Map of Over-the-Rhine
1.
St.
John Protestant Church / Deutsche Protestantische Sankt Johannes Kirche/,
NW cor. of 12th &Elm Streets. Cincinnati's oldest German congregation,
dating back to 1814, built this church in 1867. The congregation,
now the St. John's Unitarian church, celebrated its 175th anniversary
in 1989.
2.
Washington
Park, between Race, Elm, 12th &14th Streets. This park
opened in 1861 and became a focal point for social, cultural and political
activities. The park contains a bandstand and busts
of Friedrich Hecker 1(1811-1881) and Robert
L. McCook. Hecker,
a German revolutionary, came to the U.S. after the failed German Revolution
of 1848.
The inscription on the Hecker
Memorial reads "Mit
Wort und That fuer Volksfreiheit im alten und neuen Vaterlande"
"With Word and Deed for the Freedom of the People in the Old and New
Fatherlands." At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Union
Army as a private and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. Colonel
McCook commanded the all-German Ohio 9th Regiment in the Civil War.
3.
Music
Hall, 1243 Elm Street. Formerly the site of a wooden hall
(Saengerfest Halle) where several German singing societies met until
the old hall was razed to make room for a new Music Hall which opened
in 1878. Today Music Hall1 is home to the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra.
3b. Sixth
District Public School, corner of Elm St. The Sixth
District School was one of the more than forty German bilingual
schools in Cincinnati before WWI. Among its principals was Dr. Heinrich
H. Fick, later superintendent of German for the Public Schools. Heinrich
Fick's personal library was acquired by the university of Cincinnati
in 1935 and became the basis of a very large German-Americana collection
established at the university in 1974.
4. Findlay
Market Building, 1800 Elm Street. This market building is
named after James Findlay (1770-1835), an early Irish-American mayor
of Cincinnati and U.S. Congressman, who was popular with German-Americans
as he aopposed prohibition. The present market building has been
in use since it was built in 1854. Findlay Market is the only
market
building left in Cincinnati. Even
today, many German
products can be purchased here.
5.
Christian
Moerlein Brewery, E side of Elm & S of McMicken Streets.
Christian Moerlein started brewing in the 1850's and became the largest
brewery in Cincinnati in 1891. It closed during Prohibition and
never reopened. Remaining
buildings on Elm Street are the bottling plant (24a), which was
built around 1900 and the barrel house (24b) which was erected in 1870.
6.
John
Christian Baum House,
2031 Dunlap Street. John Christian Baum, a successful Cincinnati
German, was postmaster of the City of Cincinnati from 1861-1864 and
served as a charter member of the Board of Health from 867-1869.
He also worked as a chemist for many years operating the Mohawk Chemical
Laboratory.
7.
Philippus United Church of Christ / Philippus Kirche / ,
NW cor. Race & McMicken Streets. This former German Evangelical
Church was built in 1890 and services in German were held here until
the 1980's. Currently1 the church is active in the local
community.
8.
Schwartz's
Point, NE cor. of Vine & McMicken Streets. This house
was constructed by the three Schwartz brothers in 1921to accommodate
their dental offices.
9.
Hudepohl Brewing Company,
40 McMicken Street. Louis Hudepohl and George Kotte purchased
the Buckeye Brewer in 1885. Hudepohl became the sole owner when
Kotte died in 1893. He then named the brewery "Hudepohl Brewing
Company". The old brewery was razed in 1963 but the bottling plant
building still remains on McMicken Street.
10. Rothenberg
School, E. Clifton & Main Streets. The school, once the
15th District School, is named in memory of one of its principals
who believed in corporal punishment.
11.
Salem
Church of Christ (Salem German Evangelical Reformed Church) / Deutsche
Evangelisch Reformirte Salems Kirche / SW
cor. of Sycamore & Liberty Streets. This church was constructed
in 1867 and services were held in German until the 1930's. The
former German name of this church is engraved over the front door on
Sycamore Street.
12.
Ziegler Park, Sycamore Street between 13th & 14th Streets.
Over-the-Rhine Germans named this park after David
Ziegler (1748-1811), a native of Heidelberg, Germany, who fought
in the Revolutionary War and became the first Mayor of Cincinnati in
1802.
13.
St. Paul Church, SE cor. of 12th & Spring Streets. German
Catholics constructed this church in 1849. The roof and steeple
were rebuilt after a fire in 1899. Note the German-made stained
glass windows.
14.
St.
Paul's former Boys' School,
501-507 12th Street. This Roman Catholic school was part of
St. Paul's church complex which included the church, a rectory, a girls/
school, a sisters' convent and the boys' school.
15.
Alms and Doepke Building, 22 Central Parkway. William Alms, Frederick
Alms and William
Doepke, all sons of German immigrants, opened a department store
on this site in 1865 and erected the present building in 18781.
The department store went out of business in 1953. The building now
houses the Hamilton County Department of Human Services.
16.
General
August Willich Home, 1419
Main Street. August
Willich (1810-1878) left
Germany after the failed German revolution of 1848.
He moved from New York to Cincinnati where he edited a German Newspaper.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Union Army as an adjutant
of the Ohio 9th Regiment and attained the rank of Brevet Major General
in 1865. Willich lived in this house from 1867-1870.
17.
German Baptist Church / Baptisten Kirche / SE cor. of Walnut &
Corwine Streets. German Baptists built this church in 1866.
Cincinnati was an important center of German Baptist activity until
the outbreak of World War I. After the U.S. entered the war in
1917, services in German ceased and the Germans joined the American
Baptists.
18. Grammer's
Restaurant, 1440
Walnut Street. This restaurant was established by German-born
Anton Grammer (1832-1911) in 1872. It soon flourished and became well
known for its fine foods, beers and liquors. The Bakers Singing Society,
the German Literary Society, city fathers and politicians met here regularly.
Note the glass windows in the front barroom which were imported from Germany
in 1911.
19.
Gustav Tafel Home, NE cor. Walnut & 14th Streets. Gustav
Tafel (1830-1908) also fled Germany after the Revolution of 1848.
He resided in this house from 1848-1870. He started in Cincinnati as
a printer, later became a newspaper editor, served as US colonel in
the Civil War and finally became a lawyer. In 1897, Tafel was elected
Mayor of Cincinnati.
20.
Old
St. Mary Church /St. Marien Kirche/, 125
E. 13th Street. The Roman Catholic church was erected by its German
parishioners in 1841. Note the German inscription above the front door,
"St. Marien Kirche, 1841". The interior was redecorated in1890. Remarkable
are the three oil paintings from Germany and the stained glass windows
of which one reads "Maria bitt für uns" i.e., "Mary pray for us".
A German mass is held here weekly. Also:
21.
German
Mutual Insurance Company of Cincinnati / Deutsche Gegenseitige Versicherungs-Gesellschaft
von Cincinnati/, SW cor. of Walnut &13th Streets. The insurance
company was founded by Heinrich
A. Rattermann on Vine Street in 1858 and had its offices here from
1870 until it moved to the Germania building in 1877. The company's
German
name is still legible on the building. Ratterman, a well known German-American
historian edited an historical journal, Der Deutsche Pioner.
22.
Germania
Building,
SW cor. of Walnut & 12th Streets. The German Mutual Insurance
Company of Cincinnati constructed this building in 1877. The insurance
company moved to this location from the SW. cor. of Walnut & 13th
Streets. Note the statue "Germania" symbolizing the German Spirit which
stands in a niche in the front of the building.
23.
A.G. Hauck Company Building, 1109
Vine Street. This building was originally a bakery and restaurant
owned by Charles Doerr, a native of Saarbrücken, Germany. The Hauck
Family operated one of the major German-American breweries in CIncinnati
before prohibition. Visit the Hauck Haus in the west end of Dayton St.
24.
Germania
Beer Hall, 1313
Vine Street. The building was constructed in 1855 and served various
purposes over the decades. It was first a beer hall which brewed the
beer in its cavernous sub-basement. The a German newspaper, the "Hochwaechter"
was edited here in 1861. As the turn of the century, it was used by
different immigrant groups as a dance hall.
25.
Wielert's
Beer Garden, 1408-1410
Vine Street. A saloon with a beer garden behind that provided
entertainment by a 40-50 member orchestra. As many as 1500 people attended
special concerts. Wielert's Beer Garden stayed in business until 1919,
when Prohibition caused it to close. It was one of the major beer gardens
in OTR and a favorite of "Boss" Cox before WWI.
26.
Zions Kirche, NE cor. of Republic & 15th Streets This church
was erected in 1853 and was closed in 1934. Note the inscription, "Deutsche
Evangelische Zions Kirche" above the door and the "Bremen" street marker
on the corner. The street's original name "Bremen" was changed to "Republic"
in April 1918 due to the anti-German hysteria during World War I. At
the north end of the street (at the corner of Liberty and Republic)
note the historical marker indicating the original name of the street.
27.
Kolping Society House, 1523
Republic Street. Built in 1870, this house was first used as a police
station and later as a bath house. The German Kolping Society acquired
the building in 1926 and owned it until 1958. The motto "Gott Segne
das Ehrbare Handwerk" i.e., "God Bless the Honorable Craft" is engraved
over the front door.
28.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (Trinity Church) /Evangelisch-Lutherische
Dreifaltigkeits-Gemeinde/ 1522
Race Street Built by German Lutherans in 1871, services in German
were held here until 1969, when the congregation (Concordian Lutheran
Church) moved to a central parkway location, where it continues to hold
German services.
29.
St. Paul's German Evangelical Church / Deutsche Evangelische Paulus
Kirche/, SW cor. of 15th & Race Streets. Built in 1850, this
church was founded by Northern Germans who split from St. John's German
Protestant Church after disputes with the Southern German members of
this congregation. The inscription above the front door reads "Wahrheit,
Tugend, "Freiheit" i.e., "Truth, Virtue, Freedom".1 The drugstore
in the corner was opened after the church was built in order to pay
off debts for the church's construction.
30.
Nast Trinity Methodist Church (Nast Methodist Church) / Nast Methodistiche
Kirche/, 1310
Race Street. This church is named after Wilhelm
Nast, a German-born preacher and missionary who founded the world's
first German-Methodist church in Cincinnati in 1835. The congregation
built its first church on this site in 1842 which was later replaced
by the present church on this site in 18801. Note the German
inscriptions over the front door. "Erste Deutsche Bischofl Meth. Kirche,
Gegrundet 1835" i.e. "First German Bishopric Methodist Church, Founded
1835. Above each of the two doors an inscription reads "Erste
Bauerrichtet 1842 -
Neu Erbaut, 1880 " i.e., "First Built, 1842 - Rebuilt 1880".
31. First
English Lutheran Church The English Lutheran Church differed from the
other OTR German-American churches in that it was formed by German-Americans
who wanted to have their services in English, so that their children
would learn the language, as they attended the bilingual school and
spoke mainly German in the district.
1
Located on the Over-the Rhine Chamber of Commerce Website, from
the Book Over-the-Rhine: A Description and History,
