Absolutely FABULOUS photos!  Thanks much for posting.

Great stuff. 

Just found a Porktowner who went to that place. Said he was 16 when it was demolished.

Ink, just due to proximity I'm going to include the Carnegie Libraries in Newport and Covington, which are stunning as well:

 

Newport

 

Covington

The Carnegie libraries are gems. I'm so happy Cincinnati has so many remaining. I've only been in a few but absolutely love every minute I spend in them. I like the main rotunda in the Avondale one especially.

If we are going to add Covington and Newport, we have to add Norwood. I believe the building has always been operated as part of Cincinnati's system.

 

I didn't even know about Norwood's.  Thanks!  I wish they'd open up those front windows.

Although Cincinnati did not preserve its original main branch, it did a fantastic job maintaining its historic Carnegie-funded branch libraries. Cincinnati saw eight (8) branches built between 1905 and 1915 using grant funds from Andrew Carnegie and six (6) are still operating. One branch (Columbia Tusculum) was closed but has been preserved as an arts center and a small branch in the West End was closed and demolished with the surrounding blocks in the 1947. By contrast, Toledo built five (5) Carnegie branches and only one (1) still operates; Cleveland built fifteen (15) Carnegie branches and only six (6) still operate. Columbus used Carnegie funds to build a grand main library which remains open today.

 

 

like everywhere, the carnegie saves fall along population. cle is a third of what it was in those days, so that seems about right. cinci similar. i remember columbus had a major renovation of the main library in the early nineties and barbara bush came to rededicate it.

 

^Interesting correlation, mrnyc.

I didn't even know about Norwood's.  Thanks!  I wish they'd open up those front windows.

You don't really wanna know what happens behind either those closed windows or front doors, my friend. :roll:  On any given day of the week and any hour of the day, I'm afraid that this Carnegie antique houses the library-of-the future, ie, a public institution not devoted to books, periodicals, study and scholarship, but to computer access, baby carriages, and a hangout for the unemployed and teen population.  Such a library is about akin to Cincinnati's former turn-of-the-century library as a present-day McDonalds is to yesteryear's Maisonette.  (BTW, I live in Norwood, visit its library every few days, and know what I'm talking about.) 

Anybody seen this one before?  It was new to me.

 

Unbuilt Cincinnati: Fountain Square and Government Square

 

Cincinnati‘s Fountain Square has had a fair share of reinvention over the years.  So too, have the surrounding blocks.  Along with it were many proposals that didn’t quite make the cut. PE recently discovered this plan which we had never seen before.  It proposes development for the “north side of Fifth”, which is now the current home of the aforementioned square and the Tyler-Davidson Fountain itself.

 

 

Complete write up at: http://particularlyeverything.com/2012/01/10/unbuilt-cincinnati-fountain-square-and-government-square/

Wow...only thing I can say is that I'm happy this failed. It's hard to tell but both of those buildings appear to have recessed first floors as was a common aspect of many 'ultra modern' towers of the time and that we now know completely ruins the feeling of life along a sidewalk. These would probably be the most dated, dominant buildings in the city had they been built and we never would have gotten the Fountain Square we love today.

 

Thanks for posting this.

Found this pic with no description, just Cincinnati 1910.

Any idea where this is?

It's Coney Island:

 

http://www.shorpy.com/node/11594

A tweet of one of the wonderful pictures posted above is making the rounds today.....

 

https://twitter.com/HistoricalPics/status/410620229174460416/photo/1

Holy crap! Wow, demolitions suck!

I love the wooded hillsides surrounding DT Porktown in the winter. This isn't mine. Think it's from the 70s from the cars.

I would guess much later than the 70's. 

yeah, that car in the bottom left is definitely newer.

I suck at cars anymore...

My guess would be mid 90s.

Mid to late 90's.  The Ford Explorer and Ranger on the left have tail lights that are 1993-1997 design.

 

Wild guess would be 1994.  Why?  I just remember that being a bad winter.

About 1997.

Definitely mid to late 90's.  i would say 95-97.

 

This is what cars/street signs looked like in the 1970's.

 

^That's an awesome pic. I'm surprised you don't have a vintage Cincinnati photos thread. We have one for Cleveland and its great place to put pics like this all in one place.

 

EDIT: I see there is such a thread now that ryanlammi has posted new pics in it http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,27783.0.html

Here are some photos from the Taft Theatre's website. It was constructed in 1928, so that is likely the year of the construction photos, but I don't know about the other photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I just saw this on Twitter from @cincylibrary: "ARCHIVES: This 1936 photo of #Cincinnati shows a frozen Ohio River. More: http://bit.ly/1hWL4x5  #oldschool #brrr "

 

Definitely mid to late 90's.  i would say 95-97.

 

This is what cars/street signs looked like in the 1970's.

 

Great photo.  Do you have others from that era that you could post?

Great photo.  Do you have others from that era that you could post?

I lifted it from this guy's FB page.

https://www.facebook.com/dneumeistersr.1?fref=ts

He's an old time Northsider & current NKYer. He photographs & paints street scenes.

The stuff on his page is of considerably higher resolution & he sells prints of his paintings.

Just merged the discussion into the Historic Photos topic.

 

EDIT: Merged a couple of other short topics that were relevant.

I posted this once before, but it was wiped out in the great UrbanOhio crash. It's so awesome in all of it's glorious decay I had to repost.  http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p267401coll34/id/4451/rec/22

^ I love those Ohio Memory Project photos.  OMP was a WPA program whose mission was to pictorially catalogue potential [urban] renewal sites.  At one point my Italian grandparents lived near this one in Mt. Auburn:

 

http://www.ohiomemory.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p267401coll34/id/4415/rv/singleitem/rec/1

I love that long gone feature of Sycamore Hill. What a unique little spot it must have been. Cincinnatians can recall with pride most of the nicknames of the Queen city, but one that seems to have been all but forgotten was "the Edinburgh of America", because of the many homes clinging to hillsides. http://www.cincinnatimemory.org/gsdl/collect/greaterc/archives/HASH0124/d74eef28.dir/ocp003020pccpc.jpg

Funny you posted that old postcard link -- my grandparents' residence was likely one of those in the foreground, on Dorsey Street.  I've seen the postcard before.  Kramer, the publisher of the card, is a good resource for getting the feel of old Cincinnati.  The Ohio Bookstore on Main Street published Kramer's Pictorial Cincinnati many years ago.  I used to lend it to people but unfortunately someone failed to return it (can't remember who, dammit).  There were great photos of long-gone institutional buildings, mansions, landmarks, etc., including photos of Lincoln Park in the West End during its genteel period, which are particularly evocative.

There were some accounts about how those were the most conspicuous clothes lines in the city! 

those are very distinctive balconies for sure. they would have taken a heck of a lot to maintain i would imagine.

 

What the hell happened to the West End?! At a quick look, nothing remains but the train station! Gone forever. The worst part is development like that will never happen again! So painful!

 

What the hell happened to the West End?! At a quick look, nothing remains but the train station! Gone forever. The worst part is development like that will never happen again! So painful!

 

"Urban Renewal" and I-75.

What the hell happened to the West End?! At a quick look, nothing remains but the train station! Gone forever. The worst part is development like that will never happen again! So painful!

 

"Urban Renewal" and I-75.

 

Chillingly, the same was planned for Over-the-Rhine.  I've seen the plan where everything between Vine and Central Parkway was going to be torn down, so all of Elm, Race, and the west side of Vine St., and replaced with low-rise public housing.  Findlay Market was going to get bulldozed, with the only things remaining Washington Park and Music Hall. 

 

There was contemporaneously a plan for a "McMicken St. Expressway" -- yes a cross-town connector between I-75 and I-71 along the base of the hill, taking the place of McMicken St. 

 

What the hell happened to the West End?! At a quick look, nothing remains but the train station! Gone forever. The worst part is development like that will never happen again! So painful!

 

"Urban Renewal" and I-75.

 

Chillingly, the same was planned for Over-the-Rhine.  I've seen the plan where everything between Vine and Central Parkway was going to be torn down, so all of Elm, Race, and the west side of Vine St., and replaced with low-rise public housing.  Findlay Market was going to get bulldozed, with the only things remaining Washington Park and Music Hall. 

 

There was contemporaneously a plan for a "McMicken St. Expressway" -- yes a cross-town connector between I-75 and I-71 along the base of the hill, taking the place of McMicken St. 

 

 

omg. that would be horrific.

 

I'm also extremely curious to see these plans! They would certainly be interesting.

There was contemporaneously a plan for a "McMicken St. Expressway" -- yes a cross-town connector between I-75 and I-71 along the base of the hill, taking the place of McMicken St.

 

Would that have been in lieu of Ft. Washington Way?

That is Urban Renewal on steroids! Its extremely unfortunate, as having these complete urban neighborhoods would put Cincinnati so far ahead of where it is now. Add the unfinished subway and Cincinnati would be on the same level of urban population/desirability as the east coast cities. Id probably be living there as well!

There was contemporaneously a plan for a "McMicken St. Expressway" -- yes a cross-town connector between I-75 and I-71 along the base of the hill, taking the place of McMicken St.

 

Would that have been in lieu of Ft. Washington Way?

 

I think I remember hearing that Fort Washington Way was originally supposed to run on the KY side of the river, pretty much wiping out Newport and Covington.  This is the first I've ever heard of a "McMicken Street Expressway", though.  Maybe Fort Washington Way was a compromise of these two plans, but that's complete conjecture on my part.

No there was supposed to be Fort Washington Way and a similar highway along the Ohio river in Covington and Newport. The idea was to have an expressway loop on both sides of the river. Truly horrific stuff.

 

The old West End, also known as Kenyon Barr was systematically demolished in the 60's to make way for Queensgate Phases I and II. City code changed in the late 1950's requiring each housing unit to have its own bathroom. At the time many multi-families were set up like college dorms with shared bathrooms. This and other conditions led the city to declare the entire neighborhood blighted and allowed for the condemnation of all the buildings. A photo archive of the area still exists via the Cincinnati Public Library.

There is a book with an exhaustive recap of the events and motivations leading up to the leveling of the West End.  It's called Contested Ground.

 

It's basically a microcosm of the complex and symbiotic national approach to development and transpo post-war. 

This is what we lost: a sprawling urban city that spanned to the base of Price Hill. All for some trashy office parks, a highway and light industrial crud.

 

 

Yes that is Crosley Field in the upper far right.

^And by the time that picture was taken a lot of the neighborhood had already been torn down. Look at the hideous public housing there.

^Notice the Sixth Street Market House in the bottom left

^And by the time that picture was taken a lot of the neighborhood had already been torn down. Look at the hideous public housing there.

 

That public housing actually comes from 1937. Named Lincoln Court and Laurel Homes, they were the second oldest public housing projects in the nation.

^If I'm not mistaken, part of Laurel Homes is still standing, correct?

^Yep. That one block on Liberty and Linn is all that remains.