Saturday, September 8, 2007

The House that Auto Acessories Bought,and an Early Crosely Antenna

Before Powel Crosley, Jr. made a fortune in radio, he made a much smaller fortune in automobile accessories. Thanks to his business success, Crosley was able to move out of the Glenwood Apartments in College Hill and into a nearly new house on Davey Drive in College Hill. The house featured a mature grape arbor (a part of this is visible on the left in the photo below, an in-ground swimming pool, and later a small outbuilding to house hunting dogs and a horse.

The attic dormer where Crosley experimented with early radio can be clearly seen, and in the right foreground is an antenna post, from which a baling wire aerial ran to the house. (A cropped closeup image of the antenna is posted to the left of this text.)

This was in a relativley new housing development in an upper middle-class neighborhood. The Crosleys bought the home at a reported bargain price because the developer (who lived in this house) was going bankrupt.

Click for larger image.
--Mike
http://www.michaelabanks.com/
Copyright © 2007, Michael A. Banks

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