Lost Cincinnati Poster Series

1957
LIBERTY STREET WIDENING Photo by Herb Heise
From the Collection of The Cincinnati Museum Center-
Cincinnati Historical Society Library

When Cincinnati was incorporated as a town in 1802, Liberty Street
was the northern limit. The properties beyond were known as the
Northern Liberties until they were annexed by the city in 1849.
Liberty Street was once a regular city street, only about 50 feet in
width. By the late 1950s, the growing volume of automobile traffic
demanded a cross-town thoroughfare, and Liberty Street was widened.

This 1957 view, looking east from Vine Street, shows the gash left after
rows of buildings were removed from the south side of Liberty, the power
lines still in place along the original right of way, and the forms in place to
pour the new concrete curb. The steeple of the 1868 Salem German
Evangelical Reformed Church on Sycamore Street can be seen in the
distance near the center.

1870-1966
FOUNTAIN SQUARE
From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

ca.
The original Fountain Square, designed by architect William Tinsley,
was a tree-lined esplanade between Vine and Walnut Streets. The Tyler
1892-
Davidson Fountain was cast in Bavaria, donated to the city by Henry Probasco
1950s
in honor of his brother-in-law and installed in 1871. For nearly a century the

ODD
“Genius of Water,” the fountain’s central statue, stood facing east in the center
of Fifth Street.

FELLOWS
By the late 1950s, the esplanade design was considered outmoded and an
obstruction to traffic. The 1964 Plan for Downtown Cincinnati envisioned a larger
public plaza at the northeast corner of Vine and Fifth Streets. When the new
TEMPLE
Fountain Square was completed in 1969, the Tyler Davidson Fountain was placed
on axis with Fifth Street but rotated 180 degrees to face oncoming traffic from the From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and
west. The 1969 renovation by RTKL Associates (of Baltimore) was a landmark in Hamilton County
postwar urban planning. However, the square is being reconfigured once again in a
renovation designed by Cooper Robertson of New York. Samuel Hannaford & Sons won the 1891 design
competition for the Odd Fellows Temple, which was
built shortly afterwards at the northwest corner
1893-1993 of Seventh and Elm Streets, adjacent to the First-
Covenant Presbyterian Church. The Independent
COLUMBIAN SCHOOL Order of the Odd Fellows was a private brotherhood
established in England in the 1600s to provide for the
welfare of widows, orphans and invalids. Although
the organization still exists, it is far less widespread
because of improved health care, Social Security and
This splendid school building once stood at the
other welfare programs.
northeast corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and
Harvey Avenue. Completed in 1893, it was named in
The building, with its exuberant Queen Anne brick
recognition of the 400th anniversary of the landing of
and stone exterior, replaced the large Federal-
Columbus in America. An outstanding example of the
style residence of Judge Jacob Burnet, who built his
Romanesque Revival style, the school was one of several
famous hotel at the corner of Vine and Third Streets.
designed by architect H. E. Siter. Columbian was said to
The Odd Fellows Temple was demolished by the
be one of the first schools in the Midwest to use forced
1950s and replaced with a parking garage.
air heating. By 1950, the building suffered from neglect,
age and vandalism. The Board of Education vacated the
school in 1979 and sold it to Jewish Hospital in 1982, which
used the grounds for parking. It was demolished in 1993,
and Jewish Hospital closed its facility here shortly afterward.

1829-1920
1848-
MIAMI & ERIE CANAL 1964
From the Collection of The Public Library of
Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Completed in 1829, the Miami & Erie Canal connected
the Ohio-Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes
system on Lake Erie near Toledo. It was part of the
ST. JOSEPH
important internal waterways system before the
railroad dominated transportation. It linked

CATHOLIC CHURCH
Cincinnati to sources of raw materials and
agricultural goods to the north and west, and
spurred development. The canal entered From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Cincinnati along what is today Interstate 75 and
followed the path of Central Parkway St. Joseph Parish, on Ezzard Charles Drive at the corner of Linn Street, in
downtown. It then turned south along Cincinnati’s West End, was founded in 1847, and the first church building
Eggleston Avenue to the river. was completed the following year. Originally a German Catholic church,
the congregation has been primarily African American since the 1940s.
According to reminiscences, the canal
provided picturesque spots to boat, fish and swim The current church was built in 1964-5, after an earlier church on the
in the summer and skate in the winter. But by the early site was demolished in 1961 to make way for the widening of Linn
20th century, it had become polluted and obsolete as a means of Street. Designed by Otto Bauer-Nilsen of Gartner Burdick Bauer-Nilsen
transportation. In 1920, a subway was begun in the canal bed, but never architects, the church contains many elements, including bells and
finished, in part because automobiles were then becoming the dominant means of murals, from the original building. The parish school, rectory and convent,
transportation. Central Parkway was built on top and opened with fanfare in 1928. built between 1908 and 1910, remain. The complex provides continuity
for the neighborhood, while the surrounding blocks have been repeatedly
erased, currently for City West.

IMPACT AUTOMOBILE OF
THE

LOST CINCINNATI: WHY BUILDINGS DIE

1875-1908
CLIFTON AVENUE
HOUSES

These two little houses at the northwest corner of
McMillan and Clifton Avenues--one brick and the
other wood-frame--were photographed by brewer
Conrad Windisch before being torn down in 1907
to make way for Hughes High School. They were
probably built in the 1870s after the Bellevue
Incline opened, making Fairview accessible for
development. Notice the street was unpaved,
there were no sidewalks and the air was
filled with overhead cables for the electric
streetcars. The Jacobethan-style Hughes High
School was built between 1908 and 1911 and
designed by J. Walter Stevens of St. Paul,
Minnesota, in an unprecedented national
competition for a public school. Additions
by the local firm of Tietig & Lee were made
in 1954.

1854-1982
1860-1930
ALLEN TEMPLE
LINCOLN
PARK The Allen Temple, which once stood at the corner of Sixth and
Broadway, was one of several buildings, along with the Wesley
From the Collection of The Public Chapel, the Fenwick Club and the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, that
Library of Cincinnati and Hamil-
were demolished when Procter & Gamble expanded its head-
ton County
quarters on Fifth Street in the mid-1980s. The temple was built
in 1852 as the second home of Cincinnati’s first Jewish Congre-
Lincoln Park was the only
gation, Bene Israel. It was designed by Robert A. Love, a little-
park in the entire West End
known but innovative Cincinnati architect.
and one of the most heav-
ily used in the city by 1900.
The African Methodist Episcopal church, organized in 1824,
Created about 1860, it was
acquired the building in 1870 and renamed it in honor of Cin-
a picturesque landscape
cinnati’s first black minister, William Allen. It was the oldest
with a lake, wading brook,
synagogue and the oldest black church left in Cincinnati at that
public baths, a ball field and
time. The curving parapet, undulating façade and minarets
tennis courts. In winter, as many as 5,000 peo-
gave the building an exotic appearance.
ple skated on the frozen pond, and during the summer an es-
timated 1500 tenement dwellers slept there to escape the hot,
stagnant air of their homes.

By the 1920s, however, the area around it had declined,
1880-1925
and clearing the park and nearby buildings was seen as an
improvement. The park was absorbed into the approach to
Union Terminal, just west of I-75,
in the
1930s.

SCHMIDLAPP
MANSION
1831-1982 From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

WESLEY CHAPEL Jacob G. Schmidlapp (1849-1919) made his fortune distilling whiskey business and
then turned to banking. The bank he founded is part of what is now Fifth Third
Bank, one of the Cincinnati’s largest. Through his Model Homes Company, he also
Built in 1831, Wesley Chapel was the oldest remaining religious building in
built over 400 attractive and affordable apartments for workers in Norwood, Oakley,
Cincinnati when it was torn down for the expansion of Procter & Gamble’s corporate
Avondale and Walnut Hills beginning in the 1910s.
headquarters. It was an outstanding and rare surviving example of a Greek Revival
church. William Henry Harrison’s funeral services were held there in 1841, and John
His own home, known as Kirchheim, was built on Grandin Road before 1885 for
Quincy Adams delivered a speech on the dedication of the Cincinnati Observatory on
a previous owner and remodeled for Schmidlapp in 1895 by Samuel Hannaford &
Mount Adams from its pulpit. A stone church built in 1806 previously occupied the
Sons. This elite section of Hyde Park was originally considered part of fashionable
site.
East Walnut Hills. This dour stone mansion was demolished when the Schmidlapp
property and several other large estates were subdivided in the early 20th century.

CHANGING LAND USES

1848-1930 1907-1979
GLENDALE FEMALE COLLEGE ROYAL THEATRE
From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and
Hamilton County
Located on a 14-acre property on the corner of Sharon and Laurel Avenues, the
The Royal Theatre opened in 1907 at 709 Vine
Glendale Female College began its existence in 1848 as the Hotel Ritter House.
Street, which was considered far uptown at the time.
The magnificent Greek Revival structure housed Glendale’s early residents while
Nevertheless, it flourished with films, “absolutely
their homes were being built. In 1854, a Presbyterian minister bought the
flickerless and easy on the eyes.” The façade is a
hotel and converted it to a school. Although it was referred to as a college, it
fantasy, dominated by a golden female figure with
was really a finishing school. The building also served as a meeting place for
gigantic butterfly wings, which appeared to move when
Glendale residents until Town Hall was built in 1875.
they were lit with sparkling lights. According to local
theater historian Hank Sykes, the design was probably an
By 1900, the Glendale
assemblage of parts ordered from a catalogue.
College and similar
schools faced competition
With the opening of an increasing number of suburban
from public high schools.
theaters after World War II, downtown theaters struggled
Because they were
to survive. In 1978, the theater owner was found guilty
tax-supported, public
of pandering obscenity, and the Royal closed the following
schools were able to
year. The site, at the northwest corner of Vine and Seventh
attract better teachers with
Streets, is now a parking lot.
higher pay and buy better
equipment. After decades of
financial struggle, the Glendale
Female College finally closed

CINCINNATI MILACRON 1941-2001
its doors in 1929. It was soon
torn down and replaced with
houses.
ENGINEERING AND SERVICES
BUILDING
SINTON 1905-1966 (to be obtained)

HOTEL The company formerly known
as Cincinnati Milacron,
From the Collection of The
Inc., a world leader in the
Public Library of Cincinnati
and Hamilton County production of machine
tools, moved in 1906 to
When the Sinton Hotel a new facility in Oakley,
opened in 1905 at the with its own foundry,
southeast corner of power plant, water plant
Fourth and Vine, the and a train station. In
local press asserted the early 1940s, the
there was no finer plant was enlarged by
hotel in the world the Cleveland-based
than this French Austin Company, which
Renaissance-style standardized factory
masterpiece. Its design and construction. The
architect, Frank new Engineering and Services Building,
Mills Andrews, also de- which housed corporate offices, was a streamlined
signed the Hotel McAlpin in New York yet monumental design.
and state capitols in Kentucky and Montana. The
interior was majestic, with marble, mirrors and a magnificent World War II kept the plant humming, and afterwards the company diversified into
Rookwood fountain. chemicals, plastics processing equipment, process control systems and abrasives.
In 2000, the company, no longer family-owned, was divided into two companies—
Some of the city’s grandest events were held there, attended by Presidents Coolidge, Har- Cincinnati Machine, which was purchased by California-based Unova and moved to
ding, Wilson and Taft. Other visitors included General John G. Pershing, William Jennings Kentucky, and Milacron, which focused on plastics and moved to Walnut Hills. Much
Bryan, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas A. Edison, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But by the 1940s, the of the plant was demolished in 2001 to make way for a big-box retail shopping center.
hotel’s business was declining. The hotel finally closed in 1964, was torn down and re-
placed with an office tower. Completed in 1967, the Provident Tower was the first major
office building to be constructed downtown in 35 years and the city’s first steel and glass
1885-2003
tower.

WALNUT HILLS
PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH

The handsome Gothic Revival Walnut Hills Presbyterian
Church, known historically as the First Presbyterian Church,
was designed by Samuel Hannaford and dedicated in 1885.
In 1918, the congregation claimed over 900 members,
but the congregation dwindled over the decades until only
60 members remained in the 1980s. The Presbytery

PIATT sold the building at a discount to another Protestant
congregation, but this and subsequent church groups

1860-1999
GRANDIN HOUSE were not financially viable.

In 1998, the Thompson Hall & Jordan Funeral Home
Courtesy of the Cincinnati Preservation Association
next door purchased the property to expand its
facilities. Although rehabilitation was partially
This gracious Hyde Park home was built in 1860 for Hannah Piatt-Grandin,
completed, the funds were not found to finish the
widow of wealthy merchant and banker Phillip Grandin. For over a century,
job. The church was demolished in 2003, with the
the house withstood the relentless progress of subdivision and residential
exception of the tower, which was purchased and
development that transformed surrounding rural estates.
will be restored as a cultural heritage site by the
Cincinnati Preservation Association. Although the
The Piatt-Grandin House was torn down by Summit Country Day School in
building was listed in the National Register of Historic
1999 despite great community opposition. The headmaster argued that
Places, it was not protected by local designation.
the house required $100,000 in repairs and generated a loss for the school
of $8,000 a year. A few years later, the property was used to build a new
driveway for the school. Weighing the growth of community institutions,
such as schools, universities, hospitals, and churches, and the value of
preserving historic fabric is often a difficult balancing act.

FINANCIAL FACTORS

1884
COURT HOUSE RIOT

In the 1880s, Cincinnati was plagued with gambling,
prostitution and crime. Murders were fairly frequent,
and people were anxious for justice. Public rage was
unleashed in 1884 when William Berner was sentenced
to 20 years for killing a horse trader. Although this was
the maximum penalty for manslaughter, it was seen as
too lenient.

A crowd gathered at Music Hall. Inflamed by speeches, the
mob marched on the county jail to hang Berner. The sheriff
and his forces attempted to contain the crowd, but a three-
day riot ensued. Fifty-six people were killed and more than 300
men and boys were wounded in the melee; the jail and court-
house burned to the ground.

1911 1866
CHAMBER OF PIKE’S OPERA HOUSE
COMMERCE FIRE From the Collection of The Cincinnati Museum Center-
After hearing Jenny Lind, “the Swedish Nightingale,” sing, Samuel Pike, a
The Chamber of Commerce, completed in 1889, once stood at New York entrepreneur with Cincinnati connections, built an opera house
the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine Streets. It replaced for her on Fourth Street. Local boosters bragged that the hall, designed
the United States Post Office, which moved to Government in a florid Italianate style by New York architects H. White and John Trim-
Square on Fifth Street in the 1880s. The Chamber building ble, was the finest in the West.
was designed by Boston architect Henry Hobson Richard-
son in the Romanesque style he was famous for. Inside was After a fire in 1866, the building was rebuilt with nearly the same facade,
a magnificent multi-story trading room. This monumental but an interior update by I. Rogers & Son. Pike’s Opera House burned
stone building looked like it would last forever, but it didn’t again in 1903, but was not rebuilt a second time. By the early 1900s,
last long. It was destroyed by fire in 1911, and the Union motion pictures were on the rise and the old theater was outdated.
Central Life Insurance Company completed a skyscraper
on the site two years later.

1881
MARQUA FACTORY FIRE

This spectacular fire began at P.J. Marqua’s Sons factory, which
made “children’s carriages.” The site, at the corner of Smith and Au-
gusta Streets, was in a manufacturing district on the riverfront near
where I-75 now crosses. An account in Charles Greve’s 1904 Cen-
tennial History of Cincinnati states that the horrendous fire on July 7,
1881 “threatened to lay waste a large section of the city.” About 30
buildings were destroyed, and one man died—a foreman who jumped
from the fourth floor of the Marqua building. Among the other build-
ings leveled were Resor’s Foundry, maker of “stoves and hollow ware,”
and Meader’s Furniture Company, as well as dwellings and warehouses.

1891
A E. BURKHARDT FIRE

The A. E. Burkhardt Company was an enduring furrier business founded in
1866 by Adam Burkhardt, an orphan and immigrant. On July 9, 1891, fire
struck the company’s building at the southeast corner of Fourth and Elm.
According to historian Charles Greve, it resulted in a loss of more than a
million dollars. “At 10 o’clock came a muffled explosion, which was followed
by a tremendous burst of flames which enveloped the entire upper part of
the building and crossed both Fourth and Elm Streets. Nevertheless the
1907
business thrived for three generations, closing in 1963, just three years

WHITE WATER
shy of a century. A new building designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons
was completed at this corner in 1893 for the John Church Company, the
world’s leading publisher of sacred music at the time.

SHAKER VILLAGE FIRE
Courtesy of the Friends of White Water Shaker Village, Inc.

The Shakers established a settlement at White Water, in the village of New Haven, in 1824.
The last of four Ohio Shaker villages settled in Ohio, the White Water Shaker Village flour-
ished during the nineteenth century and disbanded in 1916. The Village was acquired by the
Hamilton County Park District in 1989, and is now part of Miami Whitewater Forest.
Twenty-two original Shaker buildings still remain.

This photograph, published with John P. McLean’s 1904 article in the Ohio Archaeological
and Historical Publications, shows the Center Family dwellings, which all burned in a devas-
tating fire in 1907. Located on the east side of Oxford Road, they are from left to right, the
Girls’ Residence,” the main Center Family Residence, and the Boys’ Residence.

FIRE&FURY

SAMUEL ACH JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL 1907-1975

This Collegiate Gothic school building once stood at the southwest corner of Reading Road and Rockdale Avenue.
Designed by Edward H. Dornette, who was H. E. Siter’s successor as architect for the Board of Education, it was
built about 1907. Notice a portion of the Lincoln & Liberty Monument in the lower left corner of this view. The
monument remains and was restored several years ago, but the school is gone.

In 1967 the school, then known as Samuel Ach Junior High School, was the scene of a protest meeting. Racial
tensions generated by unemployment, dislocation from urban renewal projects, overcrowding and friction with
police led to two nights of rioting. The Board of Education voted to close the school in July
1975 after studying the comparative cost of renovation and new construc-
tion. To some the decrepit physical conditions at Ach re-
quired its replacement, while others argued for
preservation. It was subsequently demolished,
and the site is a playground for the 1950 South
Avondale School adjacent.

1860-1901
COVERED BRIDGE
OVER THE MILL CREEK
From the Collection of The Cincinnati Museum Center-Cincinnati Historical Society Library

Today it is difficult to imagine there was ever a wooden covered bridge anywhere in the city; yet
this bridge was one of two that spanned the Mill Creek in Northside (historically known as Cummins-
ville). The bridge was built in 1860 along with Spring Grove Avenue as a private venture backed by
Ephraim S. Bates and Richard Hopple. With additional investors, they operated a mule-drawn street
railway along the avenue. In 1901, the old wooden bridge was demolished and replaced with a new
“steel archway,” more “suited to modern purposes.”

RIVERFRONT STADIUM
Courtesy of the City of Cincinnati, Department of Buildings & Inspections

1970-2002 Completed in 1970 and recently known as Cinergy
Field, Riverfront Stadium was reflective of its time. It
combined facilities for both baseball and football and
helped anchor downtown Cincinnati by its location on
the river. It also made good use of the floodplain
with its construction on columns and parking decks
below. Designed by Heery & Heery of Atlanta, it
cost $52 million and seated 52,000. For over 30
years, it was home to the Cincinnati Reds and the
Bengals, who both won championships the year
it opened. As the new millennium approached;
however, the stadium was considered outmod-
ed and both teams wanted their own arenas.
Riverfront Stadium, was imploded on Decem-
ber 29, 2002, and replaced by two new sports
arenas—the Bengals Stadium and the Great

CROSLEY FIELD 1912-1970 American Ballpark.

From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati
and Hamilton County

From 1912 to 1970 Crosley Field, at 1200 Findlay Street
and Western Avenue, was the home of the Cincinnati Reds,
the first professional baseball team in America. Originally
known as Redland Field, it was renamed Crosley Field in
CHRIST CHURCH
1835-1955
1934 when the Reds were owned by Cincinnati business
man and inventor Powel Crosley, Jr. Baseball devotees From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
count the first night game in 1935 as one of the most no-
table events to take place in this ball park. This early Gothic-Revival church, designed by Henry Walter, was built on Fourth
Street east of Sycamore in 1835 by one of Cincinnati’s oldest and most prestigious
The ball park was remodelled by Harry Hake’s firm during congregations. The interior was redecorated in 1890 by the Tiffany Studio in New
the 1930s, but both the city and the club remained dis- York, but 50 years later the décor, particularly the iridescent purple and gold tile,
satisfied with the location. The West End was deteriorat- was considered garish. In 1941, the parish decided to replace the old church, find-
ing and parking there was difficult. The 1948 Metropolitan ing it worn out, functionally obsolete and unfashionable.
Master Plan called for a multi-sports stadium to be built on
the riverfront just east of the Suspension Bridge. Twenty The plans for a new building were delayed by World War II and controversy over its
years later, ground was broken for Riverfront Stadium and design. An innovative concept by Eliel Saarinen, a proponent of Modern architec-
on June 24, 1970, the last game was played at Crosley ture, was rejected in 1949 as too radical. It was not until 1955 that the old church
Field. was demolished. The current neo-Gothic building by David Briggs Maxfield was finally
completed two years later, and has been renovated several times since.
1867-1990
CINCINNATI WORKHOUSE

You may remember spying this formidable fortress of a building in
Camp Washington while driving by on Interstate 75. Completed in 1867,
the Workhouse was a prison established on the principle that criminals
could be rehabilitated through work. It was also the first major commis-
sion by Samuel Hannaford one of Cincinnati’s most prolific architects, with
Edwin Anderson.

In 1978 there was a court order to close the Workhouse because of unhealthy
conditions and functional obsolescence. A new jail east of the present Hamilton
County Courthouse was completed in 1982. For over a decade preservationists
attempted to save the Workhouse by listing it in the National Register of Historic
Places and searching for new uses for it. But this was not enough to keep it from
being demolished in 1990.

FUNCTIONAL OBSOLESCENCE

1811
GREAT NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKES

On December 16, 1811, just seven years after the Betts House
was built, a terrible earthquake struck in the middle of the night.
It took only minutes for the shock waves to arrive from their point
of origin in New Madrid in southern Missouri. The then 26-year-
old Cincinnati physician and scientific observer Daniel Drake wrote
this account in his book, Natural and statistical view, or a picture of
Cincinnati, published in 1815. ”At 24 minutes past 2 o’clock a.m…
the first shock occurred….It was so violent as to agitate the loose
furniture of our rooms; open partition doors that were fastened with
1907
falling latches, and throw off the tops of a few chimnies [sic]...”

EIGHTH STREET
A more severe quake hit Ohio on February 7, 1812, which “…made
wider fissures in the brick walls, and produced vertigo and nausea in a
greater number of people, than the earthquakes of either the 16th of

VIADUCT COLLAPSE
December or the 23rd of January.” The Betts House was not immune.
The kitchen and chimney on the west side of the house, just completed
in 1811, had to be totally dismantled. A new kitchen then was built on From the Collection of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
the north side of the house.
As reported in the Cincinnati Times-Star, “With a roar that might be
likened to a broadside of the great battleship Dreadnought, three
1917 sections of the Eight Street viaduct gave way at 7:25 o’clock Sunday
morning and, amid the whirl of a dashing mill race current, disappeared

EAST SIDE TORNADO into the murky backwater of the Millcreek.”

From the Collection of The viaduct fell because the filled earth embankment
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
supporting it was “unable to withstand the pressure of
million of tons of water, which had backed in from Mill creek
Not two years after the 1915 downburst, a powerful
and the Ohio River.” The flood reached a stage of 65 feet.
storm leveled six houses and damaged scores of others
No one was killed, but the city’s west side was in disarray for
in Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout. “Twister Shrieks Death,”
the day, without telephone, streetcars or much water.
said one headline. The storm was described by a
witness as sounding like “hundreds of engines, hissing
and roaring through the streets.” Winds roared at 75
miles per hour. The storm struck with terrible force
on Linwood Road, Grace, Greist and Delta Avenues
and Red Bank Road. Three persons were killed
and more than 50 others were seriously injured.
Fires caused by gas explosions burned at least six
properties.

1997
5835 CROSLIN STREET
Courtesy of the City of Cincinnati,
Department of Buildings & Inspections

This little wood-frame house once stood in the Cincinnati
neighborhood of California, near the Cincinnati Water Works.
This dwelling was one of 38 properties along the Ohio River
that were damaged beyond repair by a flood in March 1997 and
1937
condemned. City Council approved the expenditure of $1.25
million to buy these properties, after which the city would not
CH&D
allow any “insurable or inhabitable” structures to be built on
the land. The house at 5837 Croslin Street was demolished

RAILROAD
immediately because of structural instability, while others were
demolished later.

WAREHOUSE
COLLAPSE
1915 From the Collection of The Public Library

DOWNTOWN DOWNBURST of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

The 1937 flood was the worst in Cincinnati’s
history, reaching a high water mark of 79.9 feet.
Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Cliff Radel Flood waters covered 12 square miles in the city,
recently wrote about auctioneer drove 50,000 people from their homes, caused
Phyllis Karp’s discovery of post cards three major fires and eight deaths and caused
showing the devastation caused by a million of dollars in property damage.
storm on July 7, 1915. “On that July night,
high winds acted like sledge-hammers The warehouse of the Cincinnati Hamilton &
slamming into Greater Cincinnati. Church Dayton Railroad, on the western riverfront
steeples fell. A riverboat capsized. A between Fifth and Sixth Streets, was among
train derailed. Houses crumbled into piles the buildings lost. Opened in 1851, the CH&D
of bricks.” At least 32 people perished, line, heading northward through the Mill
including members of Mrs. Karp’s family. Creek Valley, provided the impetus for the
early railroad-commuter suburbs, especially
Although the storm was described as a Glendale, Hartwell and Wyoming.
“cyclone,” in newspapers of the day, it was
actually a downburst. According to an expert
“A downburst is caused when a mass of dry
air goes into the heart of a thunderstorm. This
sends a shaft of air into the ground at speeds
of at least 120 miles per hour.” Downbursts,
which occur most often in the northern half of
the country, can cut a path 10 to 20 miles wide
and 100 miles long.

NATURAL DISASTERS

1854-1954
CENTRAL AVENUE
1907
HOLY TRINITY COLLAPSE
CHURCH From the Collection of The Public Library
of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

From the Collection of The Cincinnati Museum
“Death, swift and sure, came to two per-
Center-Cincinnati Historical Society Library
sons and possibly to three when the front
part of the four-story double brick build-
Holy Trinity Catholic Church, at 621 West Fifth
ing at 625-627 Central Avenue collapsed
Street near Mound Street, was demolished in
with a roar that could be heard for many
1954, 100 years after it was built, because of
squares.” (Cincinnati Post-Times-Star, 9/14,
structural failure. “An inspection of the building
1907) The collapse was apparently caused
revealed that the… structure had deteriorated
by an ill-advised improvement--remov-
to such an extent that the cost of repairs would
ing a wall to create a single storeroom on
be prohibitive.” Along with the building, two mu-
the first floor for the building owner’s shoe
ral paintings of angels by the renowned artist
store. The foundation walls under the cen-
Frank Duveneck came crashing down. The paint-
ter girder gave way because “they could
ings were not on canvas but painted directly on
not support the concentrated weight of
the walls and impractical to save.
the girder that rested on them… thus re-
moving the support of the upper floors.”
Founded in 1834, Holy Trinity was the first parish
The front the building sheared off “almost
for German-speaking Catholics west of the Allegh-
as completely and smoothly as though
enies and the second Catholic Church erected with-
the front of the house had been cut off
in the city limits. The parish’s first church was de-
with a giant knife.”
stroyed by fire, and this larger building was dedicated
on January 1, 1854. The towering copper-clad steeple
was the city’s tallest structure with the exception of
the Carew Tower. After most of the German families
ca. 1993
moved to the suburbs, Holy Trinity became an African-
American parish in 1925. Rather than rebuilding, the par-
ish closed in 1958 and the property sold for construction
of Interstate 75.

1890-2004
SUMMIT COUNTRY
DAY SCHOOL Courtesy of the City of Cincinnati,
Department of Buildings & Inspections

The collapse of a 30- to 45-foot section of the main
building at Summit Country Day School in Hyde Park
was front-page news in January 2004. The first, second
and third floors collapsed, leaving part of the fourth floor
645-645 ½ WEST
and roof hanging above. Designed by noted Philadelphia
Catholic architect Edwin F. Durang and built in several

MCMICKEN AVENUE
stages from 1890 to 1895, the impressive old brick build-
ing had stood on Grandin Road for well over a century.
Courtesy of the City of Cincinnati, Department of
Buildings & Inspections
What happened? Excavation for a new building for the Low-
er School was too deep and too close to the existing stone
This two-family house at 645-645½ West McMicken
foundation. The foundation in that area didn’t run as deep
Avenue in the neighborhood of Mohawk is an example
as the rest of the building, and rain the day before probably
of a building that was neglected to the point that it be-
caused the ground to freeze and thaw, causing movement.
came a public nuisance. Beginning in 1985, the De-
Fortunately no one was hurt; the collapse occurred on a Sun-
partment of Buildings & Inspections issued orders to
day when the building was empty, but the students had to
the owner to repair the roof, windows, plaster, flooring,
move to temporary quarters off-campus while their classrooms
plumbing and wiring--to no avail. The city finally con-
were rebuilt.
demned and placed it on the “Dead Building List” in
1989. The city demolished it in 1993.

A former tenant wrote that before moving to a house
across the street in 1944, she lived at 645 West Mc-
Micken and it was in bad shape then. “For many years
the buildings… have been in terrible condition and
no one should have been allowed to live
there at all. The buildings are a disgrace
to our neighborhood and an eyesore.”
There are hundreds of similar examples,
particularly in Over-the-Rhine, which re-
flect the challenges of preserving older
neighborhoods.

1907-2003
1890-2004
EMPIRE THEATER
CLIFFORD PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL The Empire opened in 1907 at 1521 Vine Street with
an elegant façade by architects Rapp, Zettel & Rapp.
The theater was refaced with an eye-catching modern
The Clifford Presbyterian Chapel, which stood at the corner of Vine Street and Martin Luther
design after 1940 and closed in the 1960s. After civil unrest
King Boulevard in Corryville, was built in 1890 and designed by noted architect H. E. Siter. It
in 2001, it was the city’s hope that the Empire Theater would
was built for the “domestic help” of the Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church members, who used
lead the revitalization of Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine. A for-
it while their church building, also by Siter, was being built. The chapel was underwritten by
mer Japanese League basketball player LaShawn Pettus Brown
industrialist and church trustee Matthew Addy, and named after his son Clifford.
obtained a $200,000 city loan to convert the old theater into a
night club. But instead, 26-year-old Pettus-Brown disappeared,
After standing vacant for many years, the Corryville Economic Development Corporation
along with the money. In June 2003 the roof collapsed in a
(CEDC) considered rehabilitating it in its effort to revitalize the neighborhood, but an engi-
rainstorm. The roof structure was weakened by rot from years
neering report cited structural problems that were too extensive and costly to correct. Before
of water penetration.
demolishing the building in 2004, the CEDC salvaged the stained glass windows for possible
reuse.

STRUCTURAL FAILURE

Lost Cincinnati Poster Series

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