Historic Preservation

In 2006, Over-the-Rhine was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the “11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in America. OTR made the list for two basic reasons: its significance and its threat of destruction.

OTR’s National Significance

The neighborhood’s roughly 350 acres is one of the largest, most intact, nineteenth century urban historic districts in the United States; and is believed to contain the nation’s largest contiguous collection of Nineteenth Century Italianate Architecture. OTR’s dense streetscapes are full of tenements, churches, theatres, storefronts, and social halls that are largely unchanged from a time when they were inhabited by working-class immigrants in the 1800s. Similar neighborhoods are extremely rare and can only be found in a very few other cities. Over-the-Rhine is home to the nation’s first large Music Hall, as well as the nation’s first “Turnhalle” (Turner’s Hall) and first German Methodist church. It was once home to Levi Coffin and his underground railroad operation, Harriet Beecher Stowe was an OTR resident before she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and it has been home to an impressive and eclectic array of authors, artists, and political figures from its birth through today.

Most American historic districts have been spared because of impressive collections of mansions or unique architecture. OTR is significant for essentially the opposite reason. It has a very authentic sense of place that still makes it feel like a working-class immigrant neighborhood. In the 1800s, wealthy beer barons lived across the street from their breweries and adjacent to their laborers. OTR’s building stock reflects this diversity of socioeconomic classes and mix of uses. Beer Baron Christian Moerlein’s OTR home still stands next to his office and across from part of the brewery’s massive complex; and the Kauffman apartment building where brewery workers lived is being saved and restored down the street from the remaining Kauffman Brewery buildings. In fact, we believe that OTR may contain more intact nineteenth century brewery buildings than any other city in America.

Over-the-Rhine was once one of America’s most densely populated neighborhoods (reportedly more densely populated than Manhattan during parts of the 1800s) and served as the first American home to tens of thousands of European immigrants. Although the neighborhood was extremely diverse, it was also home to a nationally unprecedented number of Germanic immigrants. Its magnificent public buildings such as Music Hall, Memorial Hall, Old St. Mary’s church and others, its collection of Italianate tenement stock, its rich brewing heritage, and its critical role in German-American history and nineteenth century immigration all make it a place of national significance. During a visit in 1995, Arthur Frommer of Frommer’s travel guides fame, remarked that “[i]n all of America, there is no more promising an urban area for revitalization than your own Over-the-Rhine….I see in my mind the possibility of a revived district that literally could rival similar prosperous and heavily visited areas.”

OTR’s Imminent Threat of Destruction

When the first commercial brewing operations were started in Over-the-Rhine in the 1820’s, Chicago was a harsh, remote outpost where a half-dozen families banded together at night for protection against the wolves that roamed the village’s few muddy streets. By American standards, Cincinnati is a very historic town. In fact, with the sole exception of Philadelphia, we have more historic places on the National Register than any other city in America, but unlike cities such as Philadelphia we are failing to utilize our historic assets to our advantage. In fact, we have let many of these assets become an albatross: Historic buildings throughout Over-the-Rhine sit vacant and derelict, deteriorating over years of neglect and sporadically housing vagrants, prostitutes, addicts and drug dealers. Much of our approach to this dilemma has been standardized and reactionary. When the theatre where Buffalo Bill met his wife fell into disrepair, we turned it into a parking lot. When the ornate beer hall that served as the site of an historic confrontation over temperance laws between German immigrants and City Hall started looking shabby, we turned it into a parking lot. Over-the-Rhine is still one of America’s most historically significant neighborhoods, but it is at a tipping point. We either need to change policy and start taking historic preservation seriously or concede the loss of one of Cincinnati’s most valuable potential assets and one of America’s most significant historic neighborhoods.

As the maps below illustrate, the level of demolition of historic properties in OTR has been dramatic over the past several decades. Since 1930, approximately half of the building stock has been removed, most of it by City-sponsored demolition. While earlier decades saw widespread razing of blocks and streetscapes, recent years have brought a new, equally insidious phenomenon: demolition by neglect.

As poverty rates and disinvestment grew in Over-the-Rhine, buildings were increasingly abandoned and gradually deteriorated. Today, many buildings stand vacant and in dire need of repair, yet building owners remain unwilling to bring their properties up to code. Once buildings reach a critical stage of dilapidation, they are deemed a danger to the public and are slated for “emergency demolition” by the City. These emergency demolitions – the result of years of neglect -- are cutting wide, vacant swaths in the remaining fabric of OTR. Between 2001 and 2006, over 50 historic buildings were demolished in such a manner. In fact, just since the National Trust’s designation as one of America’s most endangered places, at least 10 historic properties have been demolished in Over-the-Rhine. Meanwhile, dozens and dozens more are condemned and in immediate risk of destruction. And even stable buildings are not safe. Solvent owners continue to seek demolitions as a preferred approach to neglected properties, and some purchase developable historic properties with the intent of razing them for mere convenience. Roughly 50% of OTR’s original historic building stock has been lost and can never be replaced. We must start taking preservation seriously.

maps courtesy of Danny Klingler

Over-the-Rhine Foundation’s Action Steps

The Over-the-Rhine Foundation is working to preserve OTR’s history in a number of ways. These include:

• Advocating for changes to Cincinnati’s Municipal Code as it effects historic conservation and the creation of a properly funded receivership program to take deteriorating properties from the hands of bad owners and encourage their development. These efforts have already helped improve a waiver process for Cincinnati’s Vacant Building Maintenance License (VBML). In 2009, we hope to begin receivership and also to begin garnering support for the changes to the municipal code. All of these recommendations are contained in a written report entitled “Historic Preservation: Cincinnati’s Untapped Key to Economic Revitalization.” The proposal has been endorsed by our frequent partners, the Cincinnati Preservation Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Brewery District CURDC, as well as the board of The Bett’s House, the OTR Community Council, and the Pendleton Community Council. Downloaded the full set of recommendations.

• Until Cincinnati’s system for preservation can be improved, we monitor emergency demolition orders, demolition and alteration requests, and frequently advocate for preservation before the Historic Conservation Board.

• We try to raise awareness about Over-the-Rhine’s historic significance through endeavors like the OTR Memory Project and events during Bockfest.

• We are studying and promoting the compatibility between “green design” and historic Over-the-Rhine. As a nation, we are finally starting to realize that ecological responsibility and decreasing our carbon footprint is not about “hugging trees.” It is basic survival. We are either going to become more environmentally responsible or become extinct. The link between historic preservation and environmental preservation is typically overlooked by most people. We think of historic properties as drafty and energy inefficient. This is not entirely untrue, but historic properties also have a tremendous number of “green” attributes, particularly in a dense, walkable, mixed-use environment such as OTR. Working with critical partners in the public, academic, non-profit, and private realms, we are trying to help people understand the critical link between historic preservation and “green development.”