This appeared in CityBeat, 2/1/06:

 

 

Tumbling Down

Exhibition offers eight reasons for the demise of buildings in Cincinnati

Review By Jane Durrell

 

There they are, solid, substantial, seemingly immutable in the familiar landscapes of our city. But then they're gone. We're speaking of buildings here -- big ones sometimes -- of brick and steel and stone, looking as though they're meant for the ages but perhaps lasting only decades. What happens?

 

Lost Cincinnati: Why Buildings Die, an exhibition at Betts House, explains in clear and interesting form what brings them down. Poster-sized displays of pictures and text, laid out in readable fashion, are shown on the first floor of this unique institution. Because the exhibition is on the wall rather than three-dimensional, it allows the visitor a sense of the place itself.

 

Betts House (416 Clark St., just west of Central Avenue) is a modest example of a building that hasn't died. Dating from 1804, when William Betts built his little two-story, two-room farm house, convenient to his brick yard, the place has survived, been added to and stood firm as the 111 acres around it became building lots. The oldest extant brick dwelling in Ohio, Betts House is today the location of Betts House Research Center for the study of building materials and traditions.

 

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LOST CINCINNATI: WHY BUILDINGS DIE is on view through September 2006 at Betts House, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Saturdays, or by appointment (513-651-0734). Beth Sullebarger, guest curator of Lost Cincinnati, will speak about the exhibition at the Mercantile Library (414 Walnut St., Downtown) on Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m. No charge, but reservations requested: 513-621-0217.

That sounds very cool...

There's so much history and good architecture in Cincinnati, it's really sad to see buildings get knocked down for stupid reasons, such as parking space. I see so much land here not even being utilized anyway, I mean look at the western part of downtown, queensgate, lower price hill. I saw a map of Cincinnati in the 1800s and it was amazing how urban and congested it was. Downtown is NOTHING like it was. It was entirely residential. In fact I'm pretty sure it was the second most densely populated city next to manhattan. Now there's vacant space everywhere yet we end up tearing more architecture down to build something new.  I understand prime location is important and money is a huge factor but it still doesn't seem like they're doing all they can to preserve our history.

You guys should really check out this link on the Betts House page.  You can select a reason why a building "died" (natural disaster, functional obsolescence, etc.) and then it will bring up several images of buildings that fit that category.  You can then click on one of those images and read about how that particular building died.

 

Here's the link:

http://www.bettshouse.org/lost/

 

Fascinating stuff.