History of the Betts House

Built in 1804, the Betts House is the oldest residential structure in the downtown Cincinnati area and the oldest brick house in Ohio still on its original site. In its early years, the house was the hub of activity on a busy, 111 acre working farm. Back then, Central Avenue was a quiet lane leading into the Betts's peach orchard, and the western plain of the Cincinnati basin was a seemingly vast stretch of grassy undeveloped land which residents of the day called "Texas."
   
Born in Rahway, New Jersey, William Betts and his wife Phebe (nee Stevens) began their westward journey in 1795. The Betts family settled in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, but soon pressed on, travelling down the Ohio by flatboat in 1800 to the newly founded Cincinnati. Betts went into brick making - by all accounts quite successfully. He acquired the West End parcel as repayment of a debt owed him by Joel Williams, a local tavern keeper, and commenced building a farm house. Construction was finished in time for the birth of his ninth son in 1804.
   
Over the years, five generations of the Betts family lived in the brick house, and over two dozen children were raised within its walls. To accomodate the prolific Betts brood, the two-room, two-story rectangular structure was augmented by a number of new rooms, more than doubling its original size. When the 1811 earthquake rocked the Ohio Valley, an early kitchen addition was damaged beyond repair. The main house evidently weathered the quake without notable structural harm.
   
In the early part of the nineteenth century, the city steadily grew and changed. The little lane into the peach orchard became Western Row (now Central Avenue). Cincinnati grew at a clip equal to the Betts family. Suddenly the city seemed to be at the doorstep of the once  rural farm. Several Betts family members built houses on the farm, but it was not subdivided until 1833. By 1855, nearly every lot was developed. Population in the West End soared. In 1855 there were 30,000 residents per square mile, the highest density in the nation. A tremendous number of European immigrants and African Americans competed with the predominantly mercantile class residents for living space. As conditions grew more and more crowded, the more affluent residents flocked to the prosperous hilltop suburbs made newly accessible by inclines and rapid transit.
 
By the 1870s, the once vital neighborhood had begun its decline. Industry started to move on, leaving an over-crowded neighborhood populated by those who could not afford to live elsewhere, or chose not to. In 1879, Charles and Adeline (Betts) McCrea, the last of the Betts family to live in the house, relocated to College Hill. They rented the house for several years before selling it in 1892.

As bleak as it was, things grew worse. The neighborhood was cut off from the rest of the city with the construction of Ezzard Charles Drive to Union Terminal and Interstate 75. By 1968 the district was virtually a ghost town. Only 1200 residents remained, and many the area's fine homes fell into ruin.
   
The city began revitalization efforts in 1980. In 1988 a partnership of concerned citizens (initiated by Martha Tuttle, William Betts' great-great-granddaughter,  purchased the Betts house and undertook an extensive renovation. The Betts House participated in the 1990 ASID Designer's Show House project, held in the Betts-Longworth Historic District, to display the partnership's success.
 
One of the partners, The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Ohio, is the owner of the property, which is leased to the Betts House Research Center, an independent non-profit organization, who operates the house as a museum dediciated to using the built environment to interpret our regional history.

In 2004 the Betts House received a historic marker from the Ohio Historical Society. The marker text can be found at the Ohio Channel website.

Betts House founder Martha Tuttle passed away in September, 2008. To read more about this remarkable woman and her efforts to save the Betts House, click here.