The Ashby

A 1909 building on the corner of McMillan and Concord — three stories, twelve homes, and a ground-floor restaurant — brought back from boarded windows and graffiti.

Announced in 2018 as the 737 McMillan project, The Ashby was Solica's flagship Walnut Hills renovation: a gut-renovation that kept the building's 1880s-era exposed brick and original wood trim while reworking the interior into modern apartments above an activated storefront.

It was completed and branded as The Ashby in early 2020 — named for the Cincinnati-born jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. The work was done in partnership with the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation and Urban Fast Forward, two organizations central to the neighborhood's renaissance.

Today the corner reads the way it should: navy and red brick, a crisp white storefront level, restored windows where there were once plywood panels.

The corner · before & after

Same building,
two decades apart.

The corner of E McMillan & Concord, photographed at the start of the project in 2018 and on completion in 2020.

737 McMillan before renovation — derelict red brick corner building — Before · 2018Boarded storefront,
fire escapes, decay.

The Ashby after renovation — restored navy and red brick building — After · 2020Restored brick,
twelve homes, a storefront.

Same building,two decades apart.

Same building,
two decades apart.