umbriago

Well you didn't answer the most burning question: what's the story behind the Milan Wonder Bar?

Really beautiful. Why isn't the river brown? (and this is a serious question)

THE CENTRAL BRIDGE. I'd been trying to think of the name of that bridge. It was the one that was torn down, right? The L&N bridge is the Purple People Eater or whatever. I can't say what happened to many of the photos I took; I think my ex-wife has many of them. A lot of them were taken with an old Argus camera from the 50s; hers was something decidedly more modern like a Canon. ks5214, I am looking for those photos. Watch for a separate thread, perhaps this weekend. I found some very old Toledo negatives last night that might date from about anywhere from 1977 to 1980, believe it or not. I'll be curious to see how those scan.

I remember walking by this place as a kid, but I can't quite remember where it was. Where was this? On the north side of Sixth Street between Vine and Walnut, right next to McDonald's.

All righty then, here's round two. These are from the first Tall Stacks. And these negatives have suffered from the ravages of time more than some of the others, I do believe. Note the Kahn's painters caps, which were everywhere. From the top deck of Riverfront Stadium. Let's get a little closer. Now here we have some '80s hair. But let's leave for the streets. I think these were taken for a ball game I went to in 1989, because there are telltale signs of someone protesting the Dowd Commission. Main Street, I believe. Sorry about the quality. Old Fountain Square. Fourth and Race...right? Fort Washington Way from the stadium walkway overpass, I think. And finally... I hear the wrong paper is closing down at the end of 2007. Well that's all I have for now! But I will keep digging. Glad everyone liked them more or less.

I've been remiss! What visit to 1980s Cincinnati would be complete without a stop at King News for some brown-paper-bag goodness? Many, many more photos on Wednesday. 1988 Tall Stacks, and more random downtown shots. Here's a preview. I'll be darned. According to Google Maps satellite view, those tracks are gone! Wasn't it the J.C. Newberry Co. - kinda of a five and dime store also - right on the corner of Fifth and Race? Or was that at Sixth and Race, across the street from Dodd Jewelers (605 Race Street and yes I can still hear that damn jingle).

I will do this and make a separate thread when I do. Also, RiverViewer, I just stopped by cincinnatiroads.com and drove up Elm Street and I'll be back. For someone like me, that is very cool. Drive up I-75 sometime!

Cincinnati wasn't such a bad place in the 80s. I am originally from Toledo, and I started going down there when my brother took a job with GE Evendale in the mid-80s. Toledo's downtown was dead and gone by the late 70s. There was literally nothing left except a few lunch restaurants and Brenda's Body Shop. And hookers. Once I set foot in downtown Cincinnati, though, it was I that was hooked. A great library, restaurants and stores everywhere, the odd little strip of Main Street that had seedy places like the Bay Horse Cafe and cool places like Cianciolo's and more cool old buildings everywhere than you could shake a stick at - could Toledo have EVER been like that? I moved down there in 1986, just in time for the Reds and the Bengals to be good, and stayed twelve years (about equally split between Cheviot/Westwood and Lockland). My only marriage lived and died there, I got my life's footing there, I was one of those surly Reds ushers for four years, I killed a bunch of time at River Downs - I hold the whole area in very high regard, owe it a visit, and miss it quite often. I felt like I was really living there, because Kansas City, the town I currently live in, has all the charm of a dirty dishrag. And every so often something reminds me of it (for example, I bought a house whose former owner was named Jim Shelton, so I always refer to the former owner as "Peanut Jim") or I slip up and call something by a Cincinnati name. Jeez, that reads like a damn love letter. Pardon me.

These are photos I took in Cincinnati twenty years ago, almost: November 1987. They were scanned from color negatives. My scanning and reworking-color-negative-in-Photoshop skills are a work in progress, I admit, but you all might find them somewhat interesting anyway. Descriptions are underneath. Feel free to help me out here. I last lived in Cincinnati in 1998 and my last visit was in 2004, so I might be off a little on streets and such. I can't place everything anymore. Vine St., looking south at Fifth. Vine St., looking north at Sixth. No doubt, I turned around. See, now where is this? Is this McMicken, or is it Vine? The memory is no help. (Diver down!) This is the Mill Creek Valley, of course, stupidly facing into the sun. I never claimed to be a great photographer. Then, as now, the beautiful Carew Tower. Tyler Davidson Fountain. Vine Street looking north again. There's the former L.S. Ayres on the left. Horses! Looking west down Fifth Street. Meanwhile, on the Suspension Bridge. This is from Devou Park. And so is this. Covington. Motorcycle cop. Western Hills Viaduct. Central Parkway, and then I turned around and shot... The Imperial. Still there? Edit: Forgot one. This is from 1988's Tall Stacks, I'm pretty sure, standing on a bridge that quite possibly isn't there anymore. L&N Bridge? I have a lot of Tall Stacks photos I should probably post. Oh, to have rolled around town and taken more photos. But it was film, and film cost money, and I didn't have a lot of it twenty years ago. Oddly, I have enough pictures of ballparks (Tiger Stadium, Cleveland's old ballpark, which I ought to post) to beat the band, but did I ever take pictures of where I was living? Not very often. Cincinnati, as you know, just lends itself to photography.

Oh I agree totally, River Downs was/probably-still-is gorgeous, like spending an afternoon at a county fair racetrack - a relaxing afternoon I really miss sometimes since I don't live in Ohio anymore.

Judging by how much time I used to spend there, I think you forgot a very important place in Lebanon! What would Corwin Nixon say?