Cincinnati (7/26/2016)

Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Another hot sunny day. We took advantage of having a car, and drove to Cincinnati, first making our way to the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.

Harriet Beecher Stowe moved here with her family in 1832,
and stayed until she married Calvin Stowe in 1836;
the house was built in 1832 by Lane Theological Seminary that
had hired Harriet's father, Lyman Beecher, as president

Next to Eden Park on land the city had purchased in 1869.

View of the former waterworks and the Ohio River

Former Eden Park Station No. 7 (1889),
where water was pumped from the
Ohio river into the reservoir

Remaining walls of the reservoir, built 1866-1878

On top of the reservoir wall (Karen & Kathy) 

Karen, and people "rock climbing" on the wall

Next, the neighborhood of Mount Adams, originally called Mount Ida where the trees were cut for timber. In 1831 it was developed into a vineyard, cultivating Catawba grapes to make Golden Wedding champagne. Diseases destroyed the vines in 1860, and the land was donated to the Cincinnati Astronomical Society. President John Quincy Adams delivered the new observatory's dedication address in 1843, and the area was renamed Mount Adams. The observatory moved in 1871, and the building became the Holy Cross Monastery and Chapel, managed by the Passionists. At the time Mount Adams was a Catholic working-class community composed of German and Irish. (Later the monastery buildings would be replaced.)

Two dogs guard the entrance of #951 Paradrome Street (1890)

#1212 (1875), #1210 and #1208 (1880) Louden Street,
with house numbers above the door

Slanted garage door

Mt Adams Bar & Grill at #938 Hatch Street (1880)

The speakeasy at this location was the first to receive
an Ohio liquor license after the 1933 repeal of Prohibition

The Roots of Vision mural (2012) uses colorful Rookwood tile and paint
to honor the famous luminaries of Mount Adams

The "visionaries" featured on the mural include pioneer Ida Martin (namesake of Mount Ida), Nicholas Longworth (the Father of the American Wine Industry whose vineyard was here), Maria Longworth Storer (founder of Rookwood Pottery), John Baptist Purcell (Cincinnati's first Catholic Archbishop who built the Church of Immaculata), and Ormsby M Mitchell (builder of the first observatory in the USA).

#1135 (1950) and #1137(1940) St Gregory Street,
Mount Adams is known for a mix of old and new buildings

The former Mt Adams Public School (1984), now condos

Mt Adams Public School entrance

Terraced cafés on Pavilion Street

Monk or Bacchus statue

The Former Church of the Holy Cross (1899-1901)

Looking down steep Pavilion Street that appears to end abruptly 

Karen & Kathy at the top of Mt Adams Steps

1911 concrete steps replaced wooden ones
used since 1860 for the annual Good Friday
pilgrimage where the Rosary is prayed as
the faithful ascend these 85 steps, plus
65 from the base of Mt Adams, ending at
the Church of Immaculata at the top

View from the Church of Immaculata

Interior of the Church of the Immaculata (1859),
with paintings (1863-1870) by Johann Schmitt 

An alley address?

Alley gardens on Fuller Street

#966 Hatch Street (1890) where they
painted only the front of the building

#952 Hatch Street (1880), shorter and not as deep as other buildings

Kathy and Karen on high-heel shoe seats

Next we drove downtown, and found a parking spot in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (2004). It was after 12:00, and I was getting nudgy as I am used to eating on a regular schedule. Hunger pains then just make me grouchy! We figured since we paid for the parking spot, we should do the museum first. I figured I would be okay if a) we didn't take the whole two hours in the museum, and b) I could always get something in the museum café to tide me over.

View from the Freedom Center of the Ohio River and the
John A Roebling Suspension Bridge (1856-1867)

One of the carved relief panels of
Flight to Freedom (2004) by Karen Heyl

We started on the fourth floor with the Genealogy Department where you can get free help to research your ancestors. Karen and Kathy got information on places closer to home where they could do research. Next was the third floor and From Slavery to Freedom.

Depiction of The Arrival, where a Portuguese ship captain
haggles with a slave owner while the newly arrived
enslaved Africans sit under the watch of a Spanish soldier,
somewhere in the Spanish Caribbean

Unfortunately, this museum was mostly written information panels, with a few "dioramas" like the one above, and a very few artifacts. Also, the information covered was that of the entire span of Atlantic Slave Trade until it was banned in 1808, when the slave trade became internal; that is, within the Americas. The history of slavery in the Americas was followed until its abolition, in 1865 in the USA and Brazil was the last in 1888. There was a little on Reconstruction. Mixed in with that history was the history of women's suffrage in Western civilization, and the plight of the First Nations/Native Americans. The mention of the Underground Railroad was a teeny tiny piece of all the information on the third floor.
We heard thunder, and when we went to see the Eternal Flame, we also saw streaks of lightning with thunder closely following, as it poured rain.

Eternal Flame

Nearly two hours had passed, and there was no place to get food in the museum! We hurried through the second floor, which had a small section called Escape: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad, which included videos of actors acting out the stories of escaping slavery, and a map on the wall with several lighted arrows sweeping northward.

A "Slave Pen" (early 19C) brought from Kentucky

Another exhibit, Invisible: Slavery Today, outlined all the modern instances of slavery in the world today: forced labor, bonded indenture, child slavery, sex trafficking and domestic servitude. The Struggle Continues addressed the "unfreedoms" of hunger, illiteracy, slavery, racism, tyranny and genocide.

Journey I and Journey II quilts by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

Washboard Stories (2004) by Malaika Favorite,
one (and a half) of 20

We ran out in the rain to the car shortly after our two hours were up, and drove to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, cruising along 9th Street West to City Hall, then weaving back and forth along its streets. This working class area is thought to be the largest intact urban historic district in the USA. The early residents were Germans who crossed the Miami and Erie Canal to go to work, resulting in the canal being nicknamed the Rhine. We found parking at Findlay Market, and paid for an hour. First we looked for a place to eat, and settled on the Cake Rack, a bakery that also offered sandwiches and drinks.

Findlay Market (est. 1852), the oldest continuously
operated public market in Ohio

Buildings alongside Findlay Market

A giant Adirondack chair

Cake Rack for lunch

After lunch we paid for another hour of parking, to tour Findlay Market and the area.

Inside Findlay Market

Odd assortment of flavors of "fudge"

Spices for every need

Mural in progress on Pleasant Street,
with Kathy and Tamiko (photo by Karen)

Over the Rhine Community Center

#1716 and #1718 Race Street (1900?),
with unique window pediments, looking
like piano keys on the left

Karen was fascinated with the counter-weighted
bottom portion of fire escape ladders

Still lots of renovation work needed in Over-the-Rhine

Tamiko and Karen on a giant Adirondack chair
(photo by Kathy)

Now having eaten something, I was ready to go on, but we decided to head back to Dayton, and Kathy's house. We shopped for a light dinner/snack, and then talked and laughed ourselves silly.
I headed home the next day.