Christmas in July!

"Building Holidays" Trolley Tour
Coming December 6

Part II – Further Details

"Building Holidays" is a trolley tour that grew out of last December’s "Christmas in Over the Rhine" walking tour. Some of the same sites will be on the new tour but many new ones have been added to help further explain the building and evolution of the holiday season. In particular our travel will now include Downtown, with the tour starting at Fountain Square. And we will go inside three new sites: Memorial Hall, Philippus United Methodist Church, and the Mercantile Library. At Memorial Hall we will touch on the impact of the Civil War on the holiday. At Philippus we will look at various Protestant and some particularly German Christmas traditions brought to this country. And at the Mercantile Library will we discuss the important role of literature on reviving the holiday in the 1800’s and we will talk about a curious custom called the Christmas ‘Side Hunt’. A slew of other sites will be discussed including but not limited to:

Union Baptist Church
Plum Street Temple
Crosley Square
Music Hall
Duke Energy Building

What do they have to do with the holidays? Come on the tour and find out. I will be the lead tour guide so I hope it will be fun and interesting for all.

The approximately two-hour tour will be given on Dec. 6, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and will depart from Fountain Square along Vine Street. Tickets are $15.00 for adults, $5.00 for children and can be reserved through the Cincinnati Preservation Association (info@cincinnatipreservation.org) beginning in the fall. Seating is limited to 30 persons per tour and all will receive a complimentary souvenir of the tour.

ARCHITREKS is a program of the Cincinnati Preservation Association and "Building Holidays" is made possible in part with a generous donation from the Western & Southern Financial Fund.