Cumminsville Champs Baseball

My grandfather in the 30's with his brother-in-law, Walter Zerges

Sorry I haven't blogged in a long time. I still hope to get back to it ... - Mike

Rick Barr

Rick Barr, the guy who published a blog with many historic photos from the Catholic Telegraph, died last week. Below are three (of many) interesting photos he posted. These are all demolished:

Sacred Heart Italian church at 527 Broadway
 

St X Commercial School, 520 Sycamore
 

Teacher's College, stood directly the east of St George's in Corryville
 

The Catholic Telegraph has been continuously published in Cincinnati, since 1831! I would love to see more of their extensive archives published online.

Garfield Then and Now

Etching of Garfield Statue from 1890 City Directory

Garfield Today
 

Cincy History Preservation Project

A guest post today:

Bringing the West End Into the Digital Age:
Cincinnati History Preservation Project

The urban landscape of Cincinnati would be very different without Union Terminal and the railroads – especially Over-the-Rhine and the West End. Construction of Cincinnati Union Terminal wasn’t confined to the building itself, or even the rail yard and its buildings – the project encompassed sites from the Western Hills Viaduct all the way down to the river.

For a long time, Union Terminal was the ‘front door’ to the city: walk out into the sunlight, and you’re looking right at downtown. That’s a world of difference from the airport, which drops you off in suburbia (and could be AnyCity, USA).

Anyone who’s familiar at all with Cincinnati (and Cincinnatians) knows that people just don’t leave, or if they do, they almost always come back! So, the history of Cincinnati Union Terminal – and the development of the city as a result – is really a family history. It’s our grandparents and great-grandparents who worked on building and running Union Terminal. It was our relatives who were trackside at the Concourse in its heyday during and after WWII.

The Cincinnati Railroad Club has been there almost since the beginning, and has amassed a collection of over 70,000 artifacts. The collection encompasses more than rail history; it touches on Americana, architectural, military, sports and Cincinnati history. Like any private collection, the general public hasn’t seen most of it – and much of it is currently inaccessible.

We have begun work on the largest endeavor since the Club was founded – the Cincinnati History Preservation Project, which will accomplish two major goals: conserve and protect these valuable objects for future Cincinnatians, and digitize the collection so that it will be available to anyone with online access.

We’re at a crossroads of history and technology – the Club members’ first-hand experience with the artifacts and railroading, paired with the ability to geo-tag photos, use facial recognition, sort by shape and/or color, and so on, will give users the opportunity to interact with this collection on a very personal level.

That means Cincinnatians will be able to search for their family ties within the collection – whether it be related to the construction of the building or operation of the railroad, a military sendoff or reunion, taking the train to visit loved ones or even seeing a family home in the background of a construction photo.

Historically, Cincinnati has gone through numerous phases of growth in the routes and transportation that join the East Side and West Side with downtown, Northern Kentucky and beyond. What started as deer, Indian, and wagon trails later evolved into our railroads and highways.

Connecting with the past through the collection can be a valuable exercise in planning for the future - lessons learned from past initiatives to integrate streetcars and mass transit can be applied to current planning. This collection can serve as a rich resource for city planners and transit engineers who are working to shape the future of Cincinnati’s urban landscape.

As this diverse collection gets catalogued and scanned, we will be able to connect to other historic collections - libraries, colleges, genealogy Web sites, historical societies and more.

In order to keep this project moving forward, we need your help - donations, volunteers, your memories and most importantly, your feedback on the project site. We encourage you to visit www.savecincyhistory.com to browse, search and discuss – please let us know: what does saving Cincinnati history mean to you?

Here is a sample from the archives, showing construction of the Western Hills Viaduct, 1931:
 

Contact information:

Patrick Rose
Director of Special Projects
Cincinnati Railroad Club, Inc.
PO Box 14157
Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-0157
www.cincinnatirrclub.com

Street Photography

If you have some time, these are really worth viewing: Photographs by Vivian Maier:

Barr's Loans Old Old Location

621-23 Central Avenue, Kenyon Barr neighborhood, demolished

This post triggered by two other posts:
Visualingual post of Barr's Loan Ghost Sign in OTRVictorian Antiquities post on Kenyon Barr

Betts House and Music Hall Engraving

The Betts House just announced their next exhibit, and the flyer had this wonderful print on the front.

1880 Democratic National Convention in Music Hall:
 

I'm not sure which wing the convention took place. I know that there was both a north wing called Machinery Hall and a south wing called the Art Hall. The south wing is now the ballroom, and the north wing is now filled with offices and backstage operations.

Several people have told me that they used to attend boxing matches in the north wing. In this Enquirer piece, they do confirm that the north wing did indeed hold athletic events:

In 1927 North and south wings are expanded, including the new Topper Club Ballroom (called Graystone Ballroom for African-Americans). The north wing is made into one of America's finest athletic arenas, seating 6,000 for boxing, tennis and basketball

1946: Wrestling, boxing and the U.C. Bearcats basketball team are among the sports attractions in the north wing...

Anyway, I am not sure who has been running the Betts House lately, but they always seem to have great exhibits. Here is the description of this one:

FROM QUEEN CITY TO PORKOPOLIS: Prints of Cincinnati, 1860-1890

On display October 2 through November 18, 2010, this new exhibit offers views of Cincinnati during its 19th century “heyday” from notable national publications, including Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly. The exhibit features historic prints on loan from the Mary Baskett Collection and an anonymous lender.

Opening reception: October 2nd, 5 – 8 pm

[where: 416 Clark Street, Cincinnati, OH 45203]

Howell Manufacturing

While browsing through some Walker Evans photos from old Fortune Magazines, I happened upon this photo of in an article called "Vintage Office Furniture":

"A corner of the front office at Howell Manufacturing Co (vinegar and extracts) Cincinnati", published in Fortune Magazine, August 1955. Click for larger view.

Russian Photos Picking Berries

I happened upon this online magazine that has a series of color photographs of Russia from years 1909-1915. It is fascinating to see color photos from this era and is definitely worth browsing if you have a few minutes. One of them was of some girls offering berries to visitors:

As comparison, I had just taken this picture of kids picking Mulberries in OTR:

Temple of Love at Mt Storm

While my son was playing some pickup soccer, daughter and I walked over to the Mt Storm Playground. As usual, she made some new friends. We also watched some young women practice fire-eating, climbed some trees and looked in vain for an open toilet. Why does the Park Board tease us so?

As we walked back to the soccer field, we stopped at this structure, which, like a shiny beacon seems to attract wayward hikers. It's had a scaffold around it for many months, and I'm begining to wonder if anyone is really repairing it:
 

 

From the Cincinnati Park webpage:
Clifton’s 57-acre Mt. Storm is the site of the 19th-century estate of Robert Bowler. The Temple of Love gazebo-pavilion is all that remains of Bowler’s once grand homestead; it was designed in 1850 by Adolph Strauch, former supervisor of the Imperial Gardens in Vienna and designer of Spring Grove cemetery. In his magnificent home (razed in 1917) Bowler entertained the Prince of Wales, Charles Dickens and other 19th-century celebrities.

Picture I took in 2007:
 

And finally, photo of my grandmother here a long time ago:

Car Optimism 1950s Style

Chevy Advert in SF with Cable Car

Factories of my Fathers

It just kinda occurred to me the other day, that I often pass the factories in which my father and both my grandfathers worked. I'm one of those people that think it is a bad thing that we have become less and less of a country that manufactures it's goods. And it is kinda interesting to see what is happening in these buildings today:

First, my maternal grandfather, was a butcher at Kahn's for all of his adult life. Here is a picture of him with some coworkers:


Here is the building on Spring Grove Avenue:

Kahns, American Beauty Meats

Kahns was bought by Sara Lee and in the 90s the slaughterhouse was moved to somewhere in Kentucky. The Kahn's site is currently for sale by Hamilton County, who had acquired the site with the intention of building a jail.

Spring Grove elevation

Second, my fraternal grandfather worked most of his adult life as a pressman at Rosenthal Printing in OTR. The building now houses the Art Academy of Cincinnati:

Art Academy outside

Art Academy inside

Thirdly, my father worked at Fisher Body in Fairfield as a die-maker. I had occasion to go by this site recently, which is what triggered this whole post:

Water tower

Power plant

More Fisher Body photos here.

Donna's Stop and Shop

This post is triggered by an online discussion at Victorian Antiquities about the nearest building in the photo below. It is 24 West Elder Street, and the City recently added it to a list of building's that they propose to demolish:

My earlier post on 1974 Findlay Market included this photo of these buildings:

A map of the area, there once was a school in the north half of the Findlay Playground:

Following are some photos from this weekend:

The owners of this building are completely unreachable or maybe even deceased. The tax mailing address is a housing project in the West End that was demolished years ago. The OTR Foundation included this building in a proposed receivership proposal to the City in 2008. As far as I know the receivership plan has not progressed beyond talk. The side, front:

Alianthus tree growing out of window:

Rear of the building, where two alleys meet, and across the street from the Findlay Baseball field:

Deteriorated side porches:

This corner of OTR is interesting. It is more abandoned than the rest, and many of these buildings have unreachable or stubborn owners who do nothing. These two buildings are just north of the Findlay Playground on a stub of Republic Street, near Schwarz's Point. Seems like this owner was in the news for criminal resale of baby formula or some such scandal:

More vacancy along Goose Alley. The other side of these buildings face Race Street:

Republic Street, just south of the park. The pink building on the left is a really cool lot with buildings that face both Republic and Vine Street. Not surprisingly, this is another vacant building owned by longtime slumlord Sondra Walls:

The north wall of the Sondra Wall's buildings:

A Film - The City - 1939

I found this old film through James Howard Kunstler's website. The words to the film were apparently written by Lewis Mumford. The first few minutes showing farm life aren't that interesting, but the scenes of the city and the actual living conditions of a city which appears to be Pittsburgh are fascinating, as are the huge traffic jams filmed in the 1930s. These are a pretty interesting demonstration of the way people saw the problem of the American city in the early 20th century.

Clip 1, from bucolic farms complete with basket making and loom weaving to sooty dangerous factories:


Clip 2, The fast city:


Clip 3, cities going crazy, traffic jams and crowds:


Part 4, the planned alternative, the suburbs (with magically no cars):


If you are interested, you can watch these videos overlaid with a running commentary by Jim Kunstler here.

Wall or Connection

For Veteran's day, and 20yrs after the fall of the wall:

Berlin's Bernauer Strasse one with the Berlin Wall in June 1968, and the same view on October 20, 2009 without the wall and with a streetcar track and wires.
 

Pictures found here (JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

New Zoo Entrance

I've been holding back on my comments about the new pedestrian bridge over Vine Street until I had a chance to use the entrance myself. When I saw it under construction, I originally thought they were going to make it work with a gentle ramp up from the lot to a point further north where Vine Street goes downhill. Since both the parking lot and the zoo side of the street both are hills, it seems like there were ways to design this bridge so as to avoid the troublesome elevators and steps. I also didn't like the folksy look at the new entry buildings. There are some pretty nice buildings in the zoo, and until now they have avoided this aesthetic.

So last weekend I finally entered this way, and was pleasantly surprised. Simply put, the new entrance is a great success.

The one problem I have heard reported is that the elevators cannot move enough strollers fast enough. I didn't see any evidence of this, as we took our stroller up the escalator, as did many others.

Vine Street Entry a few years ago:

The same corner today:
 

The entry in the 60's:

Vine and Erkenbrecker a hundred years ago:

historic photos from here

Here is the new entry building, located in the new parking lot west of the zoo, across Vine Street:

You have a choice of Escalator and Elevator:

Bridge:

Bridge Entrance:

Ticket Gate:

Membership Building. Up close these buildings are not as bad as I originally thought. They actually are pretty nice, and function well too:

Solar Ticket Machines:

A bonus shot of Rhino with missing horn:

Our favorite exhibit lately has been the nocturnal house. Yours?