North Avondale Neighborhood Guide

North Avondale is one of Cincinnati's most architecturally distinguished residential neighborhoods, defined by its rolling terrain and a concentration of Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival mansions that would look at home in a storybook. Bounded by Reading Road to the east and the Mill Creek valley to the west, the neighborhood developed in the early twentieth century as a prosperous retreat from the city's denser quarters, and much of that original character remains intact. Garden clubs here have operated for generations, passing memberships down through families the way some neighborhoods pass down furniture. The tradeoff for all that historic grandeur is a property tax bill scaled to match houses that were built to impress, which means North Avondale tends to attract residents who have thought seriously about that bargain and made peace with it. The overall atmosphere is leafy and unhurried, the kind of place where people slow down on purpose just to look at the houses.