Train for the Holidays

The last day of the Duke Energy Holiday Train Display at the Duke Energy Building (1930) by John Russell Pope in association with Garber & Woodward.

The Queen’s Crown Jewels

Oyler School

I wanted to highlight a Cincinnati Public School for the next installment of the Queen's Crown Jewels. There are so many to consider, it was tough to pick one. I decided choose one maybe a little less known and one that is not currently on the National Register of Historic Places. That rules out the schools including but not limited to the former Cummins School (1872), Mt. Adams Public (1895), and Rothenberg Elementary (1914). It also eliminated (at least for now) the real the jewels of the school district itself - Hughes (1908), Withrow (1919), and Walnut Hills (1931) of which Withrow and Hughes are currently listed on the National Register. So my choice is the unique Oyler School in Lower Price Hill.



Oyler School is located at 2121 Hatmaker Street. It was completed in 1931 and was designed by the firm Samuel Hannaford and Sons. It is a wonderfully eclectic design, combining elements of Italian and Spanish Revival, English Tudor Revival, and Venetian Byzantine Gothic Revival in a near Art Deco aesthetic. Glazed terra cotta details accentuate the stone and brick facades including lintels, friezes, balconies, and figures, including a boy and girl flaking the front doors. It is wonderfully decorative for the period and really incorporates an Art Deco style. But still all mixed with historical precedents.

Samuel Hannaford's sons Charles and Harvey completed a number of schools for CPS including Winton Place Academy (1910), Carson (1916), Condon (1922), and Hoffman (1925) which is also on the National Register and has a fantastic setting on Darrell Ave in Evanston/Walnut Hills. (I leave the right to select it for an upcoming post.)

The building is very large at over 100,000 square foot. When built it had ". . . a modern Kindergarten, 46 classrooms, a Metal Shop, an Electric Shop, a Print Shop, a Woodworking Shop, a Mechanical Drawing Room, 2 Cooking Rooms, 2 Sewing Rooms, a Library, 2 Gymnasiums, an auditorium seating 550, and a Lunch Room." It and the playgrounds and a swimming pool occupy a city block in Lower Price Hill which unfortunatly is set on a tight site in a sea of asphalt paving. The building is still occupied and is slated for renovation in an upcoming CPS Master Plan segment.

References:
Flischel, Robert. An Expression of the Community. Cincinnati: The Art League Press, 2001.
Olyer School History from their website.

Historic photos from Library's Cincinnati Memory Project.

Krohn for the Holidays

Holiday display at Krohn Conservatory (1933).

St. Bonaventure: Then and Now

Then . . .

Now . . .

Located at 1798 Queen City Avenue in South Fairmont, St. Bonaventure Parish closed in 2003 and merged with St. Leo in North Fairmont. The building was demolished in 2005. The rose window was reinstalled in Holy Cross Immaculata Church in Mt. Adams.

Historic photo from Library's Cincinnati Memory Project.

Walking Tour: Dayton Street

Dayton Street, located in the West End, is a National Register Historic District. From the City's website:

"The Dayton Street Historic District area is a homogenous, built-up series of blocks, containing a group of representative 19th century detached town houses. The area was once the 19th century residential area for wealthy beer brewers and pork packers of Cincinnati. The majority of the buildings were erected between 1850 and 1890, and they are generally masonry, two- or three-story Italianate style homes. Low decorative iron fences and stone posts add to the area's strong sense of time and place."

The street is one of my Cincinnati favorites. Yes, I have many favorites. Here are a few photos from a late morning walk down Dayton Street. I will mention only a few homes and buildings by name. But most have a history and are associated with prominent Cincinnati families like Hatch, Hauck, Hickenlooper, Karrmann, and Earnshaw.

812 Dayton Street - John Hauck House (1870; Facade from 1882)

830 Dayton Street - Hatch House (1851)

Lafayette Bloom Middle School (1915)

Heberle Elementary School (1929)

Baedeker: Boston

Boston is one of my favorite cites that I have been to or lived in. I’m basically using the Patriots win vs. the Giants to become the first NFL team since the ’72 Dolphins to have an undefeated regular season as an excuse to share some photos of my last trip there. I think the city for the most part strikes a nice balance between old and new and between preservation and progress. It is a city full of vitality but it never feels overwhelming. Add the fantastic setting and it is just plain charming.

Copley Square with Trinity Church (Probably my favorite building in the U.S.)

The Swan Boats at the Boston Public Garden

Newbury Street

Faneuil Hall Marketplace

Beacon Hill

Old North Church

Financial District

Old State House along the Freedom Trail

Fenway Park (Take the tour if you get a chance!)

These photos from a 2005 trip are just a tip of the iceberg in terms of what to see and do in Beantown. Since my last visit, work continues on the blocks created by the removal of I-95 through the city, dubbed the Big Dig, and the new Institute for Contemporary Art opened on the Boston waterfront. Oh and don't miss Cambridge with MIT, Harvard and Harvard Square just across the Charles River and easily accessible via the "T".

Author's Note: Baedeker was a German-based travel guide begun in 1827 by Karl Baedeker. These comprehensive guides were hugely popular in Europe, the United States, and throughout the British Empire. I have adopted the moniker for all my travel pieces beyond Cincinnati. Given its German history and stately influence, I thought it fitting for the Queen City.

Ready to skate . . .

. . . since 1871.

New Condos at Ninth & Elm?

I was doing some research for another post and I ran across a design for a new condominium development on GBBN's website. It appears to be a new building on the southwest corner of Ninth and Elm from the renderings.

Now, there is already a nice collection of buildings on that site. They all need a little work but there is a lovely Italianate building at 819 - 821 Elm Street with a decorative cornice and hooded lintels over the windows. The auditor's website indicates the date of the building as 1879. Around the corner facing Ninth the last portion of the complex appears to me to be an older Greek Revival with a simpler roofline, cornice and flat, unadorned lintels over the punched openings.

The building is included in the Ninth Street Historic District. From the City's website:

"The Ninth Street Historic District is a cohesive assemblage of 19th and early 20th century urban architecture in Cincinnati and is also important as a representation of the 19th century 'walking city' environment. Diverse samples of the Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne styles are included. The area around Ninth Street consists primarily of single-family dwellings, with a mixture of shops, churches, and boarding houses."

The collection of buildings are for sale by Sibcy Cline for $335,000 with a pending offer.

The new building, for Towne Properties and as indicated on GBBN's website, "is a new infill condominium project in the central business district of Cincinnati. The project consists of 18 entry level condominiums ranging in size from 900sf to 1200sf units and secure parking on the first floor for 18 cars."

While I like seeing more density downtown, I wish it wasn't at the expense of some of our historic buildings, especially on a street lined with such marvelous buildings. Is there a way to at least keep the Italianate building on the corner? Or what about buying the ugly building across the street and build there . . . Heck, there is a whole parking lot along Ninth in which one could build.


I am not sure what is the status of this project. Maybe it was just study. I am going to keep my eye on it. And maybe Kevin at Building Cincinnati can look in to it.


All renderings are from GBBN's website.