The Junior League hosted a bus tour for the Provisional class that was worth the while of waking up at 7:30am on a Saturday. We loaded onto a charter bus and toured the city with a fantastic tour guide and a group of bundled up gals on one of the first cold mornings of the season.
I loved learning more about my hometown and always enjoy tidbits of history and interesting facts about Cincinnati. I live tweeted from the event so some facts may be off due to noise from chatter, road bumps accentuated my big bus wheels and fast talking speakers, but here's what I picked up:
Parks and Parkways plan proposed in 1907 was recognized through the 1990s to make a city inside the parks.
There were 3 different Cincinnatis: 1. 1788-1880s walking city. Desire to be close to the center. Riverfront. 4th street flooded annually.
The entire first city was Over-the-Rhine. All multi-family housing. No greenery. Only park was Piot Park on Garfield Place.
1805-1935 Cincinnati was the fastest growing city in the country. 10x larger population in the 1950s than now.
First city all lived on same street mixed together. Second city fragmented and segmented into downtown and neighborhoods with ppl like them.
Second city was streetcars. Third city was expressways. Built tunnel for 71 and high rise apartment building to fund project.
Kentucky has smaller counties. Only Texas has more.
Kentucky sold land for IRS building in Covington for $1 in 1970.
The Banks is an incredibly difficult project. Two stories of parking garages must be built above flood planes. $2500 per parking space.
Land in city center and construction across 8 blocks make for expensive and complicated effort.
Newport, Kentucky was the test market for Las Vegas.
US has 8 times the square footage of retail that Europe does. Over-retailed. Think of Tricounty, Northgate.
Tyler Davidson Fountain based on water as Cincinnati is a water city Children with gifts of water - pearls, lobster. Man with roof on fire.
Government Square has been the main hub for transportation since the original streetcar was introduced in 1859.
Music Hall was built to house the May Festival in the late 1800s. There were no fixed seats or stage. It was the original convention center.
National Geographic special this fall - noting bones found in redevelopment of Washington Park. Used to be cemetery land.
The tour was led by Daniel Hurley of Discover Cincinnati. I highly recommend the trip for local learning and a fun way to spend a long, informative day of the Queen City.
No comments:
Post a Comment