentucky, etc.) and two are international; one traveled from Canada and another flew all the way from the UK. Their efforts are testament to the global concern for the future of this nation’s leadership.

The party at Baba Budan’s was co-sponsored by the Hip Hop Congress. Spoken word artists delivered poetry, some with dj backing. The emcee was the Divine Prince Hakeem. My ears perked up when he mentioned his connection to the Artistic Order of 144,000. The latter was the collective of my friend Obalaye Makaria. (Obalaye helped direct some funding for my research into Bond Hill’s history four years ago.) Hakeem informed me that Obalaye’s since moved to Seattle but calls in weekly to Cincinnati’s black radio station, The Buzz. I’ll be tuning in to hopefully hear from him.

Sunday morning I went with Erik to the A.M.E. Church in Bond Hill. (This is the church built at the corner of Reading Road and Seymour Ave. on the parking lot of what is now Jordan’s Crossing and formerly Swifton Commons.) Our mission: to respectfully offer our shuttle services to any congregants come later today. We stayed for the 11am service. Rarely have I known a warmer and more welcoming community. After introducing ourselves, the congregants were invited to greet us personally. I really felt their love. I also enjoyed the relaxed yet uplifting spirit created by the church choir and its excellent band. The band leader and piano player informed us that the bassist, a young fellow, would be playing with Wynton Marsalis pretty soon and everyone gave him a nice applause. The band leader also announced a group of black youth called the Ritz Chamber Players who will be performing with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on October 9th. He invited everyone to attend the concert and udged everyone to develop an eclectic taste in all sorts of musical styles including classical and hip hop in addition to gospel and rock and roll.

Reverend Alphonse Allen preached about the necessity of striving to improve even when you feel comfortable where you’re at. In developing this idea he used the story in Deuteronomy of God commanding the Israelites to prepare to take possession of the land of Canaan while they camped on the east side of the Jordan after their 40 years of travel in the wilderness. In Jewish circles I think I’ve heard the same idea developed but from the command of God to Abram to lech l’cha l’artzecha, go out to a land that he will show you. Thinking about it, there’s a good parallel between the two stories in Genesis and Deuteronomy. Below is an image I gleaned of their lovely sanctuary.

The process for publishing with Arcadia has been fairly straightforward. I emailed the publisher with a description of my work and in the publisher’s reply I was asked some questions such as where I was from and whether I was niterested in attending book signings and had a relationship with any local historical societies. Passing the questionnaire back over email, my answers were reviewed by the publisher and after a little back and forth (there was some concern that since I was currently working post-graduation in Washington, DC that I wouldn’t be able to help promote the book effectively in Cincinnati) I was sent by mail an official Arcadia Publishing Book Proposal to complete and mail back to them with 20 sample images and illustrations. Arcadia moves very quickly! Just about a week after receiving my book proposal they callled me that they were interested in publishing and were wondering how quickly I could get all the materials ready for publishing. Thanks to my work with lulu, my answer was that all of my materials are ready. The book may be published as early as July 2005! I’ll probably add a few more things to my text about suburban history, building associations, 19th century commuters and the aspirations of country living, and cooperatives before submitting the draft to them.

Much else to report: I’m nearing the end of my internship at TPL in DC and am looking at the doctoral program in urban studies at the University of Maryland. There are also other job leads I’m pursuing.

Regarding the presentation itself, this was the first time I had given a public talk before strangers and I was a bit anxious beforehand. This anxiety motivated me to prepare many slides to elucidate my story and to challenge the imagination of my audience. Admittedly, and hour and twenty minutes is a bit long for most people and I didn’t even cover everything. In future presentations I will cover less material, and harp on the absolutely relevant details I want my audience to remember.

Dr. Tanaka is now in Matsue, Japan at the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Conference so perhaps already a new audience is aware of my research into Hearn’s mentor, Henry Watkin, and the neighborhood Watkin helped to found, Bond Hill.

Please forgive me as I raise the price for purchasing Bond Hill: Origin and Transformation as I need all the help I can get surviving being a bohemian for the upcoming few weeks.

The latest version of this book has more material relating to Henry Watkin and Watkin’s family, Laura Ann Fry Watkin, daughter of the master woodcarver Henry L. Fry, and their daughter, Effie Watkin. With Dr. Tanaka’s help I was able to discover new material on Henry Watkin at Iowa State Univeristy’s Archives including a beautiful photo of Watkin, their home in Pleasant Ridge, Ohio, and an interior photo of one of the rooms in their home showing what appear to be Henry and Laura’s wedding portraits. This should be very exciting new information for fans of Lafcadio Hearn.

Over the next few weeks I will be on the East Coast interviewing and networking for jobs. Wish me luck.