with West Covington. On the terraces the streets generally intersect at right angles, but on the hills their directions are irregular. To the “bottoms” (which have suffered much from floods[1]) between Third Street and the river the manufacturing and wholesale districts are for the most part confined, although many of these interests are now on the higher levels or in the suburbs; the principal retail houses are on the higher levels N. of Third Street, and the handsomest residences are on the picturesque hills before mentioned, in those parts of the city, formerly separate villages, known as Avondale, Mt. Auburn, Clifton, Price Hill, Walnut Hills and Mt. Lookout. The main part of the city is connected with these residential districts by electric street railways, whose routes include four inclined-plane railways, namely, Mt. Adams (268 ft. elevation), Bellevue (300 ft.), Fairview (210 ft.) and Price Hill (350 ft.), from each of which an excellent panoramic view of the city and suburbs may be obtained. There are various suburbs, chiefly residential, in the Mill Creek valley, among them being Carthage, Hartwell, Wyoming, Lockland and Glendale. Other populous and attractive suburbs N. of the Ohio river are Norwood and College Hill.
Buildings, &c.—Brick, blue limestone, and a greyish buff freestone are the most common building materials, and the city has various buildings of much architectural merit. The chamber of commerce (completed 1889), designed by H. H. Richardson, is one of the finest public buildings in the United States. Its walls are of undressed granite, and it occupies a ground area of 100 by 150 ft. The United States government building (designed by A. B. Mullet, and built of Maine and Missouri granite) is a fine structure in classic style, 360 ft. long and 160 ft. wide, and 4½ storeys high; its outer walls are faced with sawn freestone. It was erected in 1874–1885 and cost (including the land) $5,250,000. The city hall (332 ft. by 203 ft.), with walls of red granite and brown sandstone, is a massive and handsome building erected at a cost of $1,600,000. The county court house (rebuilt in 1887) is in the Romanesque style, and with the gaol attached occupies an entire square. The Cincinnati hospital (completed 1869), comprising eight buildings grouped about a central court and connected by corridors, occupies a square of four acres. A new public hospital for the suburbs was projected in 1907. St Peter’s (Roman Catholic) cathedral (begun 1839, consecrated 1844), Grecian in style, is a fine structure, with a graceful stone spire 224 ft. in height and a chime of 13 bells; it has as an altar-piece Murillo’s “St Peter Liberated by an Angel.” The church of St Francis de Sales (in Walnut Hills), built in 1888, has a bell, cast in Cincinnati, weighing fifteen tons, and said to be the largest swinging bell in the world. Several of the Protestant churches, such as the First Presbyterian (built 1835; steeple, including spire, 285 ft. high), Second Presbyterian (1872), Central Christian (1869), St Paul’s Methodist Episcopal (1870), and St Paul’s Protestant Episcopal pro-cathedral (1851), are also worthy of mention, and in the residential suburbs there are many fine churches. Cincinnati is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishopric and a Protestant Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal bishopric. The Masonic temple (195 ft. long and 100 ft. wide), in the Byzantine style, is four storeys high, and has two towers of 140 ft.; the building was completed in 1860 and has subsequently been remodelled. Among other prominent buildings are the Oddfellows’ temple (completed 1894), the public library, the art museum (1886), a Jewish synagogue (in Avondale), and the (Jewish) Plum Street temple (1866), Moorish in architecture. The Soldiers’, Sailors’ and Pioneers’ building (1907) is a beautiful structure, classic in design. The business houses are of stone or brick, and many of them are attractive architecturally; there are a number of modern office buildings from 15 to 20 storeys in height. There are also several large hotels and ten theatres (besides halls and auditoriums for concerts and public gatherings), the most notable being Springer music hall.
One of the most noted pieces of monumental art in the United States is the beautiful Tyler Davidson bronze fountain in Fountain Square (Fifth Street, between Walnut and Vine streets), the business centre of the city, by which (or within one block of which) all car lines run. The fountain was unveiled in 1871 and was presented to the city by Henry Probasco (1820–1902), a wealthy citizen, who named it in honour of his deceased brother-in-law and business partner, Mr Tyler Davidson. The design, by August von Kreling (1819–1876), embraces fifteen bronze figures, all cast at the royal bronze foundry in Munich, the chief being a female figure with outstretched arms, from whose fingers the water falls in a fine spray. This figure reaches a height of 45 ft. above the ground. The city has, besides, monuments to the memory of Presidents Harrison and Garfield (both in Garfield Place, the former an equestrian statue by Louis T. Rebisso, and the latter by Charles H. Niehaus); also, in Spring Grove cemetery, a monument to the memory of the Ohio volunteers who lost their lives in the Civil War. The art museum, in Eden Park, contains paintings by celebrated European and American artists, statuary, engravings, etchings, metal work, wood carving, textile fabrics, pottery, and an excellent collection in American ethnology and archaeology. The Cincinnati Society of Natural History (incorporated 1870) has a large library and a museum containing a valuable palaeontological collection, and bones and implements from the prehistoric cemetery of the mound-builders, at Madisonville, Ohio.
Parks.—In 1908 Cincinnati had parks covering about 540 acres; there are numerous pleasant driveways both within the city limits and in the suburban districts, and several attractive resorts are within easy reach. Eden Park, of 214 acres, on Mount Adams, about 1 m. E. of the business centre and near the river, is noted for its natural beauty, greatly supplemented by the landscape-gardener’s skill, and for its commanding views. The ground was originally the property of Nicholas Longworth (1782–1863), a wealthy citizen and well-known horticulturist, who here grew the grapes from which the Catawba wine, introduced by him in 1828, was made. The park contains the art museum and the art academy. Its gateway, Elsinore, is a medieval reproduction; other prominent features are the reservoirs, which resemble natural lakes, and a high water tower, from which there is a delightful view. In Burnet Woods Park, lying to the N.E. of Eden and containing about 163 acres, are the buildings and grounds of the University of Cincinnati, and a lake for boating and skating. The zoological gardens occupy 60 acres and contain a notable collection of animals and birds. Other pleasure resorts are the Lagoon on the Kentucky side (in Ludlow, Ky.), Chester Park, about 6 m. N. of the business centre, and Coney Island, about 10 m. up the river on the Ohio side. Washington (5.6 acres), Lincoln (10 acres), Garfield and Hopkins are small parks in the city. In 1907 an extensive system of new parks, parkways and boulevards was projected. Spring Grove cemetery, about 6 m. N.W. of Fountain Square, contains 600 acres picturesquely laid out on the park plan. It contains many handsome monuments and private mausoleums, and a beautiful mortuary chapel in the Norman style.
Water-Supply.—A new and greatly improved water-supply system for the city was virtually completed in 1907. This provides for taking water from the Ohio river at a point on the Kentucky side opposite the village of California, Ohio, and several miles above the discharge of the city sewers; for the carrying of the water by a gravity tunnel under the river to the Ohio side, the water being thence elevated by four great pumping engines, each having a daily capacity of 30,000,000 gallons, to settling basins, being then passed through filters of the American or mechanical type, and flowing thence by a gravity tunnel more than 4 m. long to the main pumping station, on the bank of the river, within the city; and for the pumping of the water thence, a part directly into the distributing pipes and a part to the principal storage reservoir in Eden Park.
Education.—Cincinnati is an important educational centre. The University of Cincinnati, originally endowed by Charles M‘Micken (d. 1858) and opened in 1873, occupies a number of
- ↑ The most destructive floods have been those of 1832, 1847, 1883, 1884 and 1907; the highest stage of the water before 1904 was 71 ft. 34 in. in 1884, the lowest 1 ft. 11 in. in 1881.
