Cincinnati Is So European

Well, the city can look European anyways.  In so many ways and from so many views, Cincinnati can easily be mistaken for a 19th Century European city, perfectly preserved, perfectly provincial, perfectly unique.  The neighborhoods of Over-the-Rhine, the West End, Mt. Auburn, Camp Washington, Mt. Adams, and other center city neighborhoods are the places I am talking about here.   

The interesting thing about Cincinnati is it’s development history.  The city was America’s first boomtown, developing in the early 1800’s and becoming a major economic powerhouse by the mid 1850’s.  While cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Detroit were still small settlements, Cincinnati was prospering, populating, and densifying.  Because the city was founded in a basin surrounded by hills, development had nowhere to go.  Therefore, the City densified at an amazing rate, becoming the most densely populated city in the United States outside of Manhattan. 

As time went on and technology improved, Cincinnatian’s built inclines and figured out how to develop past the surrounding hillsides.  As this happened, the population began spreading out across the region and the center city de-populated, leaving behind an amazing collection of 19th Century buildings and neighborhoods built in incredibly dense fashions.  As time went on and investment dried up in center cities across the nation, urban America saw their neighborhoods decimated by urban renewal programs and Interstates of the mid 20th Century.  Somehow, a large amount of Cincinnati urban neighborhoods, especially Over-the-Rhine, escaped the wrecking ball in a lot of instances (unfortunately the West End was decimated by I-75), maintaining an amazing built form in and around downtown.  This is what makes Cincinnati so unique, so interesting, so amazing – the existence of nearly intact, pedestrian oriented, dense 19th Century neighborhoods not found anywhere else in the country.

In past posts, I have briefly covered Over-the-Rhine, perhaps Cincinnati’s most famous neighborhood.  Below, you will find a collection of pictures from Prospect Hill, a sub-neighborhood of Mt. Auburn just north of Over-the-Rhine.  Prospect Hill is built on steep hillsides, offering great view of downtown and a great collection of 19th Century architecture.  The neighborhood has seen an incredible amount of investment, in large part by the gays, and is definitely one of the best places to live in the City.  Also, Milton’s is a well-known neighborhood bar that should be experienced by all Cincinnatians.  Enjoy Prospect Hill, and see why Cincinnati is so European, or at least looks that way sometimes.