City name: Woodlawn
City size: 37 acres (.05 square miles)
Population: 229
Median income: $63,225
Median home value: $143,205
Mayor: Ronald Barth
Incorporated: 1922
It takes exactly four minutes to drive all of the streets that make up Woodlawn. If it weren’t for the hills, it would probably be closer to three-and-a-half.
Verna Pulsfort has lived in Woodlawn all her life. The city, which sits on 37 hilly acres and overlooks Newport’s Kroger, has a population of just over 200.
“It’s been 71 years,” Pulsfort said. “I guess it’s like that song, bloom where you’re planted.”
Woodlawn, which is smaller than its nearby Ohio namesake by over 3,000 people, is surrounded by Bellevue, Newport and Fort Thomas. Woodlawn requested annexation in the 1920s, but both Newport and Bellevue rejected it.
There used to be a fire department, but now Woodlawn depends on Newport for police and fire services.
“It has been a real bonus for us,” said Woodlawn mayor Ronald Barth. “They are an awesome police and fire unit.”
Newport’s FOP bought the former fire station on Waterworks Road. The garages are now mostly used for storage, but city meetings are still held on the second floor.
Woodlawn isn’t currently home to any businesses, but a gas station used to sit at the corner of Waterworks and Wilson roads; there was also the Woodlawn Inn at Waterworks and East Crescent, which former Cincinnati Royals basketball coach Tom Marshall operated in the 1960s.
Woodlawn doesn’t have any schools; students either attend Campbell County Public Schools or St. Francis de Sales and Newport Central Catholic.
Woodlawn is just east of I-471 and adjacent to Newport Pavilion, which residents say is one of the great things about living there.
When Barth and his wife moved to Woodlawn, the development wasn’t there yet.
“That was still St. Francis church over the hill,” Barth said. “I think just about everybody from St. Francis was from Woodlawn.”
But the progress that has happened in Newport, Barth said, has been a very good thing for Woodlawn.
“You can walk to everything over there if you want to,” Barth said. “We see a lot of people walking.”
And yet the city still has a woodsy feel. It was one of the things that drew Barth to Woodlawn in the first place.
“We loved the woods, the trees,” he said. “When we were looking at the house we saw a deer in the backyard. Being from the city, we didn’t see deer.”
Barth said when he and his wife moved into the neighborhood a little over 25 years ago, there were some water issues, which is how he ended up becoming involved in city leadership.
“The water can really come down these streets,” he said.
So he went to a city meeting, and there was an open seat on council. He said someone asked if he would fill it, and he said yes.
About a year and a half later, the then-mayor moved out of the city, and Barth has been mayor ever since.
But his time as mayor is coming to an end this year.
“I’m going to hang these shoes up and do some other things,” he said. “I think it’s about time I turn it over. We have some great young professionals moving into the area. I think it’s time for me to step aside and let the new thinkers come in.”
He plans to spend time with his daughters, grandkids and wife in the tiny city he has come to call home.
“We’re such a tucked away city,” he said. “Our streets don’t really go anywhere. We aren’t a pass-through or anything. It’s quiet. Just before dark, you don’t hear anything anymore. We’re close but yet we still feel like we can sit on the back deck, enjoy the woods and a little peace.”
The trees – and the peace – are also something that keeps Pulsfort where she is, she said. She has lived in three homes in Woodlawn.
“Right as you go up the hill, when I was growing up, that was a baseball field,” she said. “The man that lived in the house that is kind of sunken down? He owned it and he developed that subdivision.”
That was Carl Huber, who in the ‘60s added 21 homes to the neighborhood when he developed the Woodlawn Terrace subdivision.
One end of that addition to Woodlawn has beautiful views of Cincinnati.
“The view on that end is stunning,” Pulsfort said.
She said there are younger people moving to the area, which she likes. Overall it’s a convenient, quiet place to live, and she has no plans to go anywhere.
“It’s a nice little neighborhood,” she said.
