By Patrick Snadon
In the 1870s, Cincinnati built its own railroad, the "Cincinnati Southern," through Ludlow to Chattanooga. The new railroad located its repair and manufacturing shops in Ludlow. This caused a rapid boom in Ludlow's population and building activities. In 1870, before the arrival of the railway, Ludlow was a bucolic "garden suburb" with a population of 817. By 1890, the population had increased over three times, to 2,469.
This late 19th-century boom caused the construction of many new homes and commercial buildings that give central Ludlow its "Victorian" character. Before the arrival of the railway, Ludlow contained villas and cottages scattered among garden-like grounds. The pressure for new construction caused some of Ludlow's "pre-railway families'' to subdivide and develop the grounds, or "estates" surrounding their earlier houses. These older occupants tended to create "family clusters" of newer houses, often intended to accommodate their children and sometimes to produce rental income. Three prominent families who developed their properties in this way were the Burnses, the Bentleys, and the Lattas. Michael Burns and his wife Ann, in the 1870s-80s, built a series of freestanding Victorian townhouses on the south side of Elm St., in the 400 block, for themselves and their children. A block closer to downtown, Matthew Bentley and his wife Mary accumulated property at the corner of Elm and Butler Streets where they built their own house (now the Ronald B. Jones Funeral Home) and adjacent houses for their children along Elm and Butler. The Bentleys built both single and double houses; all have similar canted bay windows which the Bentleys evidently favored for light and views.
Among Ludlow's most interesting pre-railroad families were the Lattas. The first generation consisted of Alexander Bonner Latta (1821-65) and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1917). An inventor and industrialist, Latta created and sold the world's first steam-powered fire engine to Cincinnati in 1853. Although born in Ohio, Latta's Italian-sounding name may have made him uncomfortable in an 1850s Cincinnati that experienced anti-Italian and anti-Catholic riots. Probably after 1853, Latta purchased approximately four acres in Ludlow, bounded by Elm, Euclid, and Butler streets on the south, east, and west, and by the remains of the Elmwood Hall estate on the north. The original Latta House was an older structure with rambling additions.* In 1871, the four-acre Latta parcel was subdivided into three lots fronting on Elm St., designated to the three surviving Latta children. Mrs. Latta occupied the family house to the north, separated from the three lots by the new Latta Ave.
In 1884-85, only two Latta children survived: Griffin Taylor Latta (c. 1855-1930) and Luella M. Latta (c. 1863-1889). They developed the site. G. T. Latta built small rows of houses facing Butler St. and the new Latta Ave. (the latter survived). On her lot at the corner of Elm and Euclid (then George St.), Luella Latta built five attached houses, Ludlow's only, true urban "row."
The row now occupies Nos. 230-238 Elm St. The four western houses are smaller, with three downstairs and two upstairs rooms and with stair halls in the middle.
Luella Latta probably intended the fifth house, No. 230, at the corner of Elm and Euclid, which is larger than the other four, as her own residence, while renting the four smaller houses for income. In building Latta Row, Luella Latta (perhaps with assistance from her brother, G. T. Latta), assumed the role of businesswoman-developer, unusual for a female in the Victorian era. Latta Row is thus distinguished as Ludlow's major residential row, built by a woman.
Latta Row is an urban row in miniature. Its walls are brick, its windows and doors topped by pressed metal hoods. The elaborate cornice is also of pressed metal, a Victorian industrial material. In the 20th century, the row gained unsympathetic additions. A fire in No. 230 (the corner house) resulted in the rebuilding of its roof and the loss of its original metal cornice, while first story additions accommodated an optometrist's office in front and a garage in back. At No. 232, a wooden addition for selling ice cream was built on the front. In 2017-18, the Ludlow Historic Society purchased No. 232 and restored it to its original appearance, including removing the later wooden addition and recreating the lost metal window and door hoods on the first story. The restoration (supervised by Joy Amann and Brenda Boone) won an award from the Cincinnati Preservation Association and encouraged other owners in the row to repair and restore their houses. The improvements in Latta Row helped to ignite a revival of Elm Street.
While attached row houses are an urban type, Luella Latta built the row on the grounds of her family's house, where their gardens had been. Some of the earlier "gardenesque" character of pre-railway Ludlow made its way into Latta Row. The smaller houses to the west (Nos. 232-238) have little garden courtyards in front, on Elm St. Behind, kitchen gardens ran to a rear alley. At the corner house, No. 230 (probably for Luella Latta herself), gardens originally surrounded the south, east, and north sides of the house (now partly filled in by later additions).
Latta Row was thus an "urban row" set amidst gardens. Latta Row's original colors consisted of the natural dark red brick of the walls, with the pressed metal hoods and cornices painted in yellowish stone colors. This gave the row great architectural consistency. The current owners, by contrast, have chosen individual colors for each house, giving the row more variety in character.
The form and history of Latta Row make it unique to Ludlow and important to Northern Kentucky.
*The Latta's son, Griffin Taylor Latta, took down the old family house in c. 1901 and rebuilt the unique, 12-sided Latta House that now stands on the corner of Butler and Latta Streets.
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