Lost City: The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Planetarium

For our February 2017 “Lost City” issue, we remember what time, disasters, and the wrecking ball have taken away.

Right next to Elsinore Tower, where WCPO now resides, there used to be a long, sleek building guarded by a family of woolly mammoths. The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Planetarium was a beloved thing. Built in 1957 by local boy Walter W. Cordes, the museum contained everything from ancient Native American arrowheads to birds John James Audubon himself had stuffed to a laser light show that transpired under the planetarium dome. After the collection moved to the Museum Center in 1990, WCPO knocked it down. And today, John Popovich roams the landscape once dominated by the woolly mammoths.

Cincinnati Museum Center. Cincinnati History Library & Archives. General Photos.