Sol and Esther spent much of their married lives in the Cincinnati area. They lived in many places because of problems paying the rent. Chippy, their son, recalls: You ask where did I live and go to school? We almost lived the lives of transients as my dad had difficulty making a living in his little shops where he repaired clothing and sold 2nd hand clothing.
The Felson family moved at least 5 times from the time when they reunited in 1904 to when they were dispersed in 1941. The addresses and approximate dates of the best known residences where Sol and Esther and their children lived together were as follows:
1. 331 W. 6th St, Newport KY: 1904-1913
2. 233 Dillward Avenue, Carthage OH 1913-1915
3. Sekitan Street, Addyston, Ohio 1915
4. 410 Hopkins St, Cincinnati, OH: 1915-1930
5. 3323 Reading Road, Cincinnati, OH: early 1930
6. 826 Glenwood Avenue, Cincinnati, OH: 1935-1938
7. 956 Burton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH: 1938-1941
Here are some recollections of the family about each of the places where they lived.
331 W. 6th Street Newport, Kentucky 1904-1913
The reunited Felson family lived in Newport, Kentucky from 1904 to 1914. During this time Louise, Chippy, Walter, Nathan, and Ben were born. The family lived in Newport in 1913 when 3 year old sibling Nathan Felson contracted diphtheria and died. The sibling story later was that Nathan died of a botched tracheotomy done to solve a breathing problem caused by a swelling in his glottis.
Here is Richie’s recollection of what Ben conveyed to him:
I think Nathan died in the hospital while being treated for some illness that required a tube be inserted into his trachea. The doctor took it out to check it and re-inserted it incorrectly, killing the child. My dad had that same doctor as a professor in medical school years later. When the professor was taking the roll he looked up when he came to my dad’s name. My dad thought he looked up because he realized the family connection. Nothing was ever said.
The day of Nathan’s death was April 15, 1913, just two weeks after the great flood in Newport crested probably resulting in the family’s home being underwater. Alan recalls Sophie talking about scrubbing down the walls of their home in Newport after being flooded.
Residents: Sol, Esther, Sophie, Irv, Louise, Chippie, Walter, Nathan, Ben
233 Dillward Avenue, Carthage, 1913
Chippy indicated in a 1991 letter to Amy Travis that he once lived with the family in Carthage, Ohio. The 1913 Cincinnati City Directory lists the family as living at 133 Dillward Avenue in Carthage. Sol’s tailor shop was nearby at 307 Pike St.
Ben was born in October, 1913, and the census data indicate that he was born in Newport. The family must have moved out of Newport shortly after Ben was born, at the end of the year in 1913.
Sekitan Street, Addyston, Ohio, 1915
Around 1914 or so the family moved again, this time to Addyston, Ohio. Alan Travis remembers his mother talking about having lived in Addyston, Ohio as a child. Also, Edith, who was born in 1915, lists Addyston as her city of birth when filling out a passenger list form for her travels to Europe and Russia in 1936.
In Addyston the family lived in a two story brick building on Sekitan Street. Their apartment was above Sol’s dry cleaning and tailor shop and Nathan Dorfman’s shoe repair shop. On November 23, 1915 the whole building burned down. A newspaper article in the Cincinnati Post describes the narrow rescue of three-year-old Ben and 5 month-old Edie by a passer by, just before their second floor apartment collapsed, falling down into Sol’s first floor tailor shop.
410 Hopkins Street 1915-1927
Following the catastrophic fire, the family moved to 410 Hopkins Street in the West End of Cincinnati, between John Street and Central Avenue.
Nearby was John Street, where the Nickles family, two sisters (Alice and Martha) and a brother (Samuel) lived. The three siblings were independently wealthy because of the prominence and success of their father, Sam Nickles, who had been a well-known and well-regarded physician in Cincinnati. Sam and his wife had died before the Felsons moved into the West End neighborhood. It was the younger Nickles siblings who took in Edith to live with them at 1406 John Street. Well, not really so young, Alice was 54, Martha was 35 and Samuel was 30.
The Nickles house was five blocks away from 410 Hopkins, where the rest of the Felsons lived. The house at 410 Hopkins was also a convenient walking distance from Sol’s tailor shop, at 1407 Central Avenue.
Residents (as per census): Sol, Esther, Sophie, Irv, Louise, Chippy, Walter, Ben, Edith, on occasion, and Leo
Other unknown houses the Felson’s lived in
From Steve (January 16, 2015): I once drove Chippy around in the Over-the-Rhine area (Vine Street above Central Parkway)..while Chippy pointed out several houses in which the family had lived. He also mentioned that there were several others whose addresses he didn’t remember. My understanding from him was that Solomon would be unable to pay the rent and would either be evicted or would move in anticipation of being evicted.
4205 West 8th Street, Price Hill (1923? to 1930, listed in the 1930 Census)
Bob Travis recollects: “My parents (Sophie and Phil Travis), (married in 1922) lived on Gilsey Avenue in Price Hill prior to purchasing a house in partnership with Louise and Leo Pritz. The house they shared was located at 4305 West 8th Street.”
This house is listed in the 1930 census as being owned by Phil and Sophie and being the residence for Louise and Leo Pritz and Bob Travis. The family called it “The Price Hill House.” Alan remembers his parents renting out the first floor to people other than family members.
Residents: Leo Pritz (a furniture salesman and first husband of Louise), Louise, Sophie, Phil, Bob, and Alan (after 1930, when he was born).
3323 Reading Road in the late 1920s and early 1930s
In the late 1920s the remaining Felson family (sans Sophie and Louise) moved to 8323 Reading Road. Bob remembers having to take two street cars from Sophie and Phil’s home in Price Hill to visit the Felson’s home on Reading Road. The house was near Walnut Hills High School, where Edie went to school from 1927, when she was in 6th grade to senior year in 1933 when she graduated.
Residents as per the 1930 census: Sol, Esther, Irv, Chippy, Walter, Ben, Edith, Leo.
826 Glenwood Avenue 1935-1938?
Sol died in 1934. Since Esther was not well (heart condition), the family moved from Reading Road to Glenwood Avenue where her adult children (especially Sophie) could live with her and take care of her and the house. (Google maps shows a vacant lot for this address now.)
The house had three floors. Bob and Alan Travis recall sharing space on the third floor in this house with one another, Ros and Walter, the maid, and their dog Nancy. The third floor also contained the study area which housed many bottled fetuses. Alan also remembers a dumb waiter that he used to hide in for games of hide and seek. Elaine remembers Ros telling her about how they put their feet out the window of their second floor room on hot summer days to keep cool.
In 1937 Cincinnati was flooded. Alan remembers filling up all the bathtubs with water and riding with Chippy in his coupe with a rumble seat to deliver jugs of water to various places.
Roslyn wrote to Walter during this period describing the impact of the flood on bathing and getting hot water in the Glenwood House, where they lived with others in the Felson family. She and Chippy were busy giving typhoid fever shots to members of the family, as well as those in the community.
Residents at the Glenwood house at different times were: Esther, Sophie and Phil, Louise, Chippy, Walter and Ros, Ben, Edith, Leo, Bob, Alan, and Helen (Phil and Sophie’s daughter Helen who died shortly after the time that the family moved), the maid, and Nancy, the dog.
Here are Alan Travis’ recollections of living at 826 Glenwood:
The primary reason for moving to Glenwood was that the family longer had Sol’s income. My father, Irv, Louise and Ros were the breadwinners, Walter helped out because he was a pharmacist and worked part time while in medical school. Chippie was probably an intern and/or resident and probably didn’t spend much time there.
Leo and Edie were in high school. My mother took over running the household and doing the cooking. My memories of the events are sparse, but I was told that the number one rule was that no one could punish me besides my parents. Lucky me. My sister Helen was born there. The one memory I have is her walking to and from my mother and Louise. We had a dumb waiter in the wall between the 1st and 2nd floors. It was great for playing hide and seek. I also recall being sent from the table toy room. I went into the bathroom, found some matches and set the curtain on fire. Fortunately, there wasn’t much damage but it did cause some excitement.
One night we had a bat in the house. It settled in Walter and Ros’s room. When they discovered it, they opened the door to the room across the hall, turned on the light and chased to the other room, whereupon they closed the door, went back to their room and went to sleep. When the boys got back home, the spent a good part of the night trying to get it out of their room.
The third floor was basically the medical study room. It had wooden shelves on which were fetuses in jars. Judy confirmed that they were Walter’s because they moved to Greenfield with him. I recall they brought other med school students to study and review there.
Chippie had a roadster that had a rumble seat. (This is a seat that was in the trunk until you pulled it out. It was like riding in a convertible.) During the 1937 flood, he would get purified water and deliver it where it was needed. I remember going with him one time to deliver the water.
In 1938, we left Glenwood Ave. Walter and Ros moved to Greenfield. Irv, Chippie and Ben got married, we moved to Hutchins Ave, and Esther, Louise, Edie and Leo moved to Burton Ave. I would go to Burton Ave. after school to be babysat by Esther. I remember we played a lot of card games (casino, old maid, go fish, etc). Sometimes it was easy to win, because I could look in her glasses and see the cars in her hand through the reflection.
Ben and Ginny married in 1936 and Chippy and Helen married in 1937. Both brothers left the Felson Glenwood abode once they were married, and moved into homes with their new wives. In 1937 Walter and Ros moved to Greenfield, Ohio, where Walter started his medical practice. They took the fetuses from the third floor with them, creating a haunted basement that Judy and Elaine remember well. Elaine and her children somehow managed the delicate task of getting rid of them after the Greenfield family sold their house at 357 South Street, Greenfield, Ohio.
956 Burton Avenue, 1938-1941
Around 1938 Esther, Louise, Edith and Leo moved to a house on Burton Avenue (now demolished). The 1940 census gives 956 Burton as the family address and says the family was living here in 1935, but it must have been later, since Edie still gives Glenwood Avenue as her address in 1936 and Roslyn’s letters place her and Walter there in 1937.
Prior to 1940 Sophie and Phil bought a home at 1735 Dale Road. And in 1940 Louise married David Abramson and moved out of the Glenwood Avenue house. Esther died in 1941.
Residents (from 1940 census): Esther, Louise, Leo, Edith
The Felson Family 