:shock:

Fantastic photos.

 

Thanks!

One can only imagine how much the Carew Tower and the PNC building dominated the skyline in the 1930's.

 

Where is this building located at?

I believe it's on McMillan Ave. near I-71. Walnut Hills, I think.

Went digging . . found this post. Thanks for the tour. Very nice and much appreciated.

wowzers

This has got to be Oakley. I love these little homes.

 

It could be Oakley, Roselawn, Bond Hill, Pleasant Ridge, or even Price Hill. Actually, I think it might be Price Hill due to the brick-arch exposure. Oakley houses are typically more Tudor. Then again, it could be Oakley off Brotherton.

 

I still think Price Hill though.

My vote goes to Price Hill or Covedale. These even resemble a subdivision off of Muddy Creek near Our Lady of Lourdes.

Was Central Pkwy ever actually lined by that many tall buildings?

Not sure what you're getting at, but when Central Parkway was Canal St./the canal it was lined by squat warehouses/factories. When it was turned into a grand baroque boulevard, it was supposed to be lined by skyscrapers.

 

All that ever got built was the American Building and, later, the Kroger Building (1959).

Look at the color postcard that of Central Pkwy that's about the 38th image from the top. It shows the boulevard lined with colorful buildings, most at least 5-6 stories. I recognized the American Building, but there are lots of others that do not stand today. I was just asking if that postcard was made from the buildings that actually stood or if it was an artist's rendering of what was to be.

I found an old photo of downtown Cincinnati from the 1980's.  Some things to look for:  312 Plum (Intrieve Bldg today?) is just getting started, the Carew Tower garage is still standing, the riverfront, FWW, no 312 Elm or 312 Walnut, and those ugly dishes atop the Carew Tower.  Feel free to let everyone else know what you see!

 

 

    "Central Trust" in red letters on the Central Trust tower has been replaced with "PNC Bank".

 

    Central Bridge still there.

 

    Newport on the Levee not there yet.

 

    Bus ramps from Suspension Bridge to Dixie Terminal still there, and in operation. (They had not been used for years when they were torn down for the new FWW.)

 

    Cozy little Sabin Park on right edge of photo also lost for the new FWW.

 

    Can anyone tell me more about the Carew Tower Garage?

The Carew-Netherland Garage, from emporis.com:  "An innovative part of the project, the garage tower operated until 1979 before being demolished in the late 1980s. The Tower Place Mall, fully integrated with the remaining towers, now takes its place.  This is the tallest building to have been demolished in Ohio."

 

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=199656

Huge parking lot on the riverfront....Oh, umm....

 

Perhaps the number one thing I notice is Race Street.  You can see the Fifth and Race Tower, the Elder-Beerman building, the L.S. Ayres building, and McAlpin's was still open.  The great tragedy of Downtown was the redevelopment around Fountain Square, and on Race.  If city leaders would have left the retail sector alone, and focused on residential development in the basin, we would have a more vibrant cultural landscape on Race Street.

 

What is going on with 5/3rd?  Was it recladded since this photo?

 

I had no idea there was a park near Ft. Washington Way.  The dishes on Carew are awful and that is the first photo I have seen of the Carew parking garage.  Wow, I wish I would have been able to see the city back then.  Photos show it as "dirty" but from the residents that have experienced it, it sounds like it was far healthier.

 

What is the tower in front of 5/3rd? 

 

Lastly I will say that Ft. Washington Way looks 10 times better today.

Nice find.  What is the parking lot with the "subject" label in the photo?

To answer everyone's questions:

 

1.  The photo is from an old sale brochure for the parking lot labeled "subject".

 

2.  The Carew Tower garage was an unplanned casualty of the Tower Place construction, I don't know what the problem was that caused it.

 

3.  The 5/3 Building has looked almost exactly the same since it was built, it is just a crappy copy of a photo which makes it look different.

 

4.  The tower in front of 5/3 is the old Elder-Beerman building, where Macy's is today.

 

 

There was a small change to the Fifth/Third building in the last ten years, when a logo was affixed to the top of the structure as part of a branding campaign by the company.

How tall was the former tower where Macy's currently sits?

If I remember correctly it was 8 stories or so open to the public, maybe more floors that you couldn't see.  It was re-facaded at some point with no windows so you couldn't count the floors.

> Photos show it as "dirty" but from the residents that have experienced it, it sounds like it was far healthier.

 

There were four department stores and many window displays through the 80's.  I remember going on Xmas shopping trips there as a kid and it was very much like Miracle on 34th St., with many people on the sidewalks and crowded stores.  I really hated the department stores because they had no windows and a lot of 70's styling had still not been renovated.  One of them had a floor with a black mirror ceiling like those common gridded accoustic tiles.  Also, they all had many thick and closely spaced pillars in them that gave them all a very closterphobic feel that was pretty tough to deal with when you're a hyperactive kid who hated shopping trips.  There were also many shops and a movie theater on the skywalk level, or maybe it just seemed so big and exciting because I was a kid.       

 

The Carew Garage was an elevator-operated garage, although I never saw it in action.  Tower Place took over Elder-Beerman's and the garage's footprint, and there is a pretty strange parking garage on top of Tower Place that you get to through the garage across from McAlpin's.  A lot of people don't know about it so my guess is it's mostly employees parking in there. 

 

That small FWW park was completely overgrown by the late 90's, and all of the foliage along that expressway was out of control by that time.  Recently I've noticed that many of the river views from Columbia Parkway have been obscured by the growth of trees downhill.  In the 80's you could see the river for the whole length of the road.   

 

 

 

Interesting, I had never heard of the Carew garage, that would have been intersting to see. I had never heard of automated car elevators either.

 

Tower Place took over Elder-Beerman's and the garage's footprint, and there is a pretty strange parking garage on top of Tower Place that you get to through the garage across from McAlpin's.  A lot of people don't know about it so my guess is it's mostly employees parking in there. 

 

 

Elder-Beerman was across from Fountain Square, and L.S. Ayres was at Fourth and Race, where Tower Place is today.  Essentially you had a retail corridor stretching from Fourth Street to Seventh and along Fifth to Fountain Square.  Much of the retail was on the second level, which made the skywalk system very effective.  When the city leaders started tearing apart the skywalk system, one small piece at a time, it was the beginning of the end for the whole thing. 

 

The other thing that hurt downtown retail was the demographic change.  The shoppers were getting older and older as the younger generations were staying in the suburbs to shop.  That's why I contend that condominium development should be subsidized (to an extent) rather than retail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Carew Garage was an elevator-operated garage, although I never saw it in action.  Tower Place took over Elder-Beerman's and the garage's footprint, and there is a pretty strange parking garage on top of Tower Place that you get to through the garage across from McAlpin's.  A lot of people don't know about it so my guess is it's mostly employees parking in there

 

No, that garage is open to the pubilc.  Its built around the skylight in the Tower Place courtyard.  I usually try to park there when I go downtown (as an alternative to the Fountain Square garage).

 

From what I recall the Fith/Race Tower had a second level gallery of sorts wrapping aorund the building & connected to the skywalk that was filled with little indy fast food or quick food places...it seemed like a very active bit of retail.

 

 

 

 

^Yeah, that building was central to the skywalk system with the most visible 2nd level retail.     

 

>A lot of people don't know about it so my guess is it's mostly employees parking in there

No, that garage is open to the pubilc.

 

Yeah it's public but there's no visibility for it.  I would have never known about it if I hadn't happened to look over the edge of the old garage and seen that you could drive over the skywalk.  Obviously they couldn't have both the basement food court and an underground parking garage in Tower Place. 

 

>Elder-Beerman was across from Fountain Square, and L.S. Ayres was at Fourth and Race, where Tower Place is today. 

 

Was Pogue's at 5th & Race adjacent to Elder-Beerman?  I can never remember where that place was.  A lot of people don't know that the suburban mall Santa's and Christmas displays got their start as each department store tried to out-do each other's Christmas displays.  I have pics sitting on Shillito's Santa's lap and remember a pretty elaborate semi-robotic Christmas thing you walked through.   

 

>The other thing that hurt downtown retail was the demographic change.  The shoppers were getting older and older as the younger generations were staying in the suburbs to shop.  That's why I contend that condominium development should be subsidized (to an extent) rather than retail.

 

I think Sak's Fifth Ave. opened in 1984 but I think that's right when LS Ayres and Pogues went out of business.  There might have been a brief time when there were five department stores but I'm not sure about that. 

 

 

Pogue's was in the Carew Tower, which now has a collection of stores that lead into Tower Place.  In addition, there was Gidding-Jenny which was located in the wonderful Rookwood-accented historic structure on Fourth Street next to Tower Place. 

 

Downtown retail revolved around Fifth and Race, where you had about 25 specialty shops across from Saks, and over 35 businesses on the block that came to be known as Fountain Square West.  The skywalk had its own little fountain up there, with an outdoor seating area on the second level.

 

This goes to show how much potential downtown has, if it is done right.

If I am not mistaken, Pogue's became L.S. Ayres or vice-versa and both occupied the original Pogue's building where Tower Place sits today.

Cincinnati Kid,

 

You and Mr. Mecklenborg are right about Pogue's becoming L.S. Ayres. 

 

I looked into the history of department store consolidation, and it essentially begins and ends here.  Shillito's, which had its flagship store at Seventh and Race was bought by Lazarus in the 1920s.  It kept its name until the 1980s, but the process of retail mergers was underway.

 

This was the beginning of Federated Department Stores.

 

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050301/BIZ01/503010322

 

 

Cincinnati needs a nice mixed use residential tower at the location where the Nordstrom Department store was planned to go (the empty subject lot in the pic).  The nati needs more residents and more towers downtown.  I always say the more the better.

Here's the site being cleared for Nordstrom, I believe this shot was from August or September of 1999.

 

<img src="http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/zcity23.jpg">

 

A small parking garage occupied the north third of the block (the foreground of this photo) and the 5th & Race tower, which we've been discussing, occupied the southern 2/3 of the eastern half of the block.  In the below photo from probably July 1999 you can see the small city-owned garage.  This garage was magically found to have "structural problems" and closed immediately.  It seemed pretty shady to me at the time but I've never seen any follow-up.

 

<img src="http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/zcity-race1.jpg">

 

Here's a shot from December of 2003:

<img src="http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/downtown11.jpg">

 

 

the "subject" parking lot has for sale signs all around it now...at least i didnt notice them until now

Still, amazing.

Cincinnati needs a nice mixed use residential tower at the location where the Nordstrom Department store was planned to go (the empty subject lot in the pic).  The nati needs more residents and more towers downtown.  I always say the more the better.

 

This is a different lot than the "subject" site in the pic.  The Nordstrom's lot is bounded by Fifth, Sixth and Race.  The subject lot is between 4th and 5th.

 

I saw the For Sale sign up again as well, but the parking lots in that 1/2 block are owned by two different parties.  The southern 2/3 in the photo is owned by Alright Parking and the northern 1/3 (which I believe is what is for sale now) is owned by Terrapark II out of Toronto.

 

 

^I believe the "subject" lot was cleared for a hotel which didn't materialize.  These days the trees planted 20 years ago are actually getting pretty large around that lot. 

The Enquirer building isn't there...far right of foto.

 

I do remember the building with the yellow squiggle design on it...wonder what happened to it, I haven't noticed its existance in a while

Heres one from 1988 brought to you by larry stulz

Is that Scripps under construction at the far right?

 

And I like the Devou view better without Paul Brown Stadium, not that the stadium is ugly.

Yes it is the Scripps Center under construction on the right of the photo.......and it is a great shot well done finding it.

Heres another from Mr. Stulz....

 

 

Yes it is the Scripps Center under construction on the right of the photo.......and it is a great shot well done finding it.

 

That is 312 Plum or what is now known as the Intrieve Building under construction in the photo.  312 Walnut, or the Scripps Center, was not completed until about 1990 (see text on first post).

^I think we're talking about different photos here.  The Scripps Center construction is in the Devou Park view that richNcincy posted.

You're correct, I see what you are talking about now.

 

 

The "Clarion Hotel" sign.

 

That "Subject" lot is still empty, right?

That "Subject" lot is still empty, right?

 

Yeah, it's still empty.  I think it's a Allright lot.