First Post

     Today was my first day doing real research on the history of South Dinmore Park in Latonia, Kentucky. I have lived on Earle Avenue my entire life and have become interested in learning more about the history of my city, in particular the land and streets near my home. Here's a little about what I knew prior to visiting the court house today. Benjamin Graziani was a well known attorney in Covington, Kentucky and in 1896 purchased land in South Dinmore Park to build a home. He lived in a mansion on Riverside Drive and had an office in downtown Covington as well. He built the house I live in around 1896/97.

    Last week I was looking at Kenton County PVA's website and found a small tract of land in the middle of the woods between 38th Street and Southern Ave. I couldn't believe someone owned such a bad piece of land. It floods when it rains and smells like sewage in the summer. PVA said Harvey Myers was the current owner and his address is in Clearwater, Florida. I decided to look for the guy on Facebook. I ended up finding a Harvey Myers in Clearwater and sent him a message learning more about why he owned the property. Well I ended up learning he is Harvey Myers IV and his grandfather was an attorney in Covington and used to live in a mansion on Riverside Drive, just a few houses down from Benjamin Graziani, the man who purchased the land where my home was built. I became even more interested in why someone would purchase land in the middle of the woods in a small valley that often floods and smells.

    After talking to my dad about what I found (he's interested in local history as well, I guess that's where I got it from) he came up with the idea that at one time 38th street was supposed to continue through the woods but never did. Harvey Myers must have purchased the land thinking the road would be built and it would be a great place to develop. Sadly, the road was never built and the property became virtually worthless. I looked at PVA again and saw where the roads should have connected in the woods. It looked like 38th street was supposed to connect to Tracy Ave, which should have been built further north. 38th Street wasn't supposed connect all the way to Leslie according to the map. It was designed to be cut off by Tracey and be slightly more northeast.

    I spent a few hours at the court house today researching deeds to my home and learning who purchased our house and when. I hope to make another trip and make some scans and will post them here. I also searched for maps of South Dinmore Park when it was being divided into plats. I only spent a few minutes searching but came across a map that shows my dad's assumption to be true. 38th Street, at the time, was named Forest Avenue and was to intersect through Gilbert (which was supposed to continue further north into the woods which never did) and end on Tracy, then continue eastward where 38th street is today. I will attach a map when I am able to make scans.

     This is about as far as I will write today. I'm going to try and dig deeper in deeds and maps to learn more about my home and South Dinmore Park. Just trying to get started and put everything I remember into words so I don't forget it. Hope to get everything organized and upload as much as I can. If anyone happens to find this please feel free to contribute or email me at ki4rtg@yahoo.com if you have any additional information. This is a small piece of local history but important to me at least. Thanks for reading!