So my friend and I were driving along Eastern Avenue looking for some good architecture to photograph, when we noticed an old stone building on a small dead end road intersecting Eastern Ave. named "Torrence road".  You might be thinking of Torrence Lane or Torrence Parkway, but this is Torrence Rd. off of Eastern Avenue. The windows of this abandoned building are filled in with brick so that no one can get in. We tried to peak and see what was inside but weren't able to. It looked like something the city government would use. Does anyone know what that is? The back went into the hill so obviously we climbed up the hill to see what was on top of it.  There was nothing there, but we noticed something behind it.

 

     In this patch of woods in between Eastern Avenue and Columbia Pkwy are two sets of railroad tracks, hidden, one of which looked like it hasn't been used in many years because there were trees growing out of the tracks. Amazingly, this is what is behind the two sets of tracks hidden in the woods:

 

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6821/sdigitalcamera0596xp.jpg

 

     Now the first thing I thought was that maybe up on top of this structure was Central Parkway. Not at all. There is nothing on top of this structure except soil, plants, foliage etc that are everywhere else. Either this is a building built into the hill, or it is a wall.

 

Upon closer inspection:

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/3654/sdigitalcamera0601kd7nz.jpg

 

Different perspective:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5216/sdigitalcamera0558pw3gm.jpg

 

     Does anyone know anything about this?  Is this a monument for Cincinnatus?  It says "Cincinnati" but it couldn't possibly be the city limit.  This seemed pretty random and out of context to me.  I'm thinking that maybe A: It has something to do with a train station. B. It's a retaining wall. C. Possibly there were a lot more buildings that used to be around there, making it look less out of context with the woods. I know central parkway is not very old and looking at a map on mapquest, it appears as if Torrence Road used to connect, before Central Parkway split it. What I don't understand is that there are train tracks in the way of where Torrence Road would connect. How were these two roads able to connect? I'm pretty sure that the part of the tracks where the road would have went through, are NOT flat enough for a car to drive over. I guess they just never connected.

 

Here is a map showing where we were at. I marked a red X on the site of the monument structure.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8630/cincinnatus0zt.jpg

 

 

 

 

Flood wall?

Well the wall wasn't very long though, maybe 30 feet wide. Who knows. I'd like to see what this thing looked like when it was first made.

Here's a 1912 map that may help a bit.  My guess is that the "Cincinnati" thing is a part of the structure I circled in blue.  Although I don't know what it is, since there is a label along the RR right there saying "Torrence Road," I wonder if it's some kind of station or simpler train stop.  I drew in red the approximate path of Torrence Road since you were wondering how it connected.  (Because this spot oh-so-conveniently happens to straddle two map sheets. :-()  The Torrence Road on this map would be today's Torrence Ln, not Torrence Pkwy.

Thanks dude I appreciate you going through the trouble of doing some research. That would definitely be the exact position for whatever structure this is.  I was thinking maybe it was a train stop as well.  That would explain why it says "Cincinnati" even though it's not at the city limit.  You know what is strange? The building I mentioned in the first part of my post, is where the larger portion of the I shape that you circled. The "Cincinnati" structure would be relative to the smaller part of the I, however there is nothing connecting the stone building and the structure, and the structure behind the building is about 50-60 feet back behind it, plus it is elevated. There doesn't seem to be a relationship between the two buildings but a train stop would make sense out of why there is two dead end roads next to it.  The person could get off of the train and just walk down the street onto Eastern Avenue or up torrence road. It didn't look like those roads ever connected because the tracks weren't flattened for a car to go through and the road doesn't overpass the tracks.

The village of Columbia wasn't annexed by Cincinnati until 1873, so it could be the city limit. Train stop seems right though.

 

    It is the remnants of a railroad station on the Little Miami Railroad.

 

    The Little Miami Railroad was Cincinnati's first railroad. It ran from a station near present Bicentennial Park along the Ohio River to the confluence with the Little Miami River. It then turned north along the Little Miami until it finally left the Little Miami River Valley and headed to Xenia. It was built around 1839. It eventually became part of the Pennsylvania (PRR) system. Between Bicentennial Park and Mariemont it is still in operation, but is lightly used. Between Mariemont and Milford (roughly) it is abandoned. Between Milford and Xenia it has been converted into a bicycle path, also known as the Loveland Bike Path.

 

    Due to the grades, the station at Torrence was a little unusual. There was a bridge connecting the main building on the downhill side of the tracks to the street on the uphill side.

 

    There is more info including photos on Jeff Jakucyk's site:

 

    http://homepage.mac.com/jjakucyk/Transit1/index.html#0.html

awesome

 

 

My first instinct of it being the relocated lost tomb of cincinnatus and me being a tomb raider were obviously inaccurate :( . But seriously, I wonder what it's a monument or relief of.  Hard to say, since its so terribly damaged.

I still want to know if this is just a wall or a building that goes into the hill. I swear there's treasure inside that thing! :-D

 

    Get permission from the property owner and I will help you dig it out!

 

    According to the Hamilton County Auditor's website, the property may be owned by SORTA, which makes sense because they bought some railroad property in anticipation of mass transit. I couldn't tell exactly which parcel it is located on, though, so I may be wrong.

 

   

Who would I ask for permission? I can't imagine it being privately owned since it's about 4 feet behind a set of railroad tracks. You know how people stick old beer cans and milk bottles in the walls of old houses? How do we know there isn't a time capsule behind this thing? :)

 

    Start with Sallie Hilvers at SORTA, www.SORTA.com. She is the spokeswoman there and might give you and idea of who to talk to. Actually, she will probably say, "You want to do WHAT?" Maybe ask for the person who does property management for the railroad right of ways. My guess is that no one there knows about this structure or whether or not they own it, so be prepared for an explanation.

 

    If you are still serious about it, keep in mind that digging around retaining walls is potentially hazardous. I would just like to see the site and poke around it.

 

 

 

   

 

  I just found a photo of the station from 1930.

 

  There were two buildings, on either side of the railroad, connected by a pedestrian bridge, as the map shows.

 

  The downhill building had a total of 4 stories. Floor 1 fronted on the street on the downhill side. Floor two fronted on the tracks on the uphill side. Floor 3 and 4 formed a tower over the main building. Floor 3 connected to the pedestrian bridge. The tower contained an elevator so U.S. President W.H. Taft's wheelchair bound wife could board here, according to "The Pennsylvania Railroad in Cincinnati", by Tipton and Blardone.

 

  The uphill building was one story, sat on top of a retaining wall, and connected to the pedestrian bridge over the tracks. 

 

    Although the photo isn't clear, it appears that the pedestrian bridge was located directly over the sculputure. In fact, the two column things on either side of the sculpture formed the support for the bridge. The wall appears to be a retaining wall only.

Wow...any chance you can get that scanned and post it?

 

 

   I just found a photo of the station from 1930.

 

   There were two buildings, on either side of the railroad, connected by a pedestrian bridge, as the map shows.

 

   The downhill building had a total of 4 stories. Floor 1 fronted on the street on the downhill side. Floor two fronted on the tracks on the uphill side. Floor 3 and 4 formed a tower over the main building. Floor 3 connected to the pedestrian bridge. The tower contained an elevator so U.S. President W.H. Taft's wheelchair bound wife could board here, according to "The Pennsylvania Railroad in Cincinnati", by Tipton and Blardone.

 

   The uphill building was one story, sat on top of a retaining wall, and connected to the pedestrian bridge over the tracks. 

 

    Although the photo isn't clear, it appears that the pedestrian bridge was located directly over the sculputure. In fact, the two column things on either side of the sculpture formed the support for the bridge. The wall appears to be a retaining wall only.

 

Just a retaining wall? Surreee...that's just what they want you to think  :wink: There has GOT to be something behind it! Lost treasure of some sort. I just know it. I think I saw the picture you're talking about. Is it a Cincinnati and Hamilton County public library photo?

Here's the photo Eigth & State found:

 

 

Very frickin' cool!  Great find!

 

 

  I should add that according to "The Pennsylvania Railroad in Cincinnati", by Tipton and Blardone, the station was built in 1907.

 

   Here's another photo found on west2k.com, a site that contains a database of Ohio railroad stations.

 

 

 

 

Sweet.

That's a pretty elaborate structure...but the tracks are on a steep hill so I guess it was necessary. That's the library picture I found. It's a shame that relief/sculpture is so worn. I bet that was a picture of Cincinnatus.

Wow.

 

I've wondered why the figure seemed out of place. Very interesting stuff!

 

Update: there seems to be some work going on at the old station site to light up these ruins at night to entertain the dinner train passengers.

Oh, really? Would be nice of someone took some pics of that.

 

 

You know, it's funny - I was just looking for this thread but couldn't find it anywhere. I'm glad it's resurrected. I remember whewn I first discovered this thing, I went to some other message board asking people if they knew anything about it and I got PMs from all these guys in Ohio wanting me to show them where it is and go out there with them, with metal detectors lol. Makes a lot of sense though. Tons of activity went on there; it would be the perfect place to go treasure hunting.

I think on jjakucyk's website there are some pictures of the remnants of this station (look under PRR/LMRR photos in the Cincinnati Traction History website). Very cool find indeed.

You know me, I'm a conspiracy theorist. I bet Cincinnatus' tomb is inside that wall! I love old stuff like this. I really wish I had all of the original pictures. It looks like a few of the links I posted are broken now. I thought Imageshack hosted forever.