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.

Construction of Riverfront Stadium begins, Eugene Ruehlmann is second from the right

We began our Monday in the Archives and Rare Books Library with the sad news that a dear friend of our library passed away over the weekend.  Former Cincinnati mayor and city councilman, Eugene Ruehlmann died on Saturday June 8 at the age of 88.  Since the Archives and Rare Books Library holds his papers, I had the pleasure of assisting Mr. Ruehlmann on several occasions.  For someone so accomplished, I always found Mr. Ruehlmann incredibly approachable, easy to talk to, and humble.  Our student workers especially enjoyed meeting and talking with him.  He will be greatly missed.

Eugene Ruehlmann, 1947, from The Cincinnatian Yearbook

Eugene Ruehlmann, the second youngest of John and Hattie Ruehlmann’s ten children, was born in 1925.  He grew up on Cincinnati’s West Side and attended Western Hills High School and graduated in 1943.  After high school, he joined the U.S. Marines and served in World War II.  He then entered the University of Cincinnati, where he was a successful and active student.  Ruehlmann was a member of Beta Theta Phi, ODK, and Sophos and was on the board of The Cincinnatian (yearbook) and was a member of the varsity football team.  He graduated with honors in 1948 with a degree in Political Science and received the McKibbin Medal from the College of Arts and Sciences.  Ruehlmann earned his law degree in 1950 from Harvard.

Mayor Ruehlmann at an Avondale Community Council Meeting, February 1968

Ruehlmann came home to Cincinnati and was a founder of the Strauss, Troy and Ruehlmann law firm.  He was first elected to Cincinnati City Council in 1959 and served for 12 years.  He was elected as mayor in 1967, and served in that position until 1971.  Ruehlmann’s work on City Council had lasting effects on the city.  He was involved in the negotiations that brought the Bengals to Cincinnati and the construction of Riverfront Stadium and the convention center.  Ruehlmann was also mayor when the June 1967 and April 1968 riots broke out in Avondale and he led efforts to investigate the riots and to help heal the city.  Ruehlmann reached out to Cincinnati’s African American and impoverished communities by attending community meetings and touring blighted neighborhoods.  His papers in the Archives and Rare Books Library document these efforts.

After completing his service on city council, Ruehlmann returned to practicing law as a partner at Vorys, Sater, Seymour, & Pease and served as chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party in the 1990s.  Ruehlman received a number of awards for his service to Cincinnati including a Great Living Cincinnatian Award from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber in 1998, an Honorary Doctorate from the Union Institute and University in 2005, and an Honorary Doctor of Law from the University of Cincinnati in June of 2011.

Eugene Ruehlmann was also dedicated to his family.  Ruehlmann married Virginia Juergens, also a UC graduate.  They were married for 61 years before she passed away in 2008.  They had 8 children, 25 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.  In the Archives and Rare Books Library we will remember Eugene Ruehlmann fondly, not only for his hard work to improve our city, but also as a remarkable person.

For more information on Eugene Ruehlman, see obituaries from the Cincinnati Enquirer and WVXU.  A finding aid for his papers at the Archives and Rare Books Library is available on the OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository.  Another blog entry describing his papers is available on the UC Libraries Blog.