1513 Vine Still Falling Down

I've always kinda liked this old building with the pointed dormers and center chimney. It is a background building, basic and unassuming.

 

The owner, who lives in a modest home in Sycamore Township paid $24k for it in 1994 but hasn't made one improvement (except maybe that half-assed attempt at painting it white 15 years ago). I am wondering why he continues to hold onto it and pay property taxes. He applied for a VBML in 1999 and 2004, but it obviously doesn't meet the standards since the rear is partially collapsed and it is doubtful that he has paid the ever increasing License Fee. I'm sure buyers have approached him. Maybe there is some legal problem, or maybe he is just stubborn. Either way, it has been a blight on the neighborhood for too long.

 

 

[where 1513 and 1515 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill KY

Pleasant Hill, KY is less than a 2 hour drive from Cincinnati, and is an exquisitely preserved collection of Shaker buildings and artifacts. If you have never been, I highly recommend a visit. Fall and winter are especially beautiful there, and it is worth paying to spend a night so you can see it at night when the crowds are gone, it is quiet and the stars are out. They also have many special events such as Civil War re-enactors and seasonal events which are fun.

A visit always gets us pondering different aspects of intentional communities, how people live in harmony, how that is reflected in their homes etc...

Stair hall of Central Family Dwelling with dining room beyond

Water tank building. Flag at top indicates tank is full


Meeting Room (sanctuary):

Minister's quarter's above the meeting room:



This is our favorite room, intimate with lots of natural light. This was the minister's dining room:



There is a restaurant on site, which serves salsify casserole with all evening meals:

Kentucky River Gorge, High RR bridge:

Wind Damage OTR

..took some photos before it got to dark of the damage in Washington Park, Grammers and St. Paulus Kirche (at 15th and Race). There were tree branches everywhere, and asphalt and metal roofing in the street. School is cancelled at CPS, and there was a fire at Findlay Market in the north buildings. While I was there, the fire department left Grammers quickly because they got called to a building collapse. Lots of damage to lots of Historic Buildings today.

Now it is dark, and the Clifton/Fairview hillsides are all dark with no power, but downtown we have plenty. My relatives all called and they all are out of power too, all over the city. Wow.

Apparently at Grammer's the metal roofing blew over the cornice and hit the power lines, then the transformer blew and sparks started a fire on the top floor of the building just to the south of the original Grammers. The fire-fighters were working it from the inside, but they could not get a ladder truck, which they really needed. Finally one arrived, but the fire was then to the rear and tons of water was dumped on it, soaking everything inside.

UPDATE: Power outages and damage are much more than I knew. Downtown has power and all is pretty good, but no power, and no gas, and no stores open in most of the suburbs. In fact power appears to be out almost everywhere except downtown.

UPDATE 2: Sustained winds were 54 mph and gusts hit 74 mph. I have always wondered what that feels like. Now I know. We design new buildings here to resist 90 mph gusts.

Our Daily Bread St Johns

Another photo of the old St John church tower. The building in the foreground is more interesting than it looks. If you look at it closely, you will see that it was actually a taller building. The upper floors were removed, and it was "modernized". It was an IGA grocery for many years, and is now Our Daily Bread:

 

Mercer and Vine Rehab Continuing

The Model Project is continuing to make progress. The rear alley buildings here were unfortunately demolished:

 

See my previous post on this project here.
[Where: 1332 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

And accross the street and slightly north, the 1400 Block, West side of Vine appears to be getting cleaned-out and ready for rehab:

 

[Where: 1407-15 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

City Home Progress

Foundations starting for new buildings:

 

Basements:

 

From Rear:

 

Previous post on this project.

St John Tower at OTR Rec Center

St John Tower, at the Over-the-Rhine Recreation Center, also called the HUB center:

When St. John Church was demolished, the tower was salvaged and incorporated into the new community center. The tower was at the rear of the church, along Republic Street. The entry to the church as shown in the old photo was on the north side of Green Street (Northwest corner of Green and Republic).

Here is the Catholic Telegraph post about the closing of this church. Here is their photo, taken 1969:

The building to the right in the photo above, today:

[Where: 12 Green Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]


View Larger Map

Just to the north of the old tower, is the OTR indoor swimming pool. The CRC proposal is to open up the old bricked-up doors and make this indoor pool a summer pool for use by the OTR swim team. I think it is a plan for failure, as you will not get many kids to go to this hidden indoor pool in the summer:

[Where 1715 Republic Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Unique Stone Storefront

 

St Joseph of Nazareth Church

I never knew why there was this building on Liberty, with an inscription "Archdiocese Board of Education". What was the history here?

Well, I was talking to a neighbor a couple months ago, and she told me that she grew up going to a church at the corner of Elm and Liberty. She said it was a beautiful church, with marble pews. She also attended grade school at next door at this building, which was later used as Archdiosece offices:

I wasn't able to find a picture of the church, which was at the northwest corner of Elm and Liberty Streets, until a few days ago, when the Catholic Telegraph responded to my request and posted some information here. The photo is just of the door. This blog is starting to post some interesting photos, so you may want to give it a look.

Here is a quick description of the church:

Built in 1864 as St. Matthew German Evangelical Church under the guidance of Rev. Maurice Raschig, it became St. Joseph in 1919, a Hungarian-Catholic Church. Razed in 1963, the structure resembled Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. The former St. Joseph Grade School still stands at Liberty and Logan Streets NEC.
-Cincinnati: Over-the-Rhine by Robert J. Wimberg.

Here is a site plan from the Auditor's Office. The school site is two buildings to the west at Logan Street:

The gas-station, now temporary labor office at site of church:

If there is anyone out there who has any additional photos of the church, please let me know.

This whole corner is owned by the Smith Foundation, which seems to be doing nothing with them, except they did fix up the school a bit and have demolished a couple others.

[where: 1601-11 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202] Church Site
[where: 224 West Liberty, Cincinnati, OH 45202] School

City Home Starting

City Home Banner:

Sample proposed brickwork next to existing building to remain:

The three buildings that were demolished: From left to right, 1410, 1408, 1406 Pleasant last winter:

Same view today:

Rear of OTRCH offices


Pleasant Street garden (1412-16 Pleasant) last winter:
Demo site with OTRCH to right:

Pleasant Street, looking north from 14th last winter:

Similar view today:

UPDATE:
Here is a photo I found in my archives, showing men working on the rear of 1408 Pleasant. To the left is 1406, and to the right is 1410. They had removed the rear wood portion of 1408 and planned on building a new addition to make a single family home. For some reason (I believe it was some hard headedness) the addition was never completed:

 

Red Horse Bar

In the 1980s and into the early 90's, this was the Red Horse Bar. It had harsh flourescent lighting, dirty linoleum flooring, formica bartop and a bare glass front. It served cheap drinks for drunks and addicts. The police were there all the time. It was a place I was afraid to walk past. Lately it has been a used furniture store and then vacant.

Al Rohs, who owns Rohs Hardware store 3 doors down, told me that his grandfather had a jewerly store in this building. He said the beautiful first floor showroom opened up to a grand second floor showroom. You can see the windows for this upper level showroom here in the photo.

The current owner, Model Management, has been doing tons of tax-credit projects, which are rented to low-income renters, but they are also doing lots of condos too. I have no idea what their plans are for this one.

[Where: 1411 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Courtyard at Vine and Liberty

At this busy intersection is a brick wall, and behind the brick wall, next to St. Francis Seraph, is this beautiful courtyard. The friars tend the garden and Brother Tim has rejuvenated the fountain, with fish:







[where: 1615 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

To the East, across Vine is the Elementary School and a residential building squeezed-in on the corner. The first floor storefront has The Canticle Cafe:
The Canticle Cafe is an informal outreach program of the Fransiscans. It is a place to cool off in the summer and warm up in the winter. They offer pastries and doughnuts, bingo, AA meetings etc..
[where: 1600 Vine and 14 East Liberty, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Here is the auditor's map of the corner. Notice that the south side of Liberty was widened and buildings removed, and thus the lot lines are still visible on the map:

Woodframed Building Striptease

I'm not sure what they are doing with this building along Vine Street hill, but it is dramatic to see it naked and stripped of it's aluminum siding:

Moderne Flag Poles

These aren't the best photos, but I just noticed that there are these two flag poles in front of the Museum Center/Union Terminal, and that they are kinda cool:

 

east, west

 

north south

 

Burger Lion Windisch Muhlhauser Building

I remember when this building was standing vacant. As I recall, it was demolished in the early 1990's, and there were some deep basements. The old-timers I worked with at the time said it had an "artisian well" in the basement that was used during the 1929 flood. Sorry for the bad scan:

 

"1932, Burger Brewing Co. leases the old Lion Brewery at the corner of Central Parkway and Liberty and begin brewing beer. This is a building with a long history as it was built by the Windisch-Muhlhausers in 1860."

Now the Cincinnati Ballet has their headquarters at this site:

 

Part of the old building can still be seen behind:

 

[Where: 1555 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45214]

Exotic Stones

Fascinating site with photos of lost cities. This one, Lakshman Temple, in India is more explicit than most:

 

Why don't our buildings have carvings like this?

Model at Mercer and Vine

Some construction has begun in the existing buildings on Vine Street, just north of Mercer Street. This project is directly across the street from the other Model project I blogged about last month. So far it looks like they are just doing interior demolition in preparation for the rehab. There will also be a new building in the parking lot in the foreground of this picture. I believe this project is called Trinity Flats and Glaserworks is the architect.

 

West Elevation facing Vine Street. All the buildings on the left are existing, the one on the right is proposed for the vacant lot in the photo above:

 

Proposed South Elevation, facing Mercer Street. There appears to be a garage door to the right and aluminum storefront to the left, at Vine Street:

 

[Where: 1332 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

St Paulus Tower

It is deteriorating more lately:

Lackman's Beer Ad

It says "The Beer Without A Peer, Serial No. 6604 Guaranteed, Lackman's Beer" [Where: 1237 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202] on the rear.

Unusual All-Stone House

 

In East Price Hill, Academy Ave. I've been spending lots of time in Price Hill lately for work, and I love it.