Somehow accidentally wandering down the hill from the summit of Mount Auburn, I stumbled upon Maplewood Avenue, which contains one of the most amazing collections of Queen Anne Style I’ve ever seen.
I would like to know the story behind the Swiss chalet, but after that begin the Queen Anne, some with a simple palette, and others with careful restoration of the original bright colors.
This house below was obviously cut up into a rooming house; while it’s a bit distracting, I find a certain fascinating aspect to the web of firescapes.
Then there’s this beauty, with what I might call a restrained bell roof on its corner tower.
There are plenty of shingle-style houses, as well.
Look closely for the crenellations on the duplex.
While there has been some demolition, there are also houses such as the one below that have been restored back to their original beauty.
A large apartment building sneaks in, as well.
Note the curved brickwork.
Mike Brady makes an appearance, as well.
There are several Swiss chalet-style houses in Cincinnati. It was a style seen as fitting in with the city’s hilly terrain. Off-hand, I am unsure which one that is. I do not recall any of them having bars on the windows or those types of storm/replacement windows on the upper floors.
Mount Auburn and Avondale are both heavily abused neighborhoods that still hold a wealth of great architecture, though a great deal less than only 10-15 years ago. I was always enamored with Forest Avenue in Avondale and came close on two occasions to purchasing houses on or adjacent to it, a shingle-style house on Forest and a Colonial-revival on Alaska. I was outbid on the former and the latter had a title issue.
That was at least a decade ago, and there has been way too much demolition since then in Cincinnati, both of “unremarkable buildings” (a quote from a Cincinnati public “servant”) and noted architectural landmarks (such as two of Samuel Hannaford’s greatest houses, the Mary Wolfe House and A. E. Burckhardt House). The fact is, with the exception of Over-the-Rhine (and its “preservation” is only a very recent phenomenon), Cincinnati’s incredible wealth of historic architecture is seen as an impediment to economic growth and expendable in pursuit of that growth (in addition to now being expendable in pursuit of social justice and being green).