It's always a shame when a structurally sound building is demolished for a surface lot. It's even more upsetting when it is in a central business district.

 

 

A rather unassuming reinforced concrete structure, this six-story building was constructed in 1930 along the slopes of the Bloody Run valley. It was located only blocks from the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern rail yards, and adjacent to other industrial structures in what was a densely populated valley lined with slaughterhouses.

 

I thought little of the building, which sat underutilized and vacant for years, until the wrecking ball smacked against the facade of bricks on an afternoon in October. Resolved to find out its history and to document what was left of the building, I climbed the lone staircase to document it late one night and then began, in earnest, a basic query at the Hamilton County Auditor's web-site.

 

I found more history in the ensuing day than I had ever expected.

 

The Ault & Wiborg Company, a manufacturer of printing inks and dry color dyes and pigments, was established in 1878 and soon became immensely successful, expanding into the global trade due to its innovative use of coal-tar dyes that produced brightly colored inks at a time when only black and white images were used in the printing houses. Its first location was a small building on New Street, but it soon required a newer and larger structure.

 

The ink business of the Ault & Wiborg Company was sold to the International Printing Ink Corporation, which later became known as the Interchemical Corporation. In 1969, the property was transferred to the Clopay Corporation. Clopay was established in Cincinnati in 1859 as the Seinsheimer Paper Company, which sold paper products and other sundries in the region. The acronym "Clopay" was later used in the early 20th century, formed by the contraction of the words cloth and paper. Clopay later went into the garage door manufacturing business and housed some of its operations in the building.

 

The property did not stay with Clopay for long, as the building was transferred to Frye Copysystems in 1973. It was then transferred to Henry Tollman III and Raymond B. Fine in 1983, and listed as an Ohio Superfund Site in August 11, 1997.

 

The last transfer occurred on February 14, 2007 when the 417 E. 7th Street, LLC was formed. It was under their direction that the decision was made to demolish, rather than rehabilitate the property. In doing so, we have lost yet another aspect of Cincinnati's unique history to the wrecking ball, all in the name of more parking.

 

Looking northeastward towards Interstate 71 and Gilbert Avenue. Note the massive surface parking lots. As if we needed more!

 

Even more surface lots looking towards Interstate 71 and 471, and Mt. Adams.

 

 

 

 

Proctor and Gamble's world headquarters

 

 

The architecturally significant Times-Star Building.

 

Downtown Cincinnati!

 

You can find more on the history of this really unique structure, along with 26 photographs, at the Ault & Wiborg Company article. Enjoy!

Nice work.  I'm always interested in photography from vantage points that will likely never been seen again.

Great digging, but I think you answered why this has been torn down instead of being renovated - Superfund. With that and a history of chemical manufacturing, I'd hazard this no owner could ever get an okay to do much with it in the current environmental environment. Cincinnati's history as a chemical manufacturing center certainly hurts the city's ability to reuse industrial bldgs since so many likely have some history of carcinogenic residue and Cincy always shows up high on the list of cities with degraded environments due to the chemical industries.

DESTROYED!!!

From my window.  I guess I'm getting a view of the jail now.  Lucky me.

This was a sad one to lose especially given so many design firms are in that area and as they are expanding they are buying up these old warehouse buildings and turning them into posh design spaces.

Thank God that that building was demolished, the city really needs more parking.

^^Perhaps someone could do an inventory of viable warehouse spaces.

 

    Tearing down a building like that does two things for parking. It converts the building space to parking space, and also reduces the floor area of the neighborhood, further reducing the need for parking.

 

    Cincinnati is extraordinarily fortunate among Amercian cities that the widespread demolition for parking is somewhat structured. We have a big bank of parking on the east side of downtown, and a big bank of parking on the south side of downtown. The parking on the north and west sides are fragmented.

 

    But the glorious thing about Downtown Cincinnati is that there is a solid block of buildings containing the Central Business District of roughly 6 blocks x 6 blocks with practically no surface parking and a public square right in the middle.

 

    The new Queen City Square scares me a little. If that building were 100% occupied, it will likely increase the demand for parking around it and/or reduce the demand for building space around it. Both of these things increase the incentive to tear down buildings for parking.

^ Queen City Square does include parking, and the banks garage by GABP will be  open by then.  Also, several workers do take the bus to work.

Queen City Square includes a lot of parking, something like 4 or 5 stories underground and two above ground. I have no idea how many units that is, though.

 

  All true, and I knew that Queen City Square includes parking. Still, does it include ENOUGH parking to accomodate all the people who will use the building, even taking into account that some of the users will take the bus or walk? I don't know the answer. I suspect that there are some people who are more likely to park in a surface lot despite having a parking garage just because it is more familiar to them.

 

  Most buildings in downtown built since 1950 include parking, but even so we have lost acres of buildings for surface lots.

 

    Again, I'm just thankful that we have a solid core.

 

   

 

  I suspect that there are some people who are more likely to park in a surface lot despite having a parking garage just because it is more familiar to them.

 

 

It's so sad that you are right. Some people's minds have been so erased by suburbia/exurbia and acres of surface lots that they would choose an outdoor space that is blustery in winter, heats your interior to 200+ degrees in the summer sun and is susceptible to rain all year 'round over one in a parking garage.

The view tally was 666. I just clicked on the thread to break that.

well its sad to see that go down at the same time its nice to see a real honest-to-gawd new tower finally rising in ohio!

^ Queen City Square does include parking, and the banks garage by GABP will be open by then. Also, several workers do take the bus to work.

 

Some even (gasp) will walk!

^ Queen City Square does include parking, and the banks garage by GABP will be open by then. Also, several workers do take the bus to work.

 

Some even (gasp) will walk!

 

Wow, that's just crazy!  ;)

 

 

   I suspect that there are some people who are more likely to park in a surface lot despite having a parking garage just because it is more familiar to them.

   

 

It's so sad that you are right. Some people's minds have been so erased by suburbia/exurbia and acres of surface lots that they would choose an outdoor space that is blustery in winter, heats your interior to 200+ degrees in the summer sun and is susceptible to rain all year 'round over one in a parking garage.

 

Another thing is that when a lot of people see a parking garage, they think they have to pay more for parking.  Couple that with walking up stairs or taking elevators to get to their car, and you got some reasons why it's hard to break the surface lot habit.  Many people don't want to do that just to get to their cars.  Although people will park almost a quarter mile away from their destination in the blustery winter, and in the hot summer.