Half Flounders, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio

Half flounders are not somehow unique to St. Louis. I found them all over the Over the Rhine neighborhood, mostly north of Liberty Street where there is more demolition and vacant lots, making it easier to see the rear of buildings. Like I had mentioned when visiting the town of Blois in France, while certainly…

Main Street, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio, West Side

Going back to the south and heading north again looking at the west side of Main Street in the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, we see more of the newly rehabbed, and a little of the old. I love this old storefront church, which is a remnant of when this was not a “hot”…

Main Street, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio, East Side

The built environment on Main Street through Over the Rhine in Cincinnati is just about perfectly preserved, with few building losses. We’ll look at the east side of the street first. Despite being “Main Street,” it’s a surprisingly narrow thoroughfare, allowing for relatively slow traffic speeds and easy pedestrian crossing. The street has one of…

Vine Street and Environs, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio

Vine Street is one of the main streets cutting through the Over the Rhine neighborhood, coming up from the Ohio River through Cincinnati’s downtown. It is not interrupted from the central business district by any interstates and other than the overly wide Central Parkway, pedestrians can easily connect with the heart of the city from…

Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio

We’re heading to Cincinnati, Ohio next, to look at Over the Rhine, which is one of the best preserved early Nineteenth Century neighborhoods in America. St. Louis used to have numerous neighborhoods like Over the Rhine, but we annihilated them like fools. Kosciusko, Carr Square (read part two) and Mill Creek, all neighborhoods in St….

Schiller Park, German Village, Columbus, Ohio

We’ll leave German Village and Columbus today with this final look at greenspace. Much like Lafayette Square in St. Louis, the center of German Village is a park, the aforementioned Schiller Park. Originally known as City Park (its western boundary street preserves that name), the current name reflects the strong German heritage of the neighborhood….

German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part Three

We’ll look at a few more streets in German Village today. I think what makes this such a beautiful neighborhood is that even if the houses are different sizes, they maintain a certain architectural uniformity that creates that harmony. Likewise, with only a couple of different roof types, such as the gable above and the…

German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part Two

Like Lafayette Square in St. Louis, the side streets of German Village in Columbus are where I found much of the more intimate and interesting views of the neighborhood. What really struck me were the alleys! Wow, talk about clean and unobstructed! I think St. Louis’s decades-long experiment with dumpsters has failed. It just makes…

German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part One

We now turn to Columbus, the capital of Ohio, and the German Village neighborhood south of the city’s downtown. German Village is one of those special places in America that I have a feeling most people have never heard about, but it is easily one of the most beautiful and harmonious built environments I have…