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3 Over-the-Rhine

From Immigrant Neighborhood to Arts District

The Cincinnati Music Hall is one of the city’s most recognizable historic buildings.

BOUNDARIES: Eton Pl., Race St., 12th St., Young St.

DISTANCE: 1.9 miles

DIFFICULTY: Easy

PARKING: Start at Findlay Market (118 W. Elder St.), 3 blocks north of Liberty St. between Elm St. and Race St. There are parking lots north and south of the market and on Elder St. west of Elm St. Better yet, ride your bike and park at one of the racks on either end of the market house.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Take Metro (go-metro.com) routes 46, 64, or 78 to Elder St. and Race St., or routes 6 and 17 to Elder St. and Vine St. or Elder St. and Central Pkwy. Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar (cincinnatibellconnector.com) connects The Banks, downtown, and Over-the-Rhine with 18 stations. Cincinnati Red Bike (cincyredbike.org) has bicycle rental stations at 1723 Pleasant St. (Findlay Market), 1384 Elm St. (Washington Park), 1425 Main St., and elsewhere.

Over-the-Rhine is Cincinnati’s chief claim to a walking city. The neighborhood is unlike anything else in Cincinnati or the Midwest. The whole area (about 365 acres) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the city’s largest local historic district. Believed to have the single largest grouping of Italianate architecture in the nation and the largest collection of tenement buildings outside New York City, its significance is comparable to other well-known national historic districts around the country.

The neighborhood’s distinctive name comes from its early residents and builders: German immigrants of the mid-19th century. The Miami and Erie Canal separated the area from downtown and was nicknamed The Rhine in reference to the Rhine River in Germany, and the neighborhood north of the canal was dubbed Over-the-Rhine. The 20th-century transition to Appalachian and African American migrants, as well as immigrants arriving after each World War from eastern Europe, influenced the area’s social and political mix even more. The residential styles are varied because the neighborhood was economically diverse for so many decades. Two of Cincinnati’s biggest industries—brewing and ironwork—are still evident throughout.

Over-the-Rhine is an urban survivor after suffering decades of neglect and indifference, and it retains an incredible 19th-century sense of place in its compact blocks, brick buildings, and human scale that usually maxes out at five stories. Just like the Germans who first settled here, people today take great pride in their neighborhood. You can see it in the well-kept houses on Orchard Street, the swept sidewalks in front of Main Street storefronts, and the well-traveled aisles at Findlay Market.

In addition to being a living neighborhood, Over-the-Rhine is a regional attraction. Most visitors come to the neighborhood to experience activities related to the arts, which has led to a surge in bars and dining options, especially along Race, Vine, and Main Streets. A handful of longtime merchants, including Silverglades (since 1922), Suder’s Art Store (since 1924), and Tucker’s Restaurant (since 1946), hold their own in a neighborhood experiencing dynamic change. This walk passes numerous monuments to Over-the-Rhine’s Germanic cultural traditions, while calling out newer additions that give the neighborhood its appeal.

Walk Description

Start your walk at Rhinegeist, at the corner of Elm Street and Eton Place in a resurgent area of Over-the-Rhine. Rhinegeist, a sprawling brewery, opened in 2013 in the former Christian Moerlein Brewery bottling facility. Walk one block east along Eton Place to the venerable Rookwood Pottery Company. Founded by Maria Longworth Storer in 1880, it thrived until the Great Depression and has rebounded under new ownership since 2006. (There’s a company retail store at 1209 Vine St.)

Backstory: Pendleton

While points of interest on Sycamore Street are highlighted in the Over-the-Rhine walk, the neighborhood east of Main Street is called Pendleton; it is mostly residential with pockets of commerce. Here is a quick tour of some neighborhood highlights. Walk east along 12th Street to Broadway, where a cluster of restaurants, bars, and a brewery have emerged on 13th Street in recent years. At Pendleton Street is the headquarters for the Verdin Bell Company (444 Reading Rd.), inside St. Paul Catholic Church from 1850. The large Romanesque Revival church is the centerpiece of a group of church-related buildings constructed after 1850. The Verdin Company led the restoration of all these buildings in the mid-1980s to create spaces for local designers. Turn left on Pendleton Street and walk to 13th Street. Ahead is the Pendleton Arts Center (1310 Pendleton St.). Built in 1909 for Krohn-Fecheimer Shoe Co.—the company that later became U.S. Shoe—the eight-story building houses studios for more than 200 artists and is headquarters for Final Friday and Second Look Saturday art walks. Turn left on 13th Street. On the right is St. Mary Baptist Church, housed inside one of the city’s former bathhouses. Spring Street (on the right) dead-ends at Liberty Street and features town houses, gardens, and carriage houses that serve houses on Broadway. Turn right on Broadway. On the east side is an impressive row of houses that defy urban life with their front lawns, large trees, and gardens. The Renaissance Revival limestone-fronted house at 1324 Broadway was built in 1852 and home to Christian Boss, owner of Gambrinus Stock Co. Brewery at 12th and Sycamore Streets. Follow the cast-iron railings to 1342 Broadway, a rare Federal house from 1834 and one of the city’s oldest. Seven houses on Broadway’s west side north of 14th Street are mostly Italianate.

Turn right on Race Street, and go two blocks south to W. Elder Street. On your right is Findlay Market, the oldest continuously operated public market in Ohio. Findlay is the last remaining public market of the nine that once served Cincinnati. It’s Cincinnati’s closest thing to a European shopping experience, especially on a Saturday when the market is teeming with people buying, hugging, laughing, looking around, chatting, and just being. Nineteenth-century architecture surrounds the market, with Renaissance Revival, Greek Revival, Queen Anne, and Italianate all in full view.

After exploring the market, continue south on Race Street. Over-the-Rhine Recreation Center, hidden behind 1708 Race St., is a mix of refurbished historic buildings and infill from 1971. [Detour: Head east two blocks on Green Street to Vine Street for Tucker’s Restaurant (1637 Vine St.), the neighborhood’s oldest diner (since 1946) serving comfort food classics for breakfast and lunch.]

Continue south on Race Street, and cross Liberty Street. Race Street is a street of churches. On the left is the Gothic facade of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (1871). Just down the street on the right is St. Paul’s Church (1850). Empty and neglected for decades, it now houses Taft’s Ale House, with tongue-in-cheek references to William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States and Cincinnati resident. There are more up ahead, as you will see. On the right is the Race Street Garden. While it looks like a private yard, it is indeed a community garden that holds its own in a rapidly changing neighborhood. In 1989 Pleasant Street gardeners created the little oasis with infrastructure support from the Civic Garden Center Community in Avondale.

A cluster of culinary businesses has emerged in these blocks: Poke Hut (1509 Race St.), Anchor OTR (1401 Race St.), Zula Restaurant & Wine Bar (1400 Race St.), Salazar (1401 Republic St.), and more in a neighborhood with a regular stream of new business openings. Anchor OTR benefits from a restored wooden veranda, an important part of the area’s architectural heritage, facing Washington Park.

Washington Park, on the right between 14th and 12th Streets, is older than most buildings that surround it. Cincinnati’s second-oldest park was the site of four separate cemeteries for several churches before the city acquired the land between 1855 and 1863. The 6-acre park is a popular destination year-round and features concerts in the bandstand, a water park, mature trees, and a playground.

Enter the park at 14th and Race Streets, follow the right walkway past the open-air stage and great lawn, and head toward Elm Street. Several magnificent buildings dominate this stretch of Over-the-Rhine. Here you see Music Hall and Memorial Hall (both designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons) up close. Music Hall provides a massive High Victorian Gothic western wall for the park. Inside, it hosts the opera, symphony, pops orchestra, and May Festival (the oldest choral festival in the United States). To the left of it is the Beaux Arts–style Memorial Hall, a concert venue inside a building erected in 1908 as a memorial to pioneers and soldiers. As you head south along Elm Street, six houses create a stunning late 19th-century streetscape: 1209 Elm Street is the most unrestrained with its French Renaissance facade. Vestry at the Transept is located inside St. John’s Church. Once the home of Cincinnati’s oldest German Protestant congregation, the Gothic church was finished in 1868. Across the street and in stark contrast to the last two blocks, see the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, modeled after the Royal National Theatre in London and Shakespeare’s Globe.

South of Cincy Shakes, as the theater calls itself, is the towering Central Parkway YMCA (1918). The Italian Renaissance building with two-story arched windows is home to offices for the YMCA of Greater Cincinnati, along with 65 affordable apartments for seniors. Walk along 12th Street toward Race Street and take in the block-long rear facade of the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). Key to the revitalization of Washington Park, this was the first K–12 arts school in the United States. Founded in 1973 as one of the first magnet schools in the city, it relocated here from the old Woodward High School building on Sycamore Street. SCPA is a model of excellence in school integration.

Return to Race Street for two more historic churches. First English Lutheran Church (behind the Washington Park streetcar station at 12th and Race Streets) presents a handsome red sandstone Romanesque-style facade from 1894. Go one block north on Race Street, where just north of 13th Street, Over-the-Rhine Community Church (inside Nast Trinity Methodist Church) features a rock-faced masonry facade with terra-cotta detailing and an “1880” inscription above the right door dating the building, another project of Samuel Hannaford & Sons.

Remain standing at 13th Street for a closeup view of two ArtWorks murals. Each is part of more than 50 elaborate murals painted on the sides of buildings in Over-the-Rhine and downtown. You’ll notice them almost everywhere you go. (For even closer inspection, ArtWorks student apprentices provide guided walking tours.) The Vision of Samuel Hannaford shows a portrait of Samuel Hannaford resting on blueprints, symbolizing his architectural legacy in Cincinnati. The Golden Muse features a larger-than-life figurine from an 18th-century mantel clock in the Taft Museum of Art’s collection.

Return to 12th Street and turn left. Tender Mercies is a longtime Over-the-Rhine institution and a model for retaining diversity and inclusiveness through housing service in a rapidly changing neighborhood. Continue east toward Vine Street, the spine of Over-the-Rhine. In the late 1800s, Vine Street once contained 136 saloons, taverns, and beer gardens. Today, the street is a thriving commercial district with a mix of restaurants, bars, and retail stores. There are far too many to list here. (For a listing of Over-the-Rhine businesses, visit otrchamber.com.) A few doors south is Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. For a long time, it was one of the only businesses, and the only theater, in the neighborhood.

Continue walking east along 12th Street, crossing Vine. Walk one block to Jackson Street. On the left is the Art Academy of Cincinnati. On the right is Know Theatre of Cincinnati. Formed in 1997, this theater group started in the basement of Gabriel’s Corner Church on Sycamore Street. Both the Art Academy and Know Theatre have played pivotal roles in stabilizing and energizing this section of Over-the-Rhine.

Walk one block east to Walnut Street and turn right. Opposite are two popular local bars (Halfcut at 1126 Walnut St. and Below Zero Lounge at 1120 Walnut St.) and Gomez (107 E. 12th St.), a walk-up burrito-and-taco window. The first building on the right is Germania Building (1151–1199 Walnut St.), one of Over-the-Rhine’s architectural treasures from 1877. Johann Bast designed this delightful stone Italian Renaissance facade. Its second-floor nave holds the statue of Germania, symbolizing the German spirit.

Proceed south down Walnut Street and notice the Crazy Cat, Crazy Quilt (1107 Walnut St.) mural on the back of the American Building (30 E. Central Pkwy.), one of the city’s first Art Deco office buildings from 1927, later converted into condos. The colorfully depicted mural honors the accomplished life and career of Cincinnati Master artist Edie Harper, who later met fellow artist Charley Harper. He remained her partner in life and love until his death in 2007. Turn left at Central Parkway and cross Walnut Street to get an expansive view of Emery Center Apartments. Formerly the Ohio Mechanics Institute Building, Emery is another pivotal building in Over-the-Rhine’s rebirth. Built in 1909 in Tudor Revival style, it contains 59 converted apartments upstairs, Coffee Emporium at ground level, and one of the city’s abandoned gems: Emery Theater. An acoustically exceptional concert hall, it was built specifically for the symphony and was the first theater in the United States to have no obstructed seats.

After refueling at Coffee Emporium, walk east to Clay Street and turn left. At 12th Street are two more drinking spots: rhinehaus sports bar (119 E. 12th St.) and Revel OTR Urban Winery (111 E. 12th St.). Cross 12th Street and walk to Old St. Mary’s Church. Built in 1842, it is Cincinnati’s largest and oldest remaining Catholic church. Masses are performed in English, German, and Latin. Tucked away next door are the Greek Revival parish house from 1845 and adjoining church school from 1843. Across the street are Brown Bear Bakery (116 E. 13th St.), specializing in sweet and savory pastries, and Longfellow (1233 Clay St.), a small corner neighborhood bar with great cocktails and creative snacks.

Turn right on 13th Street and walk east to Main Street, one of the finest and most intact late 19th-century streetscapes in the city. Many cite Main Street as their favorite street in the neighborhood for its independent and artistic spirit. Cross Main Street, turn right before popping into a shop or two, and then go left on 12th Street. Much of Over-the-Rhine’s early revitalization efforts in the 1980s started here. At the end of this block on the left is the former Queen City Diner (1203 Sycamore St.). Built in 1955 and brought here in 1984 from Massillon, Ohio, it contrasts with its 19th-century neighbors and dazzles the eye compared to the vast parking lots across the street. Turn left on Sycamore Street past Olde Sycamore Square across the street. The five narrow Italianate buildings were beautifully restored in the mid-1980s, a decade before changes started on Main Street and two decades before Vine Street. Cross 13th Street. On the right is the massive Renaissance Revival structure built in 1910, the former Woodward High School and SCPA, recently converted into 142 apartments known as Alumni Lofts.

On the left is Ziegler Park, a 4.5-acre green space with a pool and rock wall, water features, basketball courts, and a running track. Immediately north of Ziegler Park is Peaslee Neighborhood Center, which has acted as an early learning center and welcoming place since 1974. Cross 14th Street. Go one block to Nicola’s (another neighborhood pioneer after more than two decades) in a former incline car barn. At the northwest corner of Orchard Street is the towering Salem United Church of Christ, which dates from 1867. Immediately to the north at 1427 Sycamore is a fine midcentury cube that stands out from its 19th-century neighbors. Turn left on Orchard Street, one of the loveliest residential blocks downtown. It features simple Greek Revival and early Italianate town houses, as well as a spectacular tree canopy. On the north side, the former Fourth Presbyterian Church from 1859 has a turreted tower.

Proceed to Main Street, the ideal place to end this walk. Looking to your right just across Liberty Street is neo-Tudor Rothenberg Preparatory Academy, from 1913. The restored school features terra-cotta figures of children and elves. Most late 19th-century buildings south of Liberty Street are occupied upstairs with residents. At ground level are unaltered cast-iron storefronts where small businesses congregate. A significant Main Street player is Woodward Theater, a music venue from the owners of MOTR Pub in a restored 1913 theater.

To return to the start of this walk, head west along 14th Street from Main Street to Race Street and turn right, returning to Findlay Market.

Points of Interest

Rhinegeist 1910 Elm St., 513-381-1367, rhinegeist.com

Rookwood Pottery Company 1920 Race St., 513-381-2510, rookwood.com

Findlay Market 1801 Race St., findlaymarket.org

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 1528 Race St., 513-621-7265, poplcmscinci.org

Taft’s Ale House 1429 Race St., 513-334-1393, taftsalehouse.com

Music Hall 1241 Elm St., 513-621-2787, cincinnatiarts.org

Memorial Hall 1225 Elm St., 513-381-0348, memorialhallotr.com

Vestry at the Transept 1205 Elm St., 513-841-9999, vestryotr.com

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company 1195 Elm St., 513-381-2273, cincyshakes.com

First English Lutheran Church 1208 Race St., 513-421-0065, firstlutherancincy.org

Over-the-Rhine Community Church (Nast Trinity Methodist Church) 1310 Race St., 513-871-1345, otrcc.org

Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati 1127 Vine St., 513-421-3555, ensemblecincinnati.org

Art Academy of Cincinnati 1212 Jackson St., 513-562-6262, artacademy.edu

Know Theatre of Cincinnati 1120 Jackson St., 513-300-5669, knowtheatre.com

Old St. Mary’s Church 123 E. 13th St., 513-721-2988, oldstmarys.org

Ziegler Park 1322 Sycamore St., 513-621-4400, zieglerpark.org

Peaslee Neighborhood Center 215 E. 14th St., 513-621-5514, peasleecenter.org

Nicola’s Restaurant 1420 Sycamore St., 513-721-6200, nicolasotr.com

Salem United Church of Christ 1425 Sycamore St., 513-241-1796

Woodward Theater 1404 Main St., 513-345-7981, woodwardtheater.com