The Price Hill Incline

The Price Hill Incline was completed in 1874. It was used to transport people up and down the hill. The trip began in Lower Price Hill on Glenway Ave and ascended 350 feet to the base of what is now Queen’s Tower Condos. Two years later a separate car was installed to hall freight (mainly construction material) up the steep slope. Both were evidence of a budding Price Hill. Thousands of Cincinnatians enjoyed the view from the Price Hill House were they would have outings with their families. Realizing the convenience and many amenities the neighborhood had to offer, many more began to call Price Hill home.

Branch Hospital for Contagious Diseases

Currently the Dunham Recreation Center
Guerly Road

Beginning in 1897, tuberculosis patients from Cincinnati (now University) Hospital were transferred to the location of the old Guerley Farm in Green Township. The hospital was known as the Cincinnati Tubercular Hospital from 1912 to 1927.  When the property was leased to the county its name was changed to the Hamilton County Tuberculosis Sanatorium.  These were some of the worst years for tuberculosis and the hospital was one of the nation’s leading centers for combating the disease.

Once a five-story building, patients were encouraged to sit on the balconies as it was thought that the brisk winter weather would help cure them.   Visitors could only wave to loved ones from the lawn below due to the contagious nature of the disease.

One of the leading lights in research into remedies and treatments for the disease was Dr. Henry Kennan Dunham, who served as the medical director of the hospital, without pay, from 1909 to 1940.  In 1945, the facility was renamed Dunham Hospital in honor of Dr. Dunham.

The doctors' residence, called Sunshine Acres, was the little white house across from the Preventitorium, which was for children whose parents were in the hospital.

The Dunham Recreation Center, which is part of Cincinnati Recreation Commission, was opened in 1973.  Today the hospital is home to The Sunset Players, a regional theater group and the Preventitorium hosts year-round community workshops for citizens of all ages.  A new aquatic center is nearing completion and will include water features and an Olympic-size lap pool.

The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888

The Moore-Knight House
716 Mt. Hope Road

Located in southwest corner of Price and Mount Hope Avenues is a three-story building with frame porches that was built about 1860 by Robert M. Moore (1816-1880), who served with distinction in the Mexican and Civil Wars.  He was born in Ireland and came to America in 1832. Upon reaching Cincinnati, he formed a partnership with Robert Michel and entered the lucrative transportation business. In 1843 he married Anna  Eliza Price (1825-1912), granddaughter of the pioneer Evans Price.  The land on which Robert and Anna built their homestead was acquired from Anna’s father, James Price.  Robert Moore became mayor of Cincinnati in 1877 and was described as one of the city’s most public spirited, charitable, and prominent citizens.  Moore was a pioneer proponent of Civil War pensions and aided many city veterans with his own fortune before Congress passed the federal pension system.  His custom of conducting military services at the graves of his Civil War comrades preceded the formal establishment of Decoration Day as May 30 in 1868 after Moore’s suggestion to General Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The once gray brick home was constructed in an elaborate “H” design.  It is of Italianate architecture, a very romantic style popular from 1840 to 1890.   Its structure is noted for its Georgian-like bracketed cornices with dentils and modulations.  Keystone lentils were placed about each window. The leaded glass front door is transdomed and side-lighted.  The one-story pilasters form supports for the full-width porch and are adorned with open brackets and finials. Gothic detailing with finials distinguishes the porch eaves.  The second-story windows are hooded with bracketed lentils with the center window transom inside lighted.  A two-story, 3-window bay faces southward for a view of the river.

The living room has inlaid ceilings with decorative swag in sets.  Six of the seven fireplaces are made from more wise slate, wood, and metal with arched openings in custom brass covers.  The living room fireplace is one of the most impressive features of the home, being made totally of carved white marble.

*The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888

The Pavillion

Mount Echo Park

The 73-acre hilltop park overlooking the Ohio River derives its name from its voluminous castellations of sheer, resonant cliff was established in 1908 at
Elberon and Mt. Echo Drive.

The Pavilion is 825 feet above sea level and consists of a five-bay arcaded loggia flanked by enclosed two-bay wings.  Its formal Italian Renaissance composition is articulated in orange brick walls, smooth limestone trim, and a prominent bracketed copper cornice.  The hip roof is covered with green-glazed metal tile. The interior of the loggia features a barrel vaulted ceiling.

The Pavilion is one of the few Cincinnati Park buildings in the Italian Renaissance style.  Built in 1928, its high style reflects its construction prior to the Depression. 
It was designed by architects Rendings, Panzer and Martin, a successful local firm who favored revival styles.  Another example of their work is the YMCA building at 898 Walnut Street.  Albert D. Taylor, a Cleveland-based landscape architect of national stature, designed the surrounding terraces and landscaping. 
Taylor also designed landscaping in Ault and Almes Parks.

*The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888

The Price Hill Historical Society

During the roaring twenties and the early thirties, jazzy Art Deco architecture was the rage. Like any style, it evolved from many sources. The austere shapes of the Bauhaus School and streamlined styling of modern technology combined with patterns and icons taken from the Far East, ancient Greece and Rome, Africa, India, and Mayan and Aztec cultures. But most of all, Art Deco expressed excitement over a stunning archeological find in Egypt.  In 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, thrilled the world with their discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

Reporters and tourists thronged the site for a glimpse at treasures that had lain nearly undisturbed for over 3,000 years. Soon a fascination for Egypt found expression in clothing, jewelry, furniture, graphic design and -- of course -- architecture.

The term Art Deco was coined from The Exposition des Arts Decoratifs held in Paris in 1925.  Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945) helped promote Art Deco architecture in Europe. With their cubic forms and zigzag designs, art deco buildings embraced the machine age.

In the United States, Art Deco was embraced by Raymond Hood, who designed three of the most distinctive buildings in New York City: the Radio City Music Hall auditorium and foyer, the RCA building at Rockefeller Center and the New York Daily News building. These were the buildings of the future- sleek, geometric, dramatic.

The Price Hill Library...Built by the Richest Man in the World!

Built before the first World War, the structure was one of 10 libraries constructed in Cincinnati between 1905 and 1915 with funds donated by the steel industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, and at a cost $26,707.

Faced with sudden poverty in Scotland, Andrew Carnegie's family emigrated to America. Determined to escape poverty, Carnegie went on to become the richest man in the world and his life embodied the American dream: the immigrant who went from rags to riches, the self-made man who became a captain of industry, the king of steel. After amassing a fortune by crushing his competitors and exploiting his workers, he preached the obligation of the wealthy to return their money to the societies where they made it, and, in a move that underscored his inner conflicts, systematically gave away millions. (from the PBS series THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE)

The restrained French Renaissance style library was built on land donated by the City of Cincinnati at the corner of Warsaw and Purcell Avenues.  It has changed little inside or out, since it was built in 1909 with the exception of the addition of air-conditioning in 1969.

*The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888

The Radel Funeral Home, Schulte House
4122 Glenway

This magnificent edifice located at 4122 Glenway Ave was constructed around 1891, and purch ased the same year by H. Joseph Schulte, a businessman and his wife, Mary Magdalene Schulte (nee Wenning). The brick structure, which presently contains approximately 8000 square feet of living space, was their residence until Mr. Schulte’s death in 1918.  Due to the earlier death of his wife, a nephew, Gerald J. Schulte, son of his deceased brother John, inherited the house from his uncle. Gerald and his wife, Cecelia Tapke Schulte, owned and lived in the house until 1931, when they sold it to its present owner, Radel Funeral Service Company.

John J. Radel had helped a neighbor look after the burial of an incident when he decided to enter the funeral service field in 1878.  His first office was at 652 State Ave and was a small frame structure.  In 1898, one of the many services Radel offered to the public was membership in a burial association, which was the forerunner to the modern insurance plans.  The burial association’s weekly payment plan was to provide complete burial expenses for poor people.  After Ohio legislation overruled this plan in the early 1900s, John Radel turned these “insurance policies” over to the Western Southern Life insurance Company.

In 1903, Radel formed a corporation to take care of his rapidly expanding business, in both Cincinnati and Kentucky.  He erected a new building at the State Avenue site.  Caskets were originally delivered to the basement of the State Avenue home, where employees using block and tackle, hoisted them to the upper level.  The automobile made storage of caskets easier.  Ropes were tied to the car as bumpers and the cars driven in and out of the garage to raise and lower the caskets.

John Radel purchased automobile equipment in 1912 to replace horses and carriages and offered one of the first automobile-service funerals in the country.  Shortly afterwards, Radel invested a large amount of money to begin Cincinnati’s first bus service.  The bus routes ran from Fountain Square to Price Hill, near the site of St. Joseph’s Cemetery New Grounds, a trip of about 5 miles.  One-way fare was only five cents.  The buses rode on solid rubber tires, giving passengers a rough ride.  Several years later, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. invented inflatable tires.  Passengers, looking for a more comfortable ride, rode other buses and the Radel enterprise folded.

In 1917, at the age of 57, John Radel died, a victim of the flu epidemic.  His son, Henry J. immediately took, expanding the company and taking care of the horses and buggies that a number of doctors kept at the Radel stables.  In 1933, Henry bought 4122 Glenway and converted it into a funeral home.

The third generation family still owns funeral homes in Cincinnati and Kentucky.  The elder Radel’s most unusual funeral service was performed for a gypsy queen.  A 120-piece band played the funeral music.  Henry Jr.’s most unusual funeral was for a very prominent member of Cincinnati’s Hell’s Angels motorcycle group.  Along with a regular police escort, 300 other motorcyclists were in the procession to the cemetery.

*The above information was researched at the Price Hill Historical Society, 3640 Warsaw Avenue, 513-251-2888

Rosecrans House: Home of Civil War General, William Starke
2935 Lehman Road in Price Hill

The sturdy thick-walled stone house on Lehman Road was built high on the hilltop in 1850 and its rear windows overlook the river.  The stone used to build its three stories is believed to have been quarried from a nearby spot on Glenway Avenue.  A tunnel running through the backyard and a sub-basement indicate that it was probably used as a station for the Underground Railroad, preceding the Civil War.  During the war years it was headquarters for General William Starke Rosecrans (1819-1898), with Colonel Joseph Burke in command. 

W. S. Rosecrans (1819 -1898) was born in Delaware County, Ohio.  His father was Dutch, and his mother traced back her descent to Timothy Hopkins, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.  In Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes, published in 1907, it was noted that “while other boys were at play, [the general and his brother, who later became a bishop] were noted for their studious habits.”  W. S. Rosecrans attended West Point at 15 and later served in the Army Engineer Corps.  In 1853 he came to Cincinnati to take a civil engineering position and to make his home here.

Barbara Pilaia of Delhi found a note to his wife behind a photo of her great-great grandfather that she was given as a child. It read: “This is a New Year’s present. 
If I should not get home, you may say that I have died at my post.  Your beloved husband.  W.R.”

The note behind the picture was very likely written shortly before the battle of Stone River; one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War and was fought against General Bragg in Tennessee.  Whether or not, General Rosecrans knew how difficult this battle would be, history doesn’t say, but his note would indicate that he did.  The fighting started December 31 and was over on January 3, 1863, but by the time it was over each side had lost one third of their man, and it took six months for Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland to recover. 

But Rosecrans was determined to pursue and finally defeat Bragg, as he had been ordered.  Washington could not give him the additional troops, horses, and artillery he requested and badly needed, because Grant was in Vicksburg, and everything available was being sent there.  However, the general had a real asset in his own men who admired him immensely and had dubbed him,  “Old Rosey”.  When he could finally advance, he skillfully maneuvered Bragg out of Tennessee and into Georgia, freely Chattanooga, which was the main artery of the Confederates provision lines.  This was a real stroke of genius and Rosecrans was in hot pursuit of Bragg’s troops in North Georgia.  But the South would not allow this blow to be dealt and Lee instantly dispatched Longstreet’s entire corps to aid Bragg.  When Rosecrans realized that Bragg had been reinforced and was ready to strike back, he quickly re-grouped behind Chicamauga Creek.  Immediately he sent Washington urgent telegrams explaining the dire situation and again begged for troops.  This time Washington said yes, and asked General Grant to send two of his units.  But Grant’s troops never arrived.  After being hit by Bragg and 75,000 Confederates, General Rosecrans was able to move what was left of his 40,000 men back to Chattanooga and hold it until finally, General Hooker and 20,000 reinforcements came to his aid. 

It was at this time, that Grant was given command of the Union armies from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi and his first official act was to remove General Rosecrans, still under siege at Chattanooga, from his command.

In 1863, Rosecrans also became the commander of the Department of the Ohio and was reputed to live on Lehman Road.  He opened the Sanitary Fair on December 21, 1863 in which exhibits, lectures, and other fund-raising activities raised about $250,000 from Cincinnatians for soldier Relief.  He resigned from the Army in 1867.

Rosecrans served as Minister to Mexico from 1868 to1869, a Democratic member of Congress from California from 1881 to 1885, and the Register of the United States Treasury from 1885 to 1893.   A special act of Congress re-appointed Rosecrans a brigadier general and placed him on the retired Army list.

Records of the Sisters of Charity show that in 1850, 37 nuns moved into it and established a combination Mother House and school for women-Mount St. Vincent Academy.  The school was later was moved to Glenway Avenue as The Cedar Grove School which finally became known as Seton High School.  The Mother House is now at the College of Mount St. Joseph.

William Rosecrans’ brother, Sylvester Horton Rosecrans (1827-1878), was ordained a priest in Rome, Italy on June 5, 1853 and taught theology at the old Mount St. Mary’s Seminary on Grand Avenue.  He was appointed titular Bishop of Pompeiopolis and first auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati on March 25, 1863.  It is during this period that he is believed to have lived on Lehman Road. On October 31, 1878, Bishop Rosecrans was appointed the first Bishop of the then new diocese with its center in Columbus and was buried in that city.

Mrs. Hoffman bought the building in 1955 and during remodeling she entered the attic and discovered a small trove of civil war mementos hidden under the floorboards.  According to a 1959 newspaper clip, confirmed with her family, she found papers dealing with the court martial proceedings of AWOL soldiers, as well as several medical certificates.  One allowed a soldier to stay in the shade for 30 days because of an aversion to sunlight.  Another excused a man from bathing.  Also recovered was a receipt showing that the Army paid 6 ½ cents each for 600 bars of soap, and 18 cents each for 350 candles.

What’s Missing in Price Hill?

The parking lot at the Queen’s Tower complex was the site of the General Reece Price home.  It was located on the northeast corner of W. 8th St and Mount Hope Road.  His father was Evans Price, whose investments in land west of the Mill Creek enabled Reece to develop Price Hill.  The family earnings in real state were augmented by Reese’s son, William, who built the Price Hill Incline.

On one Memorial Day it was said that 30,000 picnickers and hundreds of kegs of beer were carried to the hilltop.  The exploit would have pained William Price, who was against the use of liquor, largely because he thought it might cause accidents on the incline.  Because of this anti-liquor injunction the hill became known derisively as Buttermilk Mountain.  A number of saloons sprang up at the foot of the height with gaily colored signs marked “First Choice”, “Next Chance”, and Last Chance” as they reminded travelers to fortify themselves before scaling Buttermilk Mountain.

The Orange Homestead at 2680 Lehman Avenue is now the Summitview Apartments.  The Lehman family, for whom the road was named, lived there until 1825, when William and Barbara Orange bought it.  Orange was a gentleman farmer known for his hospitality and stocked his estate with deer and made it a favorite rendezvous for sportsmen.  He also had a profitable upholsterer’s trade, “The Orange Expert Decorators”, and completely furnished many of the early steamboats built in Cincinnati.

All that’s left of the Peter Rudolph Neff 22-room natural stone residence, built on 30 acres in 1860, is a long exit driveway that meanders on the hillside of the Cincinnati Bible seminary at 2700 Glenway Avenue. .  By trade, Peter Rudolph Neff was a wholesale importer of the finest cutlery.  Neff was co-founder of the College of Music and one of his earliest presidents.  In 1883, in parlors of his home, he assisted in the organization of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Price Hill.

William Howard Neff, Peter’s brother, lived at 2588 Ring Place and is now a vacant lot. Less than half an acre of its’ original 40-acre grounds remained before the House was torn down.  William Neff was one of the founders of Spring Grove Cemetery.

In the 1920’s at his home at the northwest corner of W. 8th St and Château Avenue, Raymond Dandridge, an African-American, wrote three volumes of his poems.

The Stephen Wilder Homestead was built in 1864 at 2516 Morrow Place and torn down in 1974 for proposed apartment complex that was never built.  The site was once part of the Wilder farm, which extended from Grand Avenue to the Mill Creek and from Warsaw Avenue to W. Eighth Street.

The Edward Pattison Home was located in the southwest corner of Grand and Warsaw Avenues.  Locals recalled its castle style architecture and its long-standing reputation is being haunted.  The great stone house was built in 1870, when Price Hill was sparsely populated by Hugh Shields, an Irishman who fancied a home similar to a castle in his native Ireland.  Edward N. Pattison who was a wealthy distiller, eventually bought the house.  Today the property is the site of a multi-family apartment complex called “The Stonewall” named after the famous granite brick wall along Grand Avenue that was built to hold back the hill when the street was widened.

The Grandview Apartments at the northwest corner of Grand and Warsaw was the location of The Mount St. Mary Seminary of the West for training priests and the site of the first Roman Catholic congregation on the hill.  The 10-acre site was later converted to a Catholic school devoted to the care and training of orphaned, dependent, and underprivileged girls.

To conduct your own research, you can also contact:

The Cincinnati Historical Society @ The Union Terminal Museum Center
1301 Western Ave Cincinnati, OH 45203 (513) 287-7000
library.cincymuseum.org

To advocate for historical preservation, you can contact: 

The Historic Conservation Board
C/o City of Cincinnati 805 Central Avenue, Suite 720 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
513-721-4506   www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cdap/pages/-3662-/

Cincinnati Preservation Association
342 West Fourth Street Cincinnati, Ohio 45202  Phone: (513) 721-4506
 info@cincinnatipreservation.org