I’m still struggling to get back into this writing gig. I’ve been on a detour through photography, where I am working hard at learning how to use Adobe Lightroom and Elements. I like both programs, but there is a lot to learn.
I’ve been thinking about changing my WordPress theme and shaking things up a little. Have you changed your theme? Any tips? I don’t want to mess myself up. I’ve posted a lot of photos over the years. This is a project that will take some focused attention, I think. I’m not quite ready for it yet.
Meanwhile, winter is turning to spring here. The sky is blue and the sun is shining outside my window as I type. We are due to have a beautiful day today. I may wander around my gardens and make plans. Or perhaps yank out a misplaced perennial or two. I love this time of year in the garden.
I’m serious about wanting help and advice regarding themes. Please do share your knowledge. I’ll appreciate it.
Here is a picture I took this week at the Cincinnati zoo. I may post more in a blog devoted to that later. No promises. I’m having more fun with my camera right now than I am with this computer. I hope you are all well and that warmer, sunnier days have come your way, or will soon.
This little gibbon reminds me of the game we played when we were young – Barrel of Monkeys.
A few weeks ago we spent the afternoon visiting the Cincinnati Museum Center and immersed ourselves in thoughts of the past sparked by the pots, coins, weapons, jewelry and writings from the beginnings of Western civilization. The Israel Antiquities Authority has made a sample of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other historical objects from the “the Holy Land” available for public viewing. Below I try to bring you an abbreviated history of the time period involved along. I hope you’ll bear with me. One thing I became painfully aware of while touring this exhibit was how little I know of world history generally and Middle East history specifically. Something I hope to remedy.
The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Union Terminal Museum Center in Cincinnati, OH. January 2013
You might know the story. In 1947 a young Bedouin shepherd finds a cave in a crevice of the limestone cliffs lining the rim of the Dead Sea near the site of Qumran, east of the city of Jerusalem. The shepherd tosses a rock into the cave and hears pottery breaking. He investigates further and finds a collection of large clay jars that contain old scrolls. He has no idea of the historic and religious treasure he has discovered.
A clay jar found containing scrolls.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the collection of ancient religious writings, documents and letters, found in eleven caves near the site of Qumran. Some scrolls were found intact, but many were in fragments of parchment and papyrus.
The biblical manuscripts contain “books found in today’s Hebrew bible.” The non-biblical texts written during the Second Temple era are related to the texts in the Hebrew Bible. Some describe religious beliefs and practices of a specific religious community. (Exhibit signage)
Scales and weights – A barter system was used in biblical times. Towards the end of the Iron Age, scales, weights, and silver pieces appeared indicating a move to using silver in exchange for goods. Stone weights were used to determine the weight of silver ingots before coins were minted.
Jerusalem, sitting high in the Judan hills and roughly at the center of ancient Israel, was inhabited as early as the 4th millenium BCE. “King David chose the city for his capital, probably because the territory did not belong to any of the tribes, but also because its location on a hill meant it would be difficult to attack. […]” (Exhibit signage)
Goddesses – Some 2000 goddesses were found in homes in Judah. They likely represent the Canaanite goddess Asherah or her Greek counterpart Astarte. Evidence indicates that many ancient Israelites believed Asherah was consort to the god of Israel.
“The exact site of David’s Jerusalem remains hotly debated. Under King Solomon a permanent home—the First Temple—was built for the Ark of the Covenant atop Mount Moriah, and the fate of the city as the dwelling place of the Isralite’s god was sealed.” (Exhibit signage)
The First Temple (960 – 586 BCE) period began during the Iron Age while the kingdoms of Judah and Northern Israel were still divided. The first Isralite Kingdom was united under David and Solomon.
The biblical texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls are believed to have been composed during this time.
Jars from the end of the 8th century are common finds throughout the kingdom of Judah. Many are royal storage jars and may have been used to collect grain or other goods for royal taxes. They have a stamp on one or more handles designating they belong to the king. The jars are associated with Judan King Hezekiah’s military administration.
Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written between the 2nd Century BCE and 2nd Century CE, during a time when different Judean groups struggled to obtain and maintain political and religious leadership.
Iron arrowheads
The Judean Kingdom came to an end with the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of citizens to Babylon in 586 BCE. The temple was utterly destroyed. “With neither Temple or homeland the exiles began to place their sacred writings at the center of their faith.” (Exhibit signage)
Small household items provide clues to the family’s activities
The Second Temple was built after 539 BCE when the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem. The Persians maintained control of the area until 332 BCE when Alexander the Great conquered Judea. This began the Hellenistic era. Most of the non-biblical texts of the Deep Sea Scrolls from Qumran date to this period.
Roman coins
Enter Rome.
Judea lost its independence to the Romans the first century BCE. After an unsuccessful Jewish revolt, Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE and much of the population was killed or enslaved. After the second revolt failed between 132 and 135 CE, the Roman emporer renamed the region Syria Palestina. He renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina and forbade Jews to enter.
Many of the ceramic jars have pointed bottom. It is believed they were held in holes in the ground.
The Post Second Temple time period included Roman rule from 73 – 324 CE, followed by the Byzantine from 324 – 638 CE. Palestine came under Islamic rule with the conquest of Jerusalem in 638 CE. Judea was incorporated into the Islamic Empire from the 7th – 11th centuries, known as the Early Islamic era.
Then the Christians came.
Broken limestone bread stamp – Bread intended for consecration and communion within the Christian traditions was stamped. This fragment of a bread stamp contains a Greek inscription circling sixteen squares. The center four squares contain a Christogram (abbreviation for the name of Jesus). The other 12 squares represent the twelve apostles.
Christian Crusaders from Europe were the dominant power in “the Holy Land” from the 12th – 13th centuries.
A ceremonial bath
At this point in the exhibit, we were ready to enter the room that housed the Dead Sea Scrolls, and photographs were prohibited. The scrolls were displayed in glass cases in a large ring in the middle of the room that visitors could walk around. Although translations and explanations were displayed beside each fragment of the scrolls, I could only imagine how thrilling it would have been to actually be able to read the writings. You can view images of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.
The other thing that struck me as I moved slowly around the ring, looking at these writings that were done so many years ago, was the realization that in a time period where communication of the written word was painstakingly done by scribes with ink and parchment and hand-delivered by walking or perhaps riding an animal of one sort or the other, these biblical stories were preserved, transferred, dispersed geographically, and carried on through the ages. It causes one to wonder.
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The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times will be on display at the Cincinnati Museum Center through April 14. The first set of ten scrolls, including Genesis; Numbers; Samuel and Psalms among others, were on display until Jan. 28. They were rotated out and a brand new set will be on display until the exhibit’s last day on April 14.
“Because of the fragility of the scrolls, they may only be on display for three months at a time before they must “rest” in complete darkness for one year. The new rotation includes scrolls of Deuteronomy, Psalms, Isaiah Commentary, Book of War, Aramaic Levi, Pseudo-Ezekiel, Apocryphal Lamentations, Papyrus Bar, Community Rule and Leviticus/Numbers.
“Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times is created by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) from the collections of the Israel National Treasures and produced by Discovery Times Square and The Franklin Institute. Local community partners include Presenting Sponsor: The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, and Associate Sponsors: the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the Diocese of Southern Ohio, SC Ministry Foundation, Office of the Provost, University of Cincinnati, and Xavier University, among others. Special Exhibit Partner: Hebrew Union College. http://www.cincymuseum.org/press/dead-sea-scrolls-rotation.” (Cincinnati Museum Center).
Sources of Information:
Signage at the exhibit: The Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times, by the Israel Antiquities Authority, Viewed at the Cincinnati Museum Center, January 2013
“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.” Khalil Gibran ~ On Death
Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati is one of the largest nonprofit cemeteries in the United States.
It is a National Historic Landmark with graves of both revolutionary war and civil war soldiers.
“When the hours of Day are numbered, And the voices of the Night Wake the better soul, that slumbered, To a holy, calm delight. . .” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Footsteps of Angels
Spring Grove is a beautiful cemetery and is famous for its lawn plan, unconventional at the time of its creation, but now a model for many other cemeteries.
The designer, Strauch, “believed in developing the landscape to harmonize with nature. He re-routed roads to follow the natural shapes of Spring Grove’s hills and valleys.
He built lakes, islands, footbridges, protected woodland areas,
and brought hundreds of trees and plants from other parts of the world,” (Spring Grove Cemetery).
“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call’d him soft names in many a musèd rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad In such an ecstasy! ” John Keats ~ Ode to a Nightingale
The varied landscaping transports you from what might be a mysterious Louisiana swampland
to a stately Georgian plantation.
“Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality.” Emily Dickenson
Gravemarkers range from the elaborate—
buildings made of marble and stone,
this one boasting flying buttresses—
to the simple.
“Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so . . .”John Donne
“I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death.” W. B. Yeats ~ An Irish Airman Foresees his Death
“Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.” Christina Rossetti ~ Remember
The Fernald Preserve visitors’ center is positioned in line with the solstices.
If you’ve lived in Cincinnati for any amount of time, the name Fernald likely evokes a knee-jerk negative reaction as someplace you’d rather stay far away from. From 1951 to 1989 Fernald, a short drive outside the city of Cincinnati, produced high quality uranium metal for the U.S. weapons program.
One of several lakes at Fernald nature preserve.
The general public paid little attention to what was going on at the 1050 acre site inside a secured fence line until 1984 when the Department of Energy (DOE) “reported that nearly 300 pounds of enriched uranium oxide had been released to the environment. . .That same year, DOE also reported that in 1981, three off-property wells south of the site were contaminated with uranium. The impact of nearly four decades of uranium metal production suddenly became the center of public controversy.” (Fernald Secrecy)
A tiny frog the Fernald naturalist caught to show us.
Negative news about Fernald was in the local paper headlines during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1984 local residents filed a class action lawsuit for emotional distress and decreased property values. In 1989 the DOE paid $78 million dollars in settlement fees to individuals and industries within a five-mile radius of the Fernald site.
Another tiny frog.
Fernald gained national and international publicity in 1986 because of the venting of two waste storage silos and a crack in the pilot plant vessel.
Fernald’s acres are now prairie and woods, September 29, 2012.
“In 1988, two nearby camps for children closed, citing concerns about Fernald and attributing reduced attendance to the negative publicity.” (Fernald Secrecy)
A local joke sprang up in Cincinnati about being able to see a “green glow” if you were driving near Fernald at night.
“Approximately 136 acres in the center of the site were used in the actual production process; the remaining acreage included administration facilities, laboratories, waste storage areas, and buffer land. The production area contained 10 primary plants, each with a specific mission to support the uranium metal production process.” (Fernald Secrecy)
“In 1989, after 37 years of operations to support the U.S. weapons program, site management shut down uranium metal production to concentrate on environmental compliance, waste management and remediation.” (About Fernald)
Monarch butterflies stop at Fernald when they are migrating south. The naturalist catches one and shows us how she tags it for studies.
In 1992 the cleanup of Fernald was begun.
The monarchs love the goldenrod.
The cleanup included the following projects (the links take you to the Fernald website where you can see photos and project information):
You can see a slide-over photo of the Fernald production facility and the Fernald nature preserve plan here.
The good news is that today Fernald is a uranium-free nature preserve with unique sustainable site solutions that you can read about here. “The ecological restoration is transforming the site into a haven for wildlife. Over 170 varieties of birds including waterfowl, shorebirds, and songbirds have been observed.” (Fernald)
Hopefully with enough time, I will think of Fernald only as the beautiful serene healed prairie land that it is now and it will evoke only memories of swaying golden fields, flittering monarch butterlies, and a great blue heron on the wing.
Last night we went on a BB Riverboat cruise on the Ohio River with Scoot and Shoot from the West Chester Photo Club. The minute I stepped on the boat and looked around, I noticed the clouds—they were putting on a show.
It was just before dusk, and to our west, off the back of the boat, the Roebling Bridge and Paul Brown Stadium were becoming silhouettes against the evening sky.
We were on the Newport, Kentucky side of the river looking across at the Great American Ballpark and the Great American Building’s princess tiara in downtown Cincinnati.
Mark made himself comfortable on the third floor deck, while I shot around for a little while.
The sun started to set behind us, over the Roebling Bridge,
casting its rays up to Mount Adams that sparkled back in reply.
We passed stately church of the Immaculata, a beacon of light and hope from its high perch up on Mount Adams.
The sun behind us began to color the sky,
creating a soft pastel backdrop behind the Cincinnati skyline across the river from where we were
on the Belle of Cincinnati.
The nearly full moon rose to light the night sky.
Little lights along the hillside road reflected in streamers out across the water.
The curtain of clouds opened to reveal the hilltop buildings as we passed by.
Ahead turbulent clouds serpentined over our path,
yet behind us the sky remained soft and tranquil.
The lights from a little church begged for my star filter,
as I captured the light that shined in the darkness.
Sending you the wish that you may always find a light in the dark.
You can see a photograph of the wall before the mural as well as a picture of the Charlie Harper painting here.
“Founded in 1996, ArtWorks is a non-profit arts organization that connects artists of all ages with opportunities in the arts through inspiring apprenticeships, community partnerships, and public art,” (Artworks/about us/ organizational information).
Tamara Harkavy, CEO and Artistic Director, has served at the helm of Artworks since its beginning. The Charlie Harper mural is one of ten painted this year. Created in partnership with Charley Harper Art Studio and Court St. Executive Suites, this rendition of Harper’s “Homecoming (Bluebirds)” is the largest Artworks’ mural to date.
Tamara Harkavy with Brett Harper, son of wildlife artist Charley Harper at dedication of Court Street Artworks’ mural, September 2012.
Born in West Virginia in 1922, Charley Harper came to Cincinnati to study and later teach art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. He became well-known as a wildlife artist. Charley Harper passed away on Sunday, June 10, 2007. (About Charley Harper). His son Brett Harper represented his father’s work at the mural’s dedication. This is the second Harper mural. The only other one is in Dayton near The Green.
Tamara expresses her appreciation to lead artist Jenny Ustick with a bouquet of flowers.
Over the last 16 years, Artworks has produced 46 murals in Cincinnati and three other cities. As we walked the few blocks from our Underground tour to the Charley Harper mural, we passed this 2008 Artworks’ mural, “What’s Happening Downtown,” on Walnut Street,
Kroger Headquarters mural on Vine Street – 2012
and this new mural on Vine Street at the Kroger headquarters.
You can find more information about this year’s and the previous years’ murals at the Artworks website.
John Funcheon was our informative and entertaining tour guide. He knew a LOT about Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine area. He also was very good at jumping from a normal speaking voice to a loud projecting voice when a noisy truck rumbled past.
Examples of Italianate architecture in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine
At our first stop, John pointed out the Italianate architecture on the buildings across the street. This style of architecture is predominant in the OTR district.
Theaters
When the Germans came to Cincinnati in the 1800s, they settled in Over the Rhine. OTR became a thriving community, boasting a population of up to 48,000 people at its height (the population would later plummet to about 4,000 as people moved to the suburbs). In the 1800s, theaters, breweries, saloons, bars, and beer gardens lined the streets.
Building that housed the theater where the shooting competition between Frank E. Butler and Annie Oakley was held.
The theater in this building hosted a shooting competition sometime around 1875. A well-known marksman, Frank E. Butler, was coming to town. A young Ohioan woman named Phoebe Ann Moses, who learned how to shoot out of the necessity to provide food and money for her family, entered the contest. Much to his surprise, Phoebe beat Frank Butler, and married him later. Phoebe continued to perform under the name Annie Oakley. You can read more details of Annie Oakley’s life at Women in History or The Dorchester Library.
The Cosmopolitan Theater in Germania Hall at 1313 Vine Street navigated through the changing times in Over the Rhine. It was built in 1855 as a beer garden and dance hall. In the 1890s, it was renamed Cosmopolitan Hall. “Over the decades, it was used for several different things, including a Prohibition-era speakeasy, an indoor golf complex, insurance offices, a lighting retailer, and a wallpaper store. [… ] In the early 1990s, the second floor dance hall was renovated for scenes in the movie A Rage in Harlem.” (From Creepy Cincinnati.com) More recently the building became The Warehouse, a notorious bar and entertainment venue. It has been empty since the Warehouse closed in 2004.
Henry Holtgrewe, Cincinnati’s ‘strongman’, performed on stage here at the turn of the century. He entertained people by lifting crazy heavy stuff. One of his more famous feats was lifting two baseball teams in a ball park. Eleven players from Cincinnati, and eleven players from the Cubs stood on a platform. Holtgrewe got under it and raised the men in the air with his back. Our well-informed tour guide, John, told us this and other entertaining stories. I subsequently read more about Henry in his obituary posted in The Day, January 4, 1917.
Bosses and Beer Gardens
In 1873 Henry Wielert established a bar in this building. The beer garden, behind the building, sported a glass dome where patrons were entertained with a 40-piece symphony orchestra. Some pretty interesting meetings probably took place in this building. George Barnsdale, known as “Boss” Cox, held some of his meetings here.
John explained to us how Cincinnati fell under the control of “Boss” Cox, “one of the most infamous and powerful political bosses in American history.” (American Heritage pamphlet). But truthfully, I don’t have a good mind for politics and most of what John said just washed right over me. I did later read about Cox’s “drumming up illegal voters” for favored candidates and the way he stopped police raids on his bar by running for city council in Cincinnati in 1879, and serving for two terms.
“While Cox never held political office after his second term as city councilman, he virtually ran the Cincinnati city government by becoming a city boss. Like other city bosses, Cox used gifts and money to build support for himself among the working class in Cincinnati. During elections, Cox would then have his followers vote for the candidate that he supported. [. . .] By the late 1800s, if a person sought a political office in Cincinnati, he had to receive Cox’s endorsement to win the office.” (Ohio History Central)
One thing I do remember about John’s informative and entertaining tour was that the “speak easy” that sprouted up after Prohibition, wasn’t a loud or boisterous place like portrayed in movies. Speak easys were so called because no one wanted to rouse suspicion by being noisy when they were imbibing on the sly.
Breweries
So far we hadn’t really been underground on this Underground tour, but that was about to change.
In the mid-1800s, it really wasn’t safe to drink the water. And many people didn’t. They drank beer instead. Although the beer that they drank during the daytime was only 2% alcohol.
All this was good for the brewery business. And breweries popped up everywhere in the Over the Rhine district where the Germans knew how to make and drink their beer.
Construction on the building now called the Guildhaus was begun in 1880 by the nephew of a local brewer, John Kauffman. The brewery expanded to a location across Hamer Street where a bottling plant was established. Like most others, this brewery produced beer until Prohibition in 1919.
I can’t tell you what happened in this building over the next 80 or 90-some years, but recently someone purchased it to turn it into apartments. The new owner was looking at blueprints of the site and noticed a sub-basement on the drawings. So one day he got a jack-hammer, and cracked through the basement floor creating an entry into a maze of tunnels, and cavernous rooms with arched ceilings, below.
In the 1800s, before refrigeration, beer was made below-ground because the temperatures were cooler. Beer needed to be brewed at 43 degrees. The caverns underground naturally maintained a temperature of about 55 degrees. Ice was brought in from the frozen great lakes in the winter, and cold water was run through pipes lining the ceilings to cool this sub basement from 55 degrees to 43.
Once refrigeration became possible, the brewery moved the production up one floor to the basement because it was better and easier for several reasons. They left a hole open in the basement and refuse, largely composed of coal ash, was simply dumped into the sub-basement creating a large pile over time.
Our tour guide John stands in front of the pile of dirt or refuse.
This is why you pay to go on these tours. There is simply no way I can explain to you how cool it was to be underground, in these rooms, imagining the people who worked here.
When Kaufmann expanded his production facility to include a building across Hamer Street, he built a tunnel going under the street and joining into the sub-basement on the other side. John said there is evidence that a large percentage of the buildings in this area of the city have sub-basements.
The process of beer-making created undesirable gasses like carbon dioxide and monoxide which had to be vented somehow from this enclosed below-ground space. Small openings at the bottom of the walls that look like fireplaces served that purpose. Again, I probably should have been paying closer attention, but I was trying to figure out why the once-stone floor was now covered with dirt. John later explained that the building leaked, and over the years dirt had made its way in with the rain.
“By 1919, Prohibition had driven most of the breweries out of business. Christian Moerlein alone had employed over 500 people. Along with World War I sentiments, this was the beginning of the decline of OTR’s population and cultural homogeneity.” (Cincinnati.com)
The population of Over the Rhine is now growing again for the first time in 90 years. The Guildhaus now contains highly sought-after apartments. The stately building, making a comeback in the Over the Rhine renaissance, gives off no outward sign of the secrets that lie beneath.
Niehaus family circa – late 1870s or 1880s. Gertrude is probably second from left in back row.
Mark and I would like to find out more about the beer-making families in Over the Rhine. One of Mark’s ancestors is a Gertrude Niehaus.I suspected Gertrude was from a family of beer-makers because of research I had done about the Niehaus families in Cincinnati at the time. When I was doing research for this post I came across the Queen City Chapter.com and found a Captain Henry Niehaus who operated THEHENRY NIEHAUS BREWERY located on Sycamore Street near 13th from 1861 to 1868, and a Joseph Niehaus who established the NIEHAUS BREWERY, an ale brewery, on Woodward (now 13th) from 1850 to 1862. It would be fun to make a connection into one of those families.
Our last stop on the Underground tour was St. Francis Church, just across Vine Street from the Guildhaus.
When this church was built a cemetery on the site had to be moved. A mass grave was created in a crypt under the church for those individuals whose families didn’t claim or move their burial site. Cracked tombstones line the walls,
and whole, intact tombstones pave the area above the grave.
Photographs of the tombstones are on display so that visitors can read them.
Like the Guildhaus, the altar of St. Francis shows no sign of the secrets that lie beneath.
We ended our tour and trip to Over the Rhine as any self-respecting German, or Irishman for that matter, would do, and joined our tour guide John at Lackman’s corner bar for a brew to quench our thirst, cool our throats, and lighten our spirits.
Did I mention John was informative and entertaining?
Thanks, John, for a great tour.
Cheers.
“Herman Lackman and J. H. Sandman open THE LACKMAN AND SANDMAN BREWERY at Sixth and Stone Streets and operate it from 1860 to 1868. In 1868, Lackman buys out Sandman and renames the brewery HERMAN LACKMAN BREWING CO., UNITED STATES BREWERY. THE HERMAN LACKMAN BREWING CO., UNITED STATES BREWERY operates until 1890.” (Queen City Chapter.com)
At the end of our Iconic Cincinnati tour last Wednesday, we went up to the top of the Carew Tower for a bird’s eye view of Cincinnati and the surrounding hills.
From the top of the Carew Tower if you look south across the Ohio River, and slightly east, you’ll see the mouth of the Licking River. When Cincinnati was founded in 1788, it was originally named Losantiville, or “town opposite the mouth of the Licking River.” Just two years later, the Governor of the Northwest Territory, General Arthur St. Clair, renamed it Cincinnati after the Society of Cincinnati, an organization of Revolutionary War officers. (WiseGeek.com)
Covington, Kentucky lies to west (or right in this photo) of the Licking River and Newport, Kentucky to the east. The front of a barge, a familiar sight in Cincinnati, can be seen entering the photograph to the right. The structure in the bottom left corner of the photo is the Red’s home stadium, the Great American Ball Park. You can see photos of the inside of the stadium at my Take me out to the ballgame post.
On this side of the river, you can see the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a museum devoted to “the Underground Railroad” and programs that educate the public about modern slavery and human trafficking. On the northern shore of the Ohio River, Cincinnati has a heritage of aiding freedom-seekers as some Cincinnatians played an important role in the Underground Railroad and aided former slaves once they made their way across the river to freedom.
If you shift slightly left in a counter-clockwise direction, you can see Cincinnati’s downtown area across from the Licking River. The Great American Ball Park is partially visible behind the towering office building. Restaurants have started popping up to the right of the ballpark in the area known as The Banks where The Phyllis W. Smale Riverfront Park has recently opened. If you look closely you can see a spot of green to the right of the ballpark, headed towards the river. I think that’s part of the Smale Park with its waterfalls and kid-friendly fountains.
The Great American Tower, with its tiara, recently bumped the Carew Tower from its place as the tallest building in Cincinnati. The Great American Tower is 665 feet tall and has 41 floors above ground. The Carew Tower at 623 feet tall, with 49 floors above ground still provides the highest look-out spot in the city. (Emporis.com)
You can see three bridges across the Ohio River from this vantage point. The small purple one, partially hidden behind the The Great American Tower, is the historic Purple People Bridge,
There used to be walking tours across the top of this bridge. I don’t know if they’re being done anymore. The Purple People Bridge leads right to Newport on the Levee, a complex of restaurants and entertainment venues.
Back on the Ohio side of the river, you can see one of the 2011 Artworks‘ murals, The Cobbler’s Apprentice Plays Ball, near the entertainment complex by the Great American Ball Park.
Cincinnati sits like a flat platter surrounded by hilly terrain just outside the downtown area. As the city grew, folks started moving up and settling on the surrounding hills. Legend has it that Cincinnati was built on seven hills, like Rome. Exactly which of the many hills surrounding the city are the seven hills has been debated over the years. Cincinnati.com answers that question based on a 1958 Enquirer report and lists the seven hills as Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, Walnut Hills, Fairmount, Fairview Heights, Clifton Heights, and Price Hill. I’ll point out some of these below.
A slight turn to the left and in the foreground you see the Procter and Gamble headquarters partly hidden behind the tall office building. The green park in the center of the picture is a beautiful park in front of the headquarters’ twin towers building. The dense green around the perimeter is not bushes, as you might imagine, but wisteria growing on a pergola.
Further out you see the Ohio River winding its way east. Just before the bend, Mount Adams is visible, although its elevation is not evident from this perspective. Holy Cross-Immaculata Church, discernible if you have excellent eye-sight, sits up on a hill overlooking the river. Anyone who has prayed the steps up from the river on Good Friday can tell you that it is indeed up on a hilltop.
When you turn about 90 degrees counter-clockwise from the river and look down, you get this nice perspective of the Genius of Water on Fountain Square, that I described in great detail on my Iconic Cincinnati post.
Another little turn counter-clockwise and Mount Auburn comes into view rising above the Over the Rhine area in downtown Cincinnati that I wrote about in The Art Academy of Cincinnati. The big brick building at the top of Mount Auburn is Christ Hospital where three of our four children were born.
At the bottom of the photo the white steeple of St. Mary’s Church is visible.
You can read a short history about the Germans who settled in Cincinnati, the Over the Rhine area, and old St. Mary’s Church at OldStMarys.Org.
Looking off to the left, still within the Over the Rhine community, St. Francis Seraph Church (with its clock tower and circular window) is visible on the spot where the first Catholic Church within Cincinnati, St. Xavier, was originally built and then moved to its downtown location. I photographed St. Xavier while on the Iconic Cincinnati tour.
As you continue on your counter-clockwise viewing of Cincinnati, you’ll see Clifton Heights rise up above Over the Rhine. The oddly shaped concrete building, along with many of the surrounding buildings, is part of the University of Cincinnati.
You’ll be facing mostly north now, and will be able to see The Singing Mural, also done by Artworks in 2011. The cast of characters on this mural represent the community coming together in celebration of the arts. You might recognize: Sesame Street’s Grover, the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera, rock artist Elton John, jazz singer Cab Calloway, legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach, the Nutcracker, PBS icon Mr. Rogers, and Mr. Redlegs. You can see the complete list of characters at The Singing Mural.
A little turn to the left and Cincinnati City Hall‘s unique architecture stands out surrounded by contemporary buildings. City Hall’s main building comprises four and a half stories with a nine story clock tower. It is listed in the National Register of historic buildings.
Directly west you will see a tangle of highways. The road at the bottom left corner is the 6th Street viaduct that crosses over I-75 north and takes you to Price Hill, one of the seven initial hills. The 8th Street viaduct runs bottom to top at the center of this photograph, also taking travelers to Price Hill. The far end of the 8th Street viaduct is the location where the Price Hill incline used to be. The inclines that were built to transport travelers from the downtown area up to the surrounding hills are interesting and deserve a post all of their own.
At the top of the hill at the end of the 8th Street viaduct, the Queen’s Tower stands alone. It is a high-rise condominium building with an excellent restaurant, the Prima Vista, on top that affords a terrific view and dining experience.
I-75, the main north-south artery running through Cincinnati, crosses under the 8th Street viaduct in the lower right corner of this photo.
If you follow I-75 north a short distance you will see the Union Terminal that I wrote about in The Cincinnati Museum Center post.
Turn your feet just a bit more counter-clockwise and you’ll see the Ohio River winding its way west towards Indiana.
When you come full circle, you’ll see the historic Roebling Bridge crossing the Ohio River into Covington, Kentucky. This suspension bridge was placed on the National Record of Historic places in 1975. There is an excellent photo history of the bridge at Cincinnati-transit.net.
I lived here in the Cincinnati area for more than 30 years and didn’t know about this lookout point on top of the Carew Tower until I took the Iconic Cincinnati tour.
Did you ever wonder what you don’t know about where you live?
You’d think I’d know everything there is to know about the city I’ve lived in, as an adult, for more than 33 years. Thursday Mark and I went on the Iconic Cincinnati Tour by American Legacy Tours and I learned a few things. Maybe you will too.
The Genius of Water statue on Fountain Square.
The Genius of Water Fountain, Cincinnati, Ohio —July 11, 2012
Donated to the city of Cincinnati by Henry Probasco in memory of his brother-in-law and business partner, Tyler Davidson, The Genius of Water fountain, located downtown on Fountain Square, celebrates water and all its uses. It is composed of four levels, although the third level is not clearly visible in this shot.
At the very top The Genius of Water showers water down from the 438 holes in her hands.
Four sculptures on the tier below the genius depict the practical uses of water. Facing this direction, a firefighter stands on a roof where a flame shoots up. To the right a woman gives an elderly man a drink of water. On the left, another woman bathes her child. And, not visible here, a farmer appears on the far side of the fountain.
The third tier, in the shade below the four practical uses, shows four children demonstrating the recreational uses of water. One has an ice skate, another a necklace made of shells, a third holds a crab, and the fourth is fishing. Between the children rectangular panels depict industrialization, fishing, farming, and navigation.
On the ring around the pool at the very bottom, four children ride animals which produce water safe for drinking. I don’t know how many people realize this. I’ve never witnessed anyone partaking.
Tyler Davidson Fountain – The Genius of Water, July 11, 2012
Originally the fountain was located on an esplanade built that for purpose in the middle of 5th street. You can read more about it and see a photographic history of the fountain at codex99. Later the square was built and the fountain moved. It has since been renovated and moved a couple of times.
Fountain Square is located on the site of a large Indian ceremonial mound. As such, it became a popular place for the early settlers to gather and eventually it became the center of the city. This location was far enough away from the river to protect it from flooding. Today Fountain Square is surrounded by shops and restaurants and is a lively place where people gather for all kinds of celebrations and events.
Before leaving the square our tour guide Tim Shafer pointed out the inscription from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This may be where Cincinnati derived the nickname of Queen City.
Longfellow was friends with a Cincinnati wine-maker named Nicholas Longworth who grew grapes on the hills of Eden Park and beyond. In the mid-1800s at Cincinnati was the largest wine producing region in the United States. That came to an end during the Civil War when vineyard workers went off to fight. The vines died and were never replanted.
Longfellow apparently loved the Catawba wine produced by Longworth and wrote this poem to that effect, forever creating an image of Cincinnati as the queen city.
The Gwynne Building and Procter and Gamble.
Located on the corner of 6th and Main, just a short walk from Fountain Square, the Gwynne Building occupies the location that once contained Procter and Gamble’s first factory. After the factory was moved out of the city, The Gwynne Building, financed by Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, was built here in 1914. Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt also played a role in the building of the Vanderbilt’s summer “cottage” at Newport Rhode Island—The Breakers (We visited The Breakers a couple of years ago and I thought I posted photos, but now can’t find them on my blog. So perhaps not.)
The Gwynne building served as Procter and Gamble’s corporate offices from 1914 to the mid-1950s. Initially P&G leased the building and then later bought it.
The Gwynne building’s architecture style is Beaux-Arts. Our tour guide has not been able to find out why the oxen heads are up on the corners near the top of the building.
The decorative grillwork on every window contains either the letter V or G for Vanderbilt and Gwynne. You can read a brief history of the Gwynne building at TheGwynneBuilding.com.
St. Xavier Catholic Church.
We walked on to our destination, St. Xavier Church. This side view was the best shot I could get of the whole church while on the tour.
Otherwise I ended up with shots like this of the front of the church, which I think are interesting but don’t give an accurate picture of the church building as a whole. St. Xavier Church sits on the site of the first Catholic church inside the city limits. In 1921 an old wooden frame church at the corner of Liberty and Vine was put on rollers and moved several blocks to this location. The move didn’t go well and the church had to be rebuilt here. The church that exists here today was built around 1860.
When the Archdiocese built the cathedral on the west side of town, St. Xavier became the Irish church for this area. St. Louis, a few blocks away, was the German church. Apparently, in the mid-1800s the spirit of Christianity was not large enough to embrace the two cultures within four walls. Today St. Xavier is a Jesuit parish.
We passed the headquarters of Procter and Gamble with its twin towers and wisteria covered arbor surrounding the front park. We could hear beautiful voices singing in harmony. Choirs from the World Choir Games were singing here during the lunch hours. Lovely.
The Masonic Center.
The Masonic Center is directly across the street from the P&G Headquarters. Although normally the iconic tour goes inside the center, we were not able to because some of the World Choir Games events were being held in the 800 seat theater on the left side of the building. The Taft Theatre is beside the Masonic Center on the right side.
The Carew Tower.
Until recently with the addition of the tiara on top of the Great American Building, the Carew Tower was the tallest building in Cincinnati. It is Art Deco in style. Our tour guide explained that Art Deco buildings often are built in successive smaller layers like a wedding cake.
The tower was begun in 1929 by John Emery who wanted to create a city within a city. The building was designed to contain hotels, restaurants, offices and retail. When he couldn’t get any financial backers for his idea, he sold all his stock (early in 1929, fortuitously right before the crash) and financed the building himself. The Carew Tower was built in two years with people working around the clock. Its construction provided many much needed jobs during the depression.
The panels around the entrance contain bronze medallions with all the modes of transportation that brought people to the city of Cincinnati. I can see a covered wagon, a steam boat, and a train on the bottom three shown here.
And let’s not forget the reliable four-legged friend.
The Netherland Hilton occupies the space on one side of the Carew Tower. The Netherland Hilton is also Art Deco in style. It has been renovated and is a beautiful place to stay if visiting Cincinnati with a few extra dollars in your pocket.
We entered the Carew Tower on the second floor, from one of the last remaining sections of the Skywalk that used to bridge congested roads for pedestrians. From here we have a view of the Arcade that used to be a bustling place but now is a more sedate shopping area. The mosaic at the far doorway (and on the one beneath us not visible here) is done in Rookwood tiles.
Art Deco elements are visible throughout the arcade with metal stylized flowers
A big thank you to our excellent tour guide, Tim Shafer, who provided entertaining and informative stories about the people who were instrumental in building the city that we love.
imitates the bark of a tree
Christine M. Grote 