I am a FAN of the OTR, but am really becoming very excited about what's happening on Cincy's 4th St.  For years an important street for banking, insurance and shopping, it continues many of these traditions, but now with an increasing number of apartments and lofts coming on line, it seems that 4th Street is returning to it's place of prominence. 

 

Here's a little walk thru I took on a rainy day, it makes for some dull photos, but what can ya do? 

 

We'll be travelling West to East...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

whew.....

awesome job, i love the idea of end to end street threads, i was thinking about doing some too out here but you beat me too it. speaking of, that's a very manhattany looking streetscape.

awesome tour.  i love that first shot.

Great stuff! I like comprehensive tours like that, something we don't get from the bigger cities photographers.

 

Did they just paint this? I thought this was to come down?

 

Very nice.  Except for the Tower Place parking garage shot.  :(

Excellent tour! You captured the chilly, rainy winter ambience so well that I had to go to the kitchen and get a fresh cup of strong, black coffee, double sugar and a shot of brandy.

for a second i was worried this was 4th street in cleveland, and that somehow you had devoted an entire thread to a street 750 ft long.

I love 4th St. as well, except for one thing:

 

 

Yuck!!!!

that thing has gotta go....

 

just be glad I didn't include it's on-ramp.  beeeeutiful ain't it?

 

 

 

Ink - I don't know what the plan is for that older Western-Southern garage with that new building is now on-line right next door (the bottom number of floors is a garage too.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is the OTR anyway? I tried to google it, but a whole world of things came up that didn't seem to fit the bill.  Is it a specific area/neighborhood in Cincinnati?  Someone give a link to the OTR because you keep talking about it a lot, and I don't know what it is. Thanks.

OTR is shorthand for Over The Rhine or Over-The-Rhine.

 

its an old working class neighborhood just north of downtown, now mostly a big slum, which is starting to undergo gentrification. OTR is notable for its very dense tenement-style development; possibly the most dense older neighborhood in the Midwest (including Chicago). Over The Rhine is home to Findlay Market, which is an authentic old fashioned street market.

 

I'm pretty sure if you use the search feature on this site you might get a pix thread on the place.

 

Over The Rhine is also a light-rock band from Cincinnati.  Google will bring them up too.

 

@@@@@@

 

16 years ago Fourth Street used to be sort of a small art gallery district, east of Race street, closer to the freeway.  All of those galleries have closed now.

 

 

 

  I would also add that the name "Over the Rhine" refers to the north and east side of the former Miami and Erie Canal, which was locally known as "the Rhine." The canal has been replaced by Central Parkway, which is still considered the border of the Over the Rhine neighborhood.

Very nice OTRFAN.

NO! NO! NO!  You are all wrong!  I am a fan of Old Time Radio.  ............not

 

here is one site that can give you some more info

http://irhine.com/

 

here is a panoramic of OTR from the Kroger Building

 

 

Great pictures.  Thanks for the tour.

 

Notice the extended hours sign for Starbucks.  Downtown businesses extending their hours is always a good sign.

Tremendous set!  Thanks for that trip down memory lane OTR...

Ink - I don't know what the plan is for that older Western-Southern garage with that new building is now on-line right next door (the bottom number of floors is a garage too.

 

You haven't seen the Queen City Square Thread?

 

 

Splendid pics.  What is that group of buildings on 4th that are undergoing renovations with the plastic over their front?  Its close to Tower Place and I noticed it last time I was in town. 

Splendid pics.  What is that group of buildings on 4th that are undergoing renovations with the plastic over their front?  Its close to Tower Place and I noticed it last time I was in town. 

 

See this topic, its the McAlpins condo project:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=474.0

Now that's a nice looking street!

Thanks Ink - playing catch up with the QCS project.  I hope all of that comes on-line.

yay!

4th Street is the best in downtown Cincy!  Except, as everyone's already stated, that parking garage.

The Church of Scientology is the real clincher for me on this thread.

Sixth picture down, the biggest building in the pic (Lombardi building) is where William Howard Taft lived.

 

These buildings, 123 E. Fourth, were the offices and factory of the Holland Pen Co.  When it was being rehabbed into lawyer's offices (Goodman and Goodman) in the 1980s, much of the assembly line was still in place.

 

http://pen.luxbid.com/Auction/showarticle.asp?art_id=24

I would argue that this is by far the best street in Cincinnati! Especially after the McAlpin rehab. I don't mind the suburban first and second floors; it's much better than what it was.

"here is a panoramic of OTR from the Kroger Building"

 

Nothing personally against Kroger, but their shiny International style building looms over and over-shadows much of the OTR. Almost every "quaint" photo I've ever seen of the OTR has been spoiled by the intrusion of this huge modernist structure into the otherwise picturesque historic streetscape. It is totally out of scale and style with neighboring historic buildings. Maybe Kroger thought when it was designed that the old OTR would soon disappear in clouds of demolition dust to be replaced by other such large corporate edifices. In any event, it seems to be a permanent reminder that the old has to constantly justify it's continued usefulness to keep the unrelenting forces of "progress" at bay. People with short-sighted visions should not forget that someday even the Kroger building will be considered "old", that is, if it too doesn't get the wrecking ball for something replacing it. That is the difference between modern and 19th century building philosophies-back then, they built structures to last for the ages, while today everything has a very finite existence based on amortization and depreciation schedules. Forty years or less is considered a modern building's "lifetime". One would think Kroger would be proud of the OTR and could have designed a corporate structure in harmony with its surroundings. In any event, it looks like its here to stay but will always visually detract rather than enhance the beautiful old OTR view.

 

 

you think it's bad now - you should have seen it before they put that metal siding on it.  it originally was clad in some kind of blue mosiac tile - I'm sure someone will come up with a photo. I agree - it always looks like a giant steel spike in the middle of all that gorgeous brick. IMO though, it's presence and all the folks that work in there have helped to keep that section of town intact, vibrant and further support for the exciting OTR renaissance occuring.

to heck with the rain & yay for well focused walkarounds.

 

it's a fantastic downtown street that you can see is coming back more and more.

to heck with the rain & yay for well focused walkarounds.

 

it's a fantastic downtown street that you can see is coming back more and more.

 

4th St. is Cincinnati's little Soho! (Sorry, uncle rando moment).

Cincinnati is so unbelievably beautiful.  I can't wait to live there.  I don't understand why out of towners confuse Cleveland and Cincinnati all the time, they're so different.  (I'm going to bring this up in Urban Bar)

Love the tight one way streets in Cincinnati.  4th street is my favorite for sure.  Great set.

GREAT.

The buildings on 4th street are incredible. All of the buildings have intricate details and are worthy of preservation for several hundreds of years. The scale is perfect, too. 3-6 story buildings are common. If I ever live in downtown Cincinnati, I'd definitely look into 4th street.