New Germany: National Road plats

This is properly not totally "New Germany" as it deals with early ribbon development, early suburbia if you will, along a road that extends north from the New Germany intersection.

Since most of this is in Bath Township, a little map showing how some of the land extended across the township line, the tract of the "New Liberty Welfare Association"



Features we will look at. Shaded in red the tracts of the New Liberty Welfare Assocation, then some smallholdings, and the property (in the 1930s) of DW Reese, probably subdivided after the war.


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Most of this belonged to the New Liberty association. North of the New Liberty tract (which is quite evident as it was heavily wooded, and still is) is a small plat from probably the 1920s.

What was the New Liberty Welfare Association? Was New Liberty another name for New Germany? A large hall was build on the southermost part of the property. It's a church today, but was it to start?

The land had some prewar things on it, but was mostly subdivided and built on in the 1940s & 50s. Today, the deep lots are being slowly turned into office buildings and businessess (as in the illustration). Yet it still is mostly residential and still heavily wooded.


North of the New Liberty tract was this small plat, with a mix of 1920s and 1940s houses. We are at the dawn of auto-oriented suburbia here.


(the pix and aerial are from the county auditors site. Greene County has excellent online resources for doing this kind of historical investigation).

One of the older houses on the New Liberty tract. Auditors records say 19oo, but maybe later. Office building is a new neighbor, just visible to the left.
Fish Gate church today, but an early building on the New Liberty tract; it appears on WWII era aerials of Wright Field. Was there a connection between it and the New Liberty Welfare Association?


Continuing south on New Germany, this white frame house with side chimney is probably the oldest building surviving in the locality, Zink property in the 1930s.

(Signal Hill office park is visible in the distance)

The neighbor from the 1920s, also Zink property in the 1930s...
On the Reese subdivision, this house is cinderblock with metal sash windows, sort of 1940s building style, but auditors records date in from the very early 1950s.

We've seen this one before. On the Reese tract, but dating from the 1920s, this bungalow faced on old Zink Road. Auditors records show that this is still owned by members of the Zink family.


..which is itself a remarkable bit of continuity, that members of one of the 19th century farming families still live here.