The Ashby restored corner building
Case study · Walnut Hills

The Ashby

Address
737 E McMillan
Type
Historic reno
Homes
12 + restaurant
Completed
2020

A 1909 building on the corner of McMillan and Concord — three stories, twelve homes, 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 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.

Before & after

Drag to see the change.

737 McMillan before renovation in 2018 Before · 2018
The Ashby after renovation in 2020
After · 2020
The culmination of a year-long journey. We've named it the Ashby in honor of Dorothy Ashby.
— Solica, on completion · January 2020