I recently attended a talk by Allen Singer based on his new book, which is great btw.,  and he said something (and it's in the book too) that really caught my ear,  something along the lines that Cincinnati is not a museum but as a functioning city trying it's best to survive, it must by nature 'pave over' some of it's past.  He is of course right, but I am still pleased when I find "hidden history" and although that is often little things, I am happy to find whole buildings that are themselves "survivors".

 

Here are a few I have found - do you know of others?

 

 

 

can you spot 3 generations of buildings in this one?

 

even different generations of light stands, here bowing to each other...

 

 

remants of the oldest, right across from the newest

 

I feel sorry for these guys - their backyard is the Ft. Washington canyon

 

 

Ft. Washington Hotel - really standing tall now!

 

the plaque says it is believed to be the oldest synagogue west of the Allegheny's

 

with all the rehabs around this.. this dude is sitting on a gold mine

 

 

 

 

I actually feel sorry for this guy, all alone in the alley

 

 

 

are water towers 'hidden history'?  certainly this one is a survivor

Wow great tour. You managed to capture things we wouldn't normally see.  I love old narrow gritty brick alleys with staircases. You can't get any more urban than that!

VERY interesting thread.

What more could we ask for.

 

Thats right-period.

 

Main and Third Street Cluster

 

300-302, 304-306 Main Street, and 208-210 E. 3rd Street (Central Business District)

 

    *

      National Register of Historic Places – Listed July 15, 1983 (No. 83001984)

 

Significance: This cluster is composed of six significant late 19th and early 20th century buildings exhibiting distinctive architectural characteristics and styles associated with their period of construction as applied to commercial use. Their scale, location, materials, and setting produced a grouping that is both cohesive in design, feeling, and association and visually distinct from its surroundings. The area once housed the University of Cincinnati’s McMicken School of Design and the offices of Salmon B. Chase, Supreme Court Justice and President Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury.

 

http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cdap/pages/-6736-/

^ Those buildings would make amazing condos with their proximity to downtown, the ballpark, and the riverfront.  Hopefully there is a small parking lot in back or nearby that could make the site feasible for residential development.

They are literally a block up from the ball park. Granted, that block is FWW, but still. Everytime I walk up from a Reds game, I can't help but think there should be at least one bar/restaurant in there.

Bars and restaurants in close proximity to stadiums and arenas that generate tens of thousands of people trafficing? That's asinine.  Haha hell by the time the Banks gets developed someone could make a lot of profit in the mean time.

I dont feel that Ft. Washington Way is that obtrusive anymore.  It will be even less once they put the lid over it and turn it into an urban park.  Another thing is that I have always wondered about those bldgs. and why no one has rehabbed them yet.  It does seem like a gold mine, but maybe the price isnt right.

 

BTW, Ft. Washington Hotel......brilliant job rehabbing that wonderful old bldg.  I love to see these projects happen, there arent maybe more possbilities of these left in the CBD....bring on OTR!!!!  Isnt this the hotel used in Milk Money?

Awesome.

 

It's amazing to walk the alleys downtown.  Crammed in there you will find all kinds of types of housing that you never knew existed.

 

Dude, you rock!  Thank you thank you!

Oooh, neat tour! Just goes to show just how amazingly intricate downtown Cincinnati is!

Great tour!  The older little buildings tucked away here and there are one of the most interesting things in downtown Cincy.

 

By the way, what is Allen Singer's new book?

Monte - thx for the info, I didn't know that about Chase.  That Main & 3rd grouping is special.  They are substantial buildings, a little dingy, but in excellent shape as far as I can tell.  There is parking behind them.

 

PigBoy - the book is just out (Amazon has it) and now in the libraries..  Stepping Out in Cincinnati,  it's all about the theaters, movie houses, clubs, bars and joints in Cincy from 1900-1960.  It's a little thin but many many pix including a series taken clandestinely by some fellow in the 50's in some of the burlesque houses downtown.  Lotsa neat trivia.

I want that little townhouse in the alley.  I love hidden bits of the past like that.