Botany Hills, West Covington

Name of Association:
Botany Hills Neighborhood Association

Contact:
Website: www.botanyhills.org
Email: botanyhillsna@gmail.com
Representative: Lisa Murray

2025 Monthly Meetups, 6-7pm:
Q1: Jan 27th, Feb 10th, Mar 10th
Q2: Apr 14th, May 12th, Jun 9th
Q3: Jul 14th, *AUG 18TH will be at Sheehan Park!, Sep 8th
Q4: Oct 6th, Nov 10th, Dec 8th

Meeting Location:
Holiday Inn Express
200 Crescent Ave, at West 3rd Street
Covington, KY 41011

Social Media:
www.facebook.com/BotanyHills

Located just west of I-71/I-75 and bordered by the Ohio River and Devou Park, Botany Hills is a hillside community that boasts some of the most spectacular views of the Ohio River and the Cincinnati skyline. It’s unique physical characteristics, along with close proximity to cultural and recreational activities, makes this quiet community accessible to all.

Botany Hills is within walking distance to many area attractions such as Paul Brown Stadium, Great American Ball Park, MainStrasse Village, Northern Kentucky Convention Center, and is only a short drive to the CVG international airport. Mass transit and shuttles run through the neighborhood, making convenient connections to Northern Kentucky’s favorite attractions for both work and play.

While Botany Hills has many longtime residents, in recent years the convenient location, sought after vista and affordable housing stock have become attractive to many young professionals as well as empty nesters. Older brick and frame houses have been transformed into quaint homes with front porches and small gardens. Highway Avenue is the main thoroughfare which leads to Ludlow and Bromley.

Inspired by its rich variety of plantings, Botany Hills was originally named by Edwin Forrest, the first native-born American actor, who purchased 45 hillside acres along the Ohio River in 1839. When Edwin Forrest left, people called the area Forrest Hill. The area was later named Economy, then West Covington before being annexed by Covington in 1916. Recently, the residents and neighborhood association have reinstated the name of Botany Hills to reflect its history, natural beauty, and unique identity.

The Futuro House has become one of Botany Hills’ favorite tourist attractions, located at 224 Wright Street, Covington KY 41011. Hovering above our historic river town, the massive flying saucer, or "spaceship house" as it's commonly referred to, has been part of the Kentucky landscape since the 1980s.

Cincinnati TV station WDRB produced this fun news feature on the Covington Futuro House. Watch the short video below.

WVXU's Bill Rinehart visits one Northern Kentucky neighborhood to find out… what's in a name?

www.wvxu.org/local-news/2021-06-30/oki-wanna-know-what-is-botany-hills

Here is the transcript, updated: 7-1-21  

Laura Kinney of Edgewood wants to know why West Covington now has an unfamiliar name. "I lived there in childhood and I heard that they're calling it Botany Hills instead of West Covington. I had never heard of that name before."

West Covington and Botany Hills are just two of the names in the neighborhood's history.

"Believe it or not, Botany Hills is the fifth name in that particular area," says Laurie Risch, executive director of the Behringer Crawford Museum, which is close to the neighborhood in question.

"Botany Hills is that area west of I-75. (It) borders north with the Ohio River, south with Devou Park, and east with the city of Ludlow," she says.

In the late 1830s, the land was owned by Israel Ludlow, one of the founders of Losantiville, better known today as Cincinnati. His Kentucky holdings soon became known as Forrest Hill, named for Edwin Forrest.

Forrest was an actor from Philadelphia, who made his name playing Shakespeare in the U.S. and in England. (Forrest is also tied to the Astor Place Riot of 1849, where 22 people were killed in New York. But that's a different story.)

Forrest fell in love with Northern Kentucky early in his career and made several trips. On one of those visits he played cards with Israel Ludlow and won, according to Karl Lietzenmayer, vice president of the Kenton County Historical Society.

"Ludlow didn't want to quit playing. Forrest said 'That's enough.' (Ludlow said) 'Okay, sit down once more and I'll wager my land.' So 48 acres was put on the table and Forrest won that too," Lietzenmayer says.

Forrest built a house at 309 Wright Street. It still stands today, according to Lietzenmayer.

"This area on the plat maps is known as the Forrest Subdivision. There's also a Forest Street, but they dropped an 'r.' It doesn't mean anything about trees. It refers to Mr. Forrest," says Lietzenmayer.

The Forrest Subdivision, or Forrest Hill, soon encompassed another community at the bottom of the hill. Around 1846, people started calling it Economy "because it was a cheap place to live," Lietzenmayer says. "That's all I've ever found out. I don't think that name lasted very long."

Economy started growing and then incorporated as West Covington in 1858. It wasn't long after that, Laurie Risch says, Covington started the first of several annexation attempts.

"Finally, by 1916 it did become annexed by the city of Covington. By that point most of the development of the area, the highway avenue was being built, so it was all coming in. The people who lived there agreed to the annex by Covington because of the professional services the city could offer them," she says.

A Covington Neighborhood

www.bestofnky.com/a-covington-neighborhood
By David E. Schroeder, executive director of the Kenton County Public Library

The neighborhood at one time was part of the Israel Ludlow estate. Ludlow owned Elmwood Hall (still standing in the city of Ludlow) and the surrounding thousand acres. Over time, land was sold by the Ludlow family. In the hilly east part of the property near Covington, a little village of modest frame homes began to develop. Local newspapers referred to the area as Economy, due to the frugality of the residents. As the community grew, the need for local government became apparent. Residents requested the incorporation of the village as the city of West Covington in 1858. This request was approved by the Kentucky General Assembly that same year. City government included five trustees, a police judge and a town marshal.

The city’s residents were staunchly pro-Union during the Civil War. A company was formed in the town and the city bought the volunteers uniforms. This company participated in the building of the fortifications to protect the region from Confederate invasion in 1862.

Following the war, the community’s population nearly doubled with an influx of immigrants from western Europe. By 1875, more than a thousand people called West Covington home. Many of these early residents were immigrants from England, Scotland, Germany and especially Ireland. The Irish were such a force in the community that some newspapers simply referred to the area as Hibernia.

A public school was established in 1858. In 1869, the city charter was amended to provide for a school board of five members. The school was for elementary grades only and was located on Main Street (now Parkway Avenue). By 1875, enrollment had reached 100 and was being taught by two teachers. In 1876, a new brick schoolhouse rose on the site of the original structure.

The Catholic members of the community also operated an elementary school in the city. St. Ann Church was dedicated on December 11, 1864. A few years later, a two-story frame school building was constructed, which housed 150 students by 1875. The school was originally taught by the Sisters of St. Francis of Oldenburg, Indiana. They were later replaced by the Sisters of Divine Providence in 1891. Other churches in the community included Union Methodist Episcopal Church (later Epworth Methodist), which was established in 1877, and St. John German Evangelical Church (now St. John Congregational Church), established in 1892.

Additional development occurred in 1893 with the construction of Highway Avenue between Covington and Ludlow. The new road cut a path directly through West Covington and resulted in the realignment of many of the city’s streets. Streetcar service was installed along the new avenue. For the first time, residents of West Covington had convenient and reliable public transportation to Ludlow, Covington and Cincinnati. As a result, new homes and businesses were constructed and the population increased.

West Covington was a landlocked community with no opportunities for expansion. The city was almost exclusively residential and relied almost entirely on property taxes. In the years before World War I, a number of residents began a campaign to merge with neighboring Covington. Covington offered services including a professional fire department, police department and a full public-school curriculum, including high school classes. All of these services would be gained at a lower tax rate. In November 1916, the residents of West Covington went to the polls and voted in favor of annexation to Covington. The city was no more. As a result, many of the street names in the community were changed so that they would not conflict with already existing streets in Covington. As an example, Main Street in West Covington became Parkway Avenue.

Annexation proved quite beneficial to the neighborhood. The West Covington school was renamed Eleventh District in 1916. A new school was constructed by the Covington School Board in 1919 on Parkway Avenue. Designed by the firm Richards, McCarty & Buford, the brick two-story building initially contained eight classrooms and was dedicated Sept. 23, 1923. West Covington architect Chester Disque designed an addition to the school, which was completed in 1931.

Other improvements in the neighborhood included a new Gothic Revival St. Ann Church, which was dedicated June 19, 1932. A new firehouse at the corner of Altamont and Parkway avenues followed in 1933. The new one-bay brick building was constructed at a cost of $10,000 and quickly became a favorite gathering place for the residents of the neighborhood. In 1953, Epworth United Methodist Church constructed a new $100,00 sanctuary on Highway Avenue. Finally, a new St. Ann School was constructed on Highway Avenue at the cost of $120,000. The school was dedicated Oct. 5, 1957.

The baby boom of the late 1940s and 1950s soon gave way to urban flight in the 1960s. The population of the neighborhood began to decline. The Covington School Board closed Eleventh District School in 1979. St. Ann Elementary survived two more years, closing in 1981.

Despite changing demographics, the community retains its small-town feel. The little neighborhood on the hill keeps moving forward and is beginning to see the impact of Covington’s recent urban renaissance.