East Second Street District(Boundary Increase)

East Second Street in Xenia contains a 4.3-acre group of nineteenth century houses near the center of town. The buildings include Italianate, Eastlake and Queen Anne designs, mostly of brick or wood frame, with details such as bracketed cornices, decorated porches and corbelled chimneys. The Hivling house, built about 1863 by Abraham Hivling, son of an early Xenia settler, is a large Italianate residence later owned by the poet and state senator Coates Kinney. Next door, the Allen house was built in 1881 by banker John B. Allen and is considered one of the finest Eastlake houses in Ohio. The King house, a Queen Anne built about 1885, belonged to a banker and powder manufacturer and later housed the Greene County Historical Society. The remaining houses are less distinguished but support the character of the street. The nomination notes that the surrounding neighborhood is deteriorating and shifting toward institutional and multi-family use.