downtown_jerome

Yes, I came back from Budapest last May (and for good). It just took me a while to get back to Urban Ohio! Our little boy who was born in Hungary is keeping us busy! :-)

Time to revive the Cincy - Hidden History thread! I spotted this sign today on an abandoned building on Perry Street, the small alley behind 4th Street on the west side of downtown. A Google search leading to a Cincinnati Magazine article from 1983 revealed that the Cal Crim Detective Bureau was founded in 1913 by Cincinnati Chief Detective Calm Crim, along with partners Ora Slater, a former Secret Service agent, and Paul Ryan. It was the first private detective agency in Ohio. Here is the link to the Cincinnati Magazine article about Cal Crim: http://books.google.com/books?id=oB0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=%22cal+crim+detective+bureau%22&source=bl&ots=P8cgbcbND_&sig=EmybE-JFRHdgSBSNGdhPRMOBM-8&hl=en&ei=dD3nTO7RKMWqlAeprNjzCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22cal%20crim%20detective%20bureau%22&f=false

Come and check out unearthed artifacts from 19th-century Cincinnati on the Banks construction site, Saturday, May 9 between 9:30 and 11 am! The site is between the two stadiums, on what used to be Race and Water Streets, where a saloon and grocery store once stood. Click on this link for more information and pictures of the site: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100505/BIZ01/5060309/1055/NEWS/Archaelogical+dig+underway+at+Banks+site

What an amazing wall! Really great picture.

Does anyone know if the VH1 broadcast from Cincinnati can be viewed online anywhere? I'd love to watch it.

Blackbengal - I don't know the mural that you are referring to, but there is another great ghost sign in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati that features an Indian. Here is a link to a good picture of it (the shot is by Joey Harrison whom I know from Flickr): http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeyharrison/77563117/

Hi Dan! Hi Cincinnatus! I moved to Budapest for my job. It's not P&G, though. I work for dunnhumby and I analyze customer data for Tesco in Hungary (European version of Kroger). Cincinnatus, was your question about the Deutsche Gegenseitige Versicherungs-Gesellschaft von Cincinnati sign? This sign is on the SW corner of Walnut and 13th Streets in OTR. If you were asking about the "Apotheke" sign, you can find it on Vine Street, just south of the intersection with McMicken Avenue. It's on the left side of Vine when going north (just a couple of blocks from Findlay Market). I'm glad to see this thread is becoming active again!

Hello and Happy New Year! I moved away from Cincinnati in August (currently living in Budapest). I hope some of you can keep this thread going. I'd love to discover more facets of hidden Cincinnati through your pictures and words!

Yes, good article. The building that used to cover the sign has done a really good job at preserving the colors! Those ghosts signs really are a great feature of urban settings in the US. Now that I am back in Europe, I see lots of nice architecture, but I miss the pleasure of discovering brick wall signs!

Hi Randy. Greetings from Budapest! I really enjoyed looking at your pictures. My new home has nice art-nouveau / secession architecture that is very unique, but I somehow really miss downtown Cincinnati and OTR. I have to visit this forum more often to get my fix! Cheers everyone and viszontlatasra.

I am pleasantly surprised how carefully they are cleaning up that building, although I agree they need to take care of the area near the fire escapes and fix the cornice. It's interesting walking to the office every day because you never know what kind of stuff the workers are going to be throwing out of the windows... or where exactly it is going to land!

There are already quite a few interesting shots that were taken in downtown alleys in this post (Felix Friedman Furrier and Burger Chef signs, Sherith Israel Temple, etc). I spent some more time last week exploring those downtown alleys and found a few new bits and pieces of hidden history. This one was on the east side of downtown - I think in Crow Alley. I am not sure what company this was for. There is another sign nearby that reads "Elgin Shipping & Receiving". Elgin is still in business at 810 Main Street. This one is in the alley behind 7th Street. Oskamp Nolting had a store at 26 West 7th Street, a site now occupied by Mill's End. Here is a bit more information I found in Google: "Oskamp-Nolting to Close Store Christmas Eve: The Texas parent company of Oskamp-Nolting Co. will close the jewelry and appliance store at 26 W. Seventh St. on Christmas Eve, one month short of the firm's 100th birthday. ....the downtown store was yielding a "less than desirable return". Oskamp-Nolting evolved from a wholesale jewelry store founded in January, 1881, by Clemens Oskamp. The company moved from 411 Elm St. to the five-story building on Seventh St. in 1911." (Source: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/OHHAMILT/2005-07/1120338255) The former Fort Washington Hotel has been beautifully restored into condos. When I walked in the alley behind it, I ran into this nice ghost sign. Does anyone know the history of this hotel? I didn't find when it was built or when it stopped being a hotel. This is in the alley behind the Cincinnati Club. It's interesting that the sign reads "30 West 8th Street" because the address of the club is now "30 Garfield Place".

Yes, that is a nice one, but Provident might take offense to our calling it a ghost sign!

Here is one in an alley behind Main Street. The Fort Washington Hotel has been restored and turned into high-end conds.

The video is so cool! I missed that thread and found out about the video this morning when I happened to have VH1 on. Here is a working link to the video: http://video.universalrepublic.com/?plid=1481452858&v=1517411297&aid=0 And I believe those are the steps featured in the video:

Yes, I believe this is Urban Outfitters near UC.

I wrote another story for the Pulse on the hidden history of buildings. This one is about the building where I work, Neyer Building, formerly known as the Crown Overall Manufacturing Building. Here is a link to the article: http://www.pulsedt.com/blogs/default.asp?Display=1936

KoSho has great deals for lunch. It's a bit more pricy for dinner. The Bootsy Collins/Jeff Ruby restaurant that will open in the fall on Walnut will also have sushi on its menu.

The link above didn't work for me. If you're having the same problem, try this one: http://www.otrbrewerydistrict.org/files/streetcarmotion042108.pdf EDIT - link above was just fixed, just ignore my post.

I like this one in Over-the-Rhine (Cincinnati), and the story that goes along with it (the following paragraph is taken from an article from the Enquirer, see link below). [in 1998] as workers demolished an old structure near the intersection of McMicken, Vine and Findlay streets, an adjacent building's wall came into view. On it was a hand-painted sign in old German lettering. Apotheke, it said. German for drugstore. Workers painted the wall red, but at Dr. Tolzmann's urging [a fourth-generation German-American and an expert on the Tristate's German heritage], they spared the German word. “It's important we don't destroy the evidence and material culture that's here,” he says. “It's an integral part of the community identity. If you erase that, you succumb to historical amnesia.” http://www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/09/18/loc_our_german_soul_rich.html

Interesting. We look with nostalgia at ghost signs that say "we buy eggs" or "cuba ice-cream". What will people think 50 years from now when they look at a "GTA IV" ghost sign? :-) Nice pictures of New York, mrnyc.

I've heard that the temperature in those caves remains constant at 53 F all year long. In the tour, they said that additional cooling methods were used to have the right temperature for brewing lager beer (using ice and iron pipes).

Nice pictures of a great building. I'm so glad they will be converting the basement into a recreation room! When we give the Architreks tours, we take our customers to the Clyffside. I'm really happy that we can now say the building is being turned into condos. I didn't see the historical markers last weekend. Did I miss them or are they not yet installed?

As far as I know, those tours are only offered once a year. Information about them is usually posted on UrbanOhio, but if you want to go directly to the source, you can use the following websites: Heritage Program Tours (run Subway tours, and a host of other tours): http://www.cincymuseum.org/information_center/programs_events/adult_programs/heritage.asp In 2008, the subway tour information was announced in January. Tickets always sell out quickly, so you need to be fast. OTR Brewery District (runs Prohibition Resistance tours) http://www.otrbrewerydistrict.org/

This is a good initiative. Count me in.