I wrote an article about Cincinnati's hidden history for the Pulse. The story is on their website (http://www.pulsedt.com/blogs/default.asp?Display=1689) and should be published tomorrow in the paper. If interested, check out this urbanohio's thread about Cincinnati's hidden history: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,7062.0.html

 

Cincinnati's hidden history

By Jerome Strauss 03/04/2008

 

While Cincinnatians are familiar with our city's German heritage, many may not realize that some of it was altered following the anti-German hysteria that followed World War I. Street names, seemingly innocuous labels bestowed upon our paths by the people who traversed them, were changed to reflect the shifting perspective on our melting pot culture. Still, a historical marker outside of Findlay Market lists a dozen of the streets former monikers, which were changed in 1918.

 

For instance, German Street became English Street, Berlin Street was changed to Woodrow Street, and Bremen Street was re-baptized Republic Street.

 

These ghosts from Cincinnati's past are preserved and visible to those who know where to find them. At the northeast corner of Republic and 15th streets in Over-the-Rhine, the old "Bremen St." name is carved in the faade of a building. To my knowledge, this is the only place in the city where the original German name of one of the renamed streets has survived until today.

 

There are a few other reminders of Cincinnati's German past, with former street names scattered around the city. Indeed, according to the book "German Cincinnati," the city placed informational signs in 1995 because of a request from the German-American Citizens League of Greater Cincinnati. Those signs, situated on the very streets whose names were changed, show the originals and explain that the streets were "renamed April 9, 1918, because of anti-German hysteria during WWI." During my various explorations of the city, I have found three such signs, all of them on streets that are not commonly traveled these days: English Street and Woodrow Street in the West End (formerly German and Berlin streets), and Stonewall Street in Over-the-Rhine (formerly Hamburg Street). While those signs are difficult to find and are likely unknown to most, they remind us of a piece of Cincinnati's heritage that should not be forgotten.

 

Other streets had their names changed for different reasons. Main Street used to mark the separation between east and west in the city. Cross streets west of Main in Over-the-Rhine had numbers; those east of Main had names, according to the book "Cincinnati Observed." To simplify the system, in 1897 the city decided to continue the numbers east of Main, and Abigail, Woodward and Webster became 12th, 13th and 14th streets, respectively.

 

Once again, however, one of those names found a way to survive until today. Take a look at the northeast corner of Main and 12th or at the northwest corner of Spring and 12th and you will see "Abigail S." carved into the stone. According to "Cincinnati Observed," that street was named after Abigail Cutter Woodward, the wife of William Woodward who donated land for the creation of Woodward High School, now the site of the School for the Creative and Performing Arts.

 

The stories behind those street names are only one facet of Cincinnati's hidden history. Many others are yours to discover. If you are interested in finding out more, "The Bicentennial Guide to Greater Cincinnati" and "Cincinnati Observed" are very good resources it is by reading through their pages that I found many of the sites described in this article.

 

Another great way of exploring our city's history is to take one of the Architreks tours offered by the Cincinnati Preservation Association. Information about the tours is available at www.cincinnati-walks.org. Happy discoveries!

 

Jerome Strauss is a downtown resident and a fan of Cincinnati's history and architecture. He is a volunteer for Architreks and gives walking architecture tours of downtown and Over-the-Rhine.

There are actually several locations throughout OTR that retain the old German street names.