The subway and street improvements photograph collection is truly a wealth of historic information about the city of Cincinnati in the first half of the 20^th century. As with most cities, many of the streets and avenues are named for the founders and prominent families who helped establish the city, as well as important statesmen such as presidents, governors and military heroes. Cincinnati has her fair share of these, with the city directories reading like a “Who’s Who” of Cincinnati’s political, cultural and economic development, with street names such as Ludlow, Symmes, and Patterson, St. Clair, Gamble and Ault, Anderson, Findlay and Wade, among others.

Gamble Street, named for industrialist James Gamble, of Proctor & Gamble.

Ludlow Avenue, named for Isaac Ludlow who surveyed the original plat for the town of Losantiville (Cincinnati) in 1788.

St. Clair Street, named for Arthur St. Clair, first Governor of the Northwest Territory.

One street even bears the original name of the city, “Losantiville,” as it was called when first founded in 1788 by Israel Ludlow, Matthias Denman, and Robert Patterson. The name was changed in 1790 to “Cincinnati” by Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory. A general in the Revolutionary Army, St. Clair was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, an association of Revolutionary War officers.

Losantiville Avenue, original name of Cincinnati when first founded in 1788; the name was derived by Mr. John Filson as a combination of the letter ‘L’ for ‘Licking’, the Latin word ‘os’ meaning ‘mouth’, the Greek word ‘anti’ meaning ‘opposite’, and the French word ‘ville’ meaning ‘city’, ‘L-os-anti-ville’, referring to the location opposite the mouth of the Licking River.

The original plat of the town, as surveyed by Israel Ludlow in 1788, was established on a grid extending in a north-westerly direction from the Ohio River, across from the mouth of the Licking River. Streets that extended to the north from the riverfront were given names such as Walnut, Vine, Sycamore, Elm, or Plum. Streets that extended east-to-west, parallel with the river, began with Water Street, then Front Street, then were given a numerical numbering beginning with Second, Third, Fourth, and increasing numerically as they extended north from the river.

(Source: http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-OH-CI-1838.htm)

As the city expanded outward, other names were derived from a variety of sources, including the names of other cities, such as Marietta, Trenton, Dorchester, Salem, Oberlin, Philadelphia, Lucerne, and Lancaster, to name just a few. In the downtown area, street names often reflected the types of business being conducted, including Commerce, Canal, and Court Streets, Hatter’s Alley and Cathedral Alley.

A variety of names were used throughout the city with some reflecting the terrain, such as Rapid Run, Duck Creek, Overlook, Straight, Red Bank, Hillcrest or Spring, while others were more abstract, such as Arrow, Eastern, Grand, Sunset, Three Mile, or Winter. As mentioned in a previous blog, some streets have either changed names since they were first established or no longer exist, such as Laurel Street, Columbia Avenue, Carthage Pike, Front Street, and Lockport Avenue.

Rapid Run Road, Mar. 27, 1929 (left) Burr Oak Street from N. Edgewood (right)

Turkey Bottom Road, Aug. 21, 1940 (left). Warsaw Street, Oct. 19, 1938 (right)

Hatter’s Alley, west from Walnut Street, May 22, 1934 (left), Hatter’s Alley, looking east from Race Street, May 22, 1934 (right)

Glancing through the old Farnsworth and Williams’ Cincinnati Directories, which have been scanned and are available online through the Virtual Library site of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, one can quickly see how the streets and avenues of Cincinnati have been aptly named to recognize and promote the distinguished history of the city. The earliest available of these directories was published in October, 1819 by Oliver Farnsworth and provided readers with historical sketches of the city and surrounding areas, “the most ample history of the original settlement, rise, progress and present importance of Cincinnati and its neighborhood, that has yet appeared.”  The directory also contained “the names, profession and occupation of the inhabitants of the town, alphabetically arranged; with the number of the building occupied by each. Also, an account of its officers, population, institutions and societies, public buildings, manufactures, &c. with an interesting sketch of its Local Situation and Improvements.” Both the Farnsworth and Williams’ Street Directories have proven to be an invaluable resource for identifying dates and locations of unidentified photographs based on visual clues contained within the images.

Sources:

http://www.worldmapsonline.com/historicalmaps/1W-OH-CI-1838.htm

http://virtuallibrary.cincinnatilibrary.org/virtuallibrary/vl_citydir.aspx

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Cincinnati,_Ohio

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

Contained within the subway portion of the photograph collection are images of the interiors of homes along McMicken Avenue taken during the construction of the subway. Originally intended to serve as evidence for claims by homeowners of structural damage to the houses caused by blasting for the subway tunnels, the pictures now serve as a historic reference of domestic life during the 1920s.

Many of the images are interiors of apartments. Large row houses lined McMicken Avenue in the area north of Brighton Bridge, with several families occupying a building, each on a different floor within a single structure. Apartments consisted of several rooms, including living room, bedroom and kitchen.

In some cases, though, the bedroom and living room appear to be the same room, in the style of an “efficiency” apartment. The caption on the back of the image below (on left) indicates a kitchen may also have served as a bedroom, since the caption reads “basement kitchen,” but there is a bed in the room. Depending on how many family members were occupying the apartment, this could very well have been the case.

Whatever the circumstances, rooms were cramped in these row house apartments and amenities appear sparse. A cooking stove might also double as the main source of heat for the room. Laundry would have been done in the kitchen sink with scrub brushes, a ball of twine with clothes pins ready to be strung across the room on which the clothes would be hung to dry. Small accents such as framed pictures, mantel clocks or stenciling on a stovepipe cover (see enlargement below) added a bit of decoration to an otherwise sparse room.

In other houses along the street, more opulent furnishings can be found. Rooms were larger, with parlors and sitting rooms separate from bedrooms and kitchens. Hot water radiators were the main source of heat, and tailored curtains covered the windows. Large planters and framed pictures decorated these rooms, with oriental rugs on floors, china and crystal in cabinets, canisters for “Rice”, “Barley”, ”Coffee” and “Sugar” in cupboards (see enlargement below). Walls would be papered or have scenes stenciled on the walls, such as the second image below of a man fishing at a lake. Bedrooms were nicely decorated, with sitting areas, overhead lighting fixtures and drapes.

As construction moved northward up the old canal bed, some blasting and digging into the hillside at the foot of McMicken Avenue was required for the final section of underground tunnel to be constructed. This blasting left the hillside vulnerable to landslides, and caused extensive structural damage to the houses at the top of the hill. These photographs were taken by the Rapid Transit Commission as evidence for the many claims being filed by residents with the city for damages.

But many houses were not salvageable; many had to be razed, such as those in the images immediately below. In the image on the right, the photographer recorded cracks in the backs of the houses on McMicken Avenue on June 29, 1927. Heavy rains on Sunday, August 14 caused the hillside behind those same houses to give way, causing the buildings to break apart and slide down the hillside as seen in the image on the right taken August 18, 1927. Nearly a million dollars in damages would be paid out to residents by the city of Cincinnati. For more information on damages caused by the subway construction, see the Dec. 10, 2012 blog “Accidents Happen”.

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

Road construction. It seems like it’s never ending. Some have joked that Ohio has only two seasons – winter and road construction. And the images in the Street Improvement collection would certainly seem to validate that. What is interesting about the images in the collection of street improvements is that many of the streets recorded in the photographs no longer exist. Or, where they do still exist, they are named differently or the surroundings have been altered to the point that the location in the photograph is no longer recognizable.

One major example of a street changing in both name and appearance is Laurel Street – or as we know it today, Ezzard Charles Drive. Originally a narrow street lined with brick row houses and businesses, Laurel Street extended from 1247 Plum Street west to Freeman Avenue, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Hall towering over the eastern end of the street, as if keeping watch over all who passed. In the winter of 1921, subway construction made its way north along the canal bed to the Laurel Street intersection, where a tunnel ventilator was constructed.

(Left) Construction of subway ventilator opposite Laurel Street, January 12, 1921, 2:02 p.m.
(Right) Laurel Street, west of Canal, with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Hall in center background, April 21, 1920, 3:47 p.m.

Laurel Street was first renamed in 1932 when the Cincinnati Union Terminal was under construction at the opposite end of Laurel Street, west of Freeman Avenue. Construction of the terminal meant widening of the streets around the station, in anticipation of increased traffic. At that time the street was renamed “Terminal Parkway”, and often referred to as “Terminal Approach.” Many of the existing buildings, both residential and commercial, along Laurel Street were razed to make room for the expansive parkway to be constructed.

(Left) Laurel Street looking west from Linn Street, Union Terminal under construction in background, June 23, 1932
(Right) Laurel Street looking east from Linn Street across Cutter Street, July 1, 1932

(Left) Looking east from 742 Laurel Street, July 1, 1932
(Right) Looking east from 744 Laurel Street, January 5, 1933

(Left) Laurel Street looking west from Baymiller Street, July 1, 1932
(Right) View of Laurel Street looking west, houses on north side of Laurel Street razed for widening, November 8, 1933

After the parkway was completed and Union Terminal opened in 1933, the street was again renamed in 1935, becoming known as “Lincoln Park Drive” and welcoming residents and travelers to the soon-to-be-bustling Union Terminal. The street would remain so named for 41 years until changed again in 1976 to “Ezzard Charles Drive” in honor of Cincinnati’s own World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Ezzard Mack Charles. On September 27, 1950, Charles won the title of World Heavyweight Champion when he defeated Joe Louis in a 15-round match at Yankee Stadium.

(Left) Laurel Street looking east from John Street, July 1, 1932
(Right) Lincoln Park Drive looking east from John Street, April 18, 1936

(Left) View from 914 Laurel Street, looking west across Freeman Avenue at Union Terminal construction, June 30, 1932
(Right) Union Terminal Approach, looking southwest, June 30, 1932

(Left) Terminal Parkway looking west from Linn Street, November 7, 1934
(Right) Union Terminal Approach looking west from Freeman Avenue, February 2, 1933

Born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Charles moved to Cincinnati at the age of nine to live with his grandmother, who resided at 929 Laurel Street. The residence would have been in the proximity of the buildings seen on the right side of the street in the image below. Next to this is an image of Ezzard Charles wearing the World Heavyweight Champion belt he earned in 1950 and that he successfully defended four times until his loss to Jersey Joe Walcott in 1951. His career spanned the 1940s and 1950s, until he retired in 1959. The champion passed away on May 28, 1975 from complications associated with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which he’d fought since the mid-1950s. In 1976, Cincinnati honored their hometown hero by naming the street on which he grew up “Ezzard Charles Drive.”

(Left) Terminal Parkway under construction, looking east from President Place toward Freeman Avenue, June 30, 1932
(Right) 1950 World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Ezzard Mack Charles (http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/File:1_Belt_Ezzard_Charles_vintage_photo_10x8_jpg.jpg)

(Left) Official Program of the 1950 World Heavyweight Champion Boxing Match at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, September 27, 1950 (http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/File:Louis-Charles.Program.jpg)
(Right) Charles vs. Walcott, World Heavyweight Champion Boxing Match at Forbes Field, Pittsburg, PA, July 18, 1951 (http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/File:Charles-Walcott.jpg)

Sources:

http://library.cincymuseum.org/aag/bio/charles.html

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=9012&cat=boxer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezzard_Charles

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/charles_gs.html

http://www.cincymuseum.org/unionterminal

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

Downtown Cincinnati at the turn of the 20^th century was a bustling business and commercial center, but with a dangerous mixture of pedestrians, horse-pulled wagons and carriages, street cars, and unseasoned automobile drivers. Add to this a mess of unpaved or cobblestoned streets, a lack of traffic laws, speed limits, and stop signs at intersections, with streetcar tracks criss-crossing lanes. It was a recipe for disaster.

On the left, deliveries to the Raschig School are unloaded from a horse-drawn wagon while, on the right, automobiles park along a drained Miami & Erie Canal, looking east down Canal Street as subway construction begins, April 20, 1920

Horses, pedestrians, and cars share the road alongside the Miami & Erie Canal at the Plum Street bend, looking south from 12th Street bridge, May 14, 1920

Street conditions at Race Street and Central Parkway in front of Star Union Baking Company & Puritan Chocolate Company, November 12, 1926

Street conditions on Central Parkway in front of the Kladwell Store, September 17, 1926

Automobile and streetcar traffic north along Vine Street from Central Parkway, Aug 16, 1921

In 1917, the citizens of Cincinnati approved a bond issue with the goal of alleviating the traffic issues of the day through the construction of a subway. The two main benefits of the subway were to alleviate the increasing volume of traffic in the downtown area, and to provide citizens with easier access into the downtown from the interurban trains that serviced the outlying areas.

Interurban railway lines heading south through Bond Hill into Cincinnati, July 8, 1924

Street car passenger loading at Carthage Pike, Miami & Erie Canal in foreground, July 9, 1924

Interurban lines were a convenient means of traveling from one outlying community to another, but they did not provide a direct route into downtown. Riders would have to change trains and then wait for street cars to make the trip into the business district. But by looping a subway line from the downtown through the outlying community served by the interurban, passengers could hop on the subway and ride directly into the downtown without having to make any additional changes. Traffic congestion issue solved!

Western end of subway through Norwood at Montgomery Pike underpass, running parallel with B&O Railroad, June 3, 1926

Underpass at Section Avenue in Norwood, June 3, 1926

Subway construction, Section 8, Reading Road overpass, October 15, 1924

But by 1926, all but the College Hill interurban lines were out of business, and automobile ownership had nearly doubled. In the downtown area, the majority of streets were paved with cobblestones or bricks, but even these were showing signs of wear and in need of repair. The street department also struggled to keep pace with housing construction in the suburban areas, as more and more Cincinnatians were moving to the suburbs, content with their new automobiles to accommodate their transportation needs. Asphalt and concrete paving slowly made its way into the suburban neighborhoods in the mid-1920s, replacing the rutted dirt roads that most residents had to maneuver with their new Model Ts. Granted, the street conditions in Cincinnati today aren’t terrific, but (and it takes a lot of me to say this) we are better off than the poor folks who had to bounce along the ruts in the images below!

Barr Street looking east, before street improvements, August 2, 1928 (left), and after street improvements, March 9, 1929 (right)

Arnsby Avenue, before street improvements, October, 1927 (left), and after street improvements, July, 1927 (right)

Attica Avenue, looking south from Swift Street, before improvements, March 3, 1927 (left) and after improvements, July 7, 1927 (right)

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.

The story of abandoned subway stations and tracks hidden beneath busy city streets is not unique to Cincinnati. Other large cities, such as New York, London, and Paris have similarly mysterious and intriguing stories to tell. An article I recently read in The New York Times introduced me to this underground world of hidden subway ventilation shafts disguised by false building facades, with doors from which people occasionally exit, but never seem to enter. Some of these subterranean secrets are in use, while others have been abandoned like Cincinnati’s own subway stations beneath Central Parkway.

What’s fascinating is the effort made to disguise these facilities, to blend them in with the neighboring buildings. While it seems a logically aesthetic means of making the utilitarian more appealing, some have argued that the cities in which these structures are located are trying to hide a deep secret. For comparison, consider the Cincinnati subway – when the subway and Central Parkway were first being constructed, the ventilation chimneys and the entrances to the below-ground stations were nicely appointed with decorative stonework.

Ventilation shaft, looking north along Parkway from Liberty St., July 2, 1928

Close up of decorative stonework for ventilator railing, Central Parkway,
Nov. 19, 1928

East entrance to underpass near Brighton Bridge, Central Parkway,
Nov. 15, 1928

Today, metal doors in the sidewalks along Liberty Street and Central Parkway, and steel doors and grates enclosing the tunnel openings along I-75 near the Hopple Street Viaduct, are all that remain visible of the subway to give passers-by cause for speculation as to what lies beneath or behind these doors.

Source: Google Search (http://goo.gl/DPwiA)

But in New York, London, and Paris, clever preservation commissions and city transit leaders have provided a more pleasant disguise, leaving local residents completely unaware of what was behind the closed doors of 58 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn, 23 and 24 Leinster Terrace in Bayswater, London, or 145, Rue La Fayette in Paris. Personally I would rather see a well maintained Greek Revival or Edwardian building façade than an empty space in the middle of a historic streetscape with a large metal grate from which hot air is expelled. So I invite you to read along, view the images, and decide for yourselves!

 The article in The New York Times describes a Greek Revival townhouse nestled in the midst of a row of brownstones located on a quiet street in Brooklyn, NY. The townhouse at #58 Joralemon Street is well maintained despite the darkened windows through which no light ever shines. A peek through the crack in the front door reveals no one is home. In fact, it reveals this is not a home at all, but a large empty space with a concrete floor and“catwalks going back and forth this way and that, and somewhere down below the trains going by”, as quoted in the article by an area resident who was fortunate to be given a peek inside the “Shaft House”, the name by which those living in the neighborhood refer to the townhouse.

Source: Matt Green, Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/imjustwalkin/8036922592/)

The Shaft House is actually an emergency exit and ventilation fan plant for subway tracks 4 and 5 of the Interurban Rapid Transit Company and is maintained by New York City Transit. The townhouse was purchased by the city in 1908 to house the ventilation fans. Large steel louvered shutters, from which hot air and smoke would randomly pour out into the street, were fitted into the window cases. Behind the pleasant Greek Revival façade, the interior decorating consists of electrical panels, switches and behind a steel door, catwalks that cross over a nine-story drop to the subway tracks below.

Source: Heather Quinlan, Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/
heggieq/4519128092/in/set-72157623848942178

Source: Allison Meier, Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/
astrozombie/
6838892879/)

The restoration of the 1847 façade to its historical appointments is owed to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and a local community association. Both entities made recommendations to the city, who owns the property, to spruce up the aging façade which included the removal of the unsightly steel ventilation shutters. “Windows” were installed made of sheets of Lexan – a hard plastic resin that is used for such things as sports helmets and windshields – on which wooden mullions were placed to create panes. New ventilation shafts were installed to expel the air out through the roof. In addition to being more pleasant to look at, New York City Transit considers the quaint façade to be a security benefit, since the building now blends seamlessly in with the row of brownstones – a useful disguise in our post-9/11 world for what could be a potential target to those wishing to inflict harm on the city. The article even notes that neighbors occasionally spruce it up with flower boxes under the windows.

Other cities with false facades disguising subway ventilation systems or emergency exists include London and Paris, among others. In London’s Bayswater neighborhood, two townhouses located at #23 and 24 Leinster Terrace are simply a 5-foot thick façade, complete with windows, balconies and front doors, but with no back or roof to the buildings at all. The two townhouses were razed in the 1860s to gain access for construction of a subway tunnel that was to pass through Paddington and Bayswater.

Source: Urban Blog (http://goo.gl/FawjQ)

Once the tunnel was finished and covered over, the townhouses were not “completely” rebuilt. Only the facades were reconstructed, disguising the ventilation system for the steam-powered subway trains running through the tunnel below.

Source: Urban Blog (http://goo.gl/FawjQ)

In Paris, a Haussman style façade disguises a Metro ventilation system, nestled between buildings at 124 Rue La Fayette. Information regarding this structure may be found on several internet sites, such as Web Urbanist, all providing an aerial view for doubters, courtesy of Google Maps.

Source: Urban Blog (http://goo.gl/FawjQ)

Another hidden subway treasure in London is the now defunct mini-rail and stations that provided mail delivery service for the Royal Mail Rail between Paddington and Whitechapel. In service for some 85 years, it was closed in 2002 when it had become too costly to maintain.

Source: Silent UK (http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792)

The station and its closing were kept very hush-hush, with very few people aware of the postal services happening beneath them. The stations and train cars were simply left as they were, with mail cars still on tracks and phones still on desks.

Source: Silent UK (http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792)

Access points for the stations and tunnels are located either in functioning mail depots or are less aesthetically disguised than the Leinster vents, with concrete walls blocking entry. Savvy urban explorers from the blog Silent UK managed to gain access to the stations and provided images of the station that seems frozen in time, kind of like the feeling you get when waiting in line at the post office to mail Christmas packages, or tax returns.

Source: Silent UK (http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792)

Passenger cart possibly for transporting Royal Mail Rail workers to-and-from stations. Source: Richard Pope, Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/
memespring/311142664/in/set-72157594400450387)

Curious to know more about what subterranean treasures your city may hide behind false facades or gated metal doors that seem to lead to nowhere? Even those which are in plain view are worth investigating a little closer. Learn more about the city you live in, or a city you are interested in visiting. Research its history, and learn more about the stories which make it famous, and those which make it infamous, such as a subway that was never completed but which still exists beneath busy city streets. Keep your eyes and imagination open to the built environment around you. Who knows what you’ll discover!

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/nyregion/thecity/26shaf.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/01/29/the-fake-townhouses-hiding-mystery-underground-portals/

http://weburbanist.com/2013/04/29/buildings-that-dont-exist-fake-facades-hide-infrastructure/

http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792

http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/11/09/londons-subterranean-secret-the-forgotten-mail-train/

This project is funded by a grant for $60,669 through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the State Library of Ohio.