February 2017
Features
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The History Buffs: Roy Hotchkiss
“The hill was called Buttermilk Mountain because buttermilk was the hardest drink served up top at Price Hill House.”
The History Buffs: Ken Tankersley
“There are remarkable treasures here, but a lot of the sites are underneath the ground.”
The History Buffs: Gina Ruffin Moore
“How do you capture the history of a group of people in 124 pages?”
The Geography of Memory: How 544 Forgotten Photographs Bring Cincinnati’s Past Back to Life
In a cardboard box next to a filing cabinet, a Hamilton County Auditor’s office staffer found 554 black-and-white 8-by-10 photographs of downtown’s central business district, dating from late 1968.
Lost City: The Automobile Makers
These buggy manufacturers went horseless, but still couldn’t survive tough blows.
25,737 People Lived in Kenyon-Barr When the City Razed it To the Ground
Once a dense neighborhood in the heart of the city, Kenyon-Barr was wiped away without a trace.
Remembering the Queen City’s Temple of Books
The old main library was like a Hollywood conception of what a library should look like.
Jack Brennan Says Goodbye to the Bengals
Good times, bad times, you know he’s had his share. But over 23 years of grappling with the press, herding moody players, and managing the team’s publicity issues, the departing PR director of the Cincinnati Bengals has stayed positive. Amazingly.
Chester Cornett: Humble Chair Maker or Mad Genius?
The long, strange trip of Chester Cornett, from hermetic Appalachian crypto-artisan to patron saint of old, weird American craftsmanship.
Lost City: The Stadiums
Stadiums, we’ve had a few. Herein, a timeline of their rise and fall.
Lost City: The Department Stores
Four stores and a very different consumer culture ago…
Lost City: The Markets
We still have Findlay, but it used to be only one among many.
Lost City: Cincinnati’s First Beer Boom
Our mug runneth over with local beers—a bonanza that owes much to 19th-century brewers in Over-the-Rhine. But why?
Lost City: The Theaters
Local theaters used to anchor nearly every neighborhood in town.
Lost City: Cincinnati’s Porkopolis Status
When Elias Kahn opened his first meat market on September 29, 1882, Cincinnati’s reputation as Porkopolis was already beginning to fade.
An 1881 Fire Almost Burned Cincinnati to the Ground
On a beastly hot afternoon in July 1881, a fire in a toy factory almost destroyed Cincinnati.
Lost City: The Jazz Ark
Once anchored along the Newport side of the Ohio were the floating studios of iconic jazz station WNOP-AM 740.
Lost City: The Old Chamber of Commerce
Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1884, it sat at the southwest corner of Fourth and Vine until 1911, when a grease fire on the top floor burned the whole thing down.
Lost City: The Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Planetarium
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.
Lost City: Cincinnati’s Speedways
A look back at the short-lived racetracks in Greater Cincinnati history.
Lost City: Underground Railroad Sites
You may know of well-documented sites like the Rankin House in Ripley, but the Underground Railroad had far deeper roots in our region.
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Frontlines
Wonder Twins
Growing up, Napoleon Maddox always heard the story of his great grand-aunts, conjoined twins Millie-Christine McKoy, who were born into slavery in 1851 and spent a large portion of their lives as a sideshow act.
In The Guineveres, Sarah Domet Tackles Youth And Abandonment
Four girls, all named Guinevere, are deserted by their parents at a convent. Bound by their name, they form their own kind of family. There are drunk priests and rigid nuns, comatose soldiers and a backdrop of war.
Dawg Yawp’s Magical Mystery Tour Hits its Stride
Their self-titled debut LP is a genre-defying pièce de résistance. Its hypnotic harmonies conceal startling juxtapositions.
Hyperloop UC is Designing the Train of the Future
HyperloopUC, a team of 60, has progressed further into the SpaceX competition.
5 Cincinnati Tours Every Local Should Take
For years, the Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati organized volunteer-led walking tours, which could be a headache. Executive director Stephen Sendelbeck realized an app could do the heavy lifting, and ArchiTour Cincinnati was born. You tap a dot on the maps; the building’s bio and photos pop up. Pick a tour, any tour.
The New Midwest Tracks Our Region’s Best—and Darkest—New Literary Fiction
Author Mark Athitakis argues that in the last few decades our region has produced a fascinating new kind of literary fiction.
The Red Hot Dancing Queens Will March in the New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade
Outside groups are rarely invited to participate. But less than two years after forming, Claire Stewart and The Red Hot Dancing Queens will hit the streets of New Orleans on Sunday, February 19 as the first dance krewe from the tri-state to march in Mardi Gras.
Dr. Know: Addressing Addresses, Cracking a Mosler, and Kenwood Rising
The famed robber Willie Sutton once said that his heart sank whenever he would happen upon a Mosler safe.
Radar
This New Montgomery Home is Like a Sears Kit House, Plus Walk-In Showers
Tear-downs in Montgomery got a bad name a few years ago when developers demolished 1960s and ’70s ranches by the dozens and replaced them with oversized McMansions. Lately, though, some area homebuilders have worked harder to make new homes fit in with downtown Montgomery’s historic feel.
Switch Shines In A New Fourth Street Space
After years of clients requesting decorating help, Switch has expanded to include modern home furnishings and local wall art.
Sparkle Plenty
These earrings shine bright sans diamonds.
Long Weekend: Savannah
This little big town is a Southern wonderland.
Pistachio Press Makes Correspondence Cool Again
Many letterpress printers use lead or wood type, and give the page a mere kiss of ink so as not to damage it, but Rachel Hetzel’s designs start on the computer and then become photo polymer that she uses to print cards on one of her vintage Heidelberg or Vandercook letterpresses.
Columns
Letter from the Editor: February 2017
History hovers like a ghost around Cincinnati, with vestiges of the past lying just under the surface or hiding in plain sight.
Cincy Obscura: Adventures in Road Salting
The city lays in 27,000 tons of salt to start the season, with a contract for up to 40,000 tons if things get snowpocalyptic.
Letter from Katie: In The Garden
Looking for traces of my mother
The Birth of UC’s Creative Writing Powerhouse
Most local lifers likely have no clue that the city’s preeminent school of higher learning is also a magnet for some of the country’s top aspiring writers and poets.
Dine
O Pie O Has All the Pie
Choose sweet or savory, by the slice or “pocket pie.”
Thunderdome’s Latest Installment: Maplewood Kitchen
Maplewood is not terribly soulful or distinctive, but it’s fast, fun, and pretty darn good, particularly for dinner.
Fine Diving: The Brew House
Like all good dives, the Brew House claims to have the best burger in town.
Lisa Kagen Joins the Wellmann’s Brands Empire
You know the pork and fig pâté with goat cheese served in a mini-Mason jar at Japp’s? Credit that to Lisa Kagen, who sold her businesses, Melt, to Wellmann’s Brands and then joined the company as executive chef in 2016 to develop the food menus at its growing network of bars and restaurants.
The Downtown Wine Bar You’ve Been Waiting For is Open on Main Street
Your pre-Aronoff plans are set.
Learn South Indian Cooking in Radha Lakshmi’s Home Kitchen
PLUS: A recipe for Radha’s grandmother’s spice blend