Private Mailing Card
MUSIC HALL
Located in the area bounded by Elm, Central Parkway and 14th Street this building was built in 1878 to house the immensely popular May Festivals. It became obvious a permanent music center was needed. The May Festivals have been held here ever since, and of course it is also the home for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Opera, and the Cincinnati Ballet. There have been many exhibitions in the north and south halls over the years.
Private Mailing Card
Glitter & color version
Newer views
60' high organ
The organ on the top right was the largest pipe organ in America at the time of its construction. It had 6,287 pipes and cost $32,000. It was surrounded by 121 panels of cherry wood each of which were carved by local women woodcarvers. The organ was dismantled in 1971.
The World in Cincinnati show was held at the Music Hall in 1912 from March 9 to April 6 as stated on the first card. The 2nd card shows part of the Mohammedan section of this exhibition. The third card is an African scene.
THE TOPPER CLUB
Dance floor and
terraces
Entrance and 145'
bar
Located inside the Music Hall this 3 part postcard shows the Topper Club. The card on top shows the front side. It is shown in two parts because it is too long to fit in the scanner, so when you click on the first two parts they will expand together. The right part expands separately. The bottom card is missing the first third on the left side because it is blank and is where the person would write any message. The right half is where the stamp and address would go although it is missing a stamp box. I believe these were actually mailed inside an envelope because the way it is folded the address part would have been hidden and would have had to be bent the other way. It also would have been necessary to put tape on it to keep it from popping open during the process of being mailed. So even though this card was probably not actually mailed it is still a very interesting piece of history. Did you know there was a night club inside the Music Hall? I didn't.
1978 First Day Of Issue card from the Post Office commemorating historic preservation.
ARMORY
Built in 1889 at 1443 Freeman Ave. it was the headquarters of the 1st Regiment of the Ohio National Guard. It also served as a center for many sports activities. It held gymnastics and track meets, athletic carnivals, bicycle races, boxing matches and basketball. In 1908 Cincinnati's first American Bowling Congress Tournament was held here. U.C. held many of its basketball games here.
HAMILTON COUNTY MEMORIAL BUILDING
The Hamilton County Memorial Building dedicated June 13, 1908 is located at 1225 Elm Street (a few doors down from Music Hall). It is a memorial to the county's "soldiers, sailors, marines and pioneers". (naturally there was no Air Force) It was constructed because of the persistence of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). They were veterans of the Union Army who had 13 posts in the Cincinnati area alone. Finally a bond issue was passed to finance the construction. Inside is a kitchen and meeting rooms for veterans groups. There is a auditorium on the 2nd floor in which many events were held. There are tablets, relics, and flags from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Spanish American War. The six statues above the doors were sculpted by Clement Barnhorn, an instructor at the Cincinnati Art Academy. The College of Music (next door) used it for their performances. It is now the headquarters for the Miami Purchase Association, a local preservation group.
CINCINNATI MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
The Museum of Natural History merged in 1990 with the Cincinnati Historical Society and the Children's Museum and is now located at the historical Union Terminal building. This building was located next to Elsinore Tower at 1720 Gilbert Ave. It was dedicated on August 13, 1957 on land that had been deeded to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1881. The museum was begun in 1818 by Daniel Drake (1785-1852) and others in the Cincinnati College using their own collections of fossils and Indian relics and is the oldest natural history museum west of the Allegheny Mountains. Known as the Western Museum it was staffed for awhile by John James Audubon (1785-1851) who stuffed birds and animals and painted exhibit cases. Interest in those days was not very great and these collections were not taken seriously until a building was bought in 1877 at third & Broadway. The Society of Natural History as it was now called, created programs for children and featured world famous scientists as lecturers. In 1934 the ground floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute was used. In 1957 OMI announced that it needed the floor space and so the construction of this building was started. The dome like part of the building seen in the second card was called the Planetarium and is where programs of the stars in the night sky were shown. Television studios have replaced this building.
Display in Natural History
Cavern 
Blind
Fish
Bats display in cavern
Blind
Crayfish
Most sought after sea shell in the world
Bullfrog
"Wilderness
Trail"
Paleo Indian
Exhibit
Conus gloriamarus
CINCINNATI PUBLIC LIBRARY
The first year of operation for the Cincinnati Library was 1855. 1,500 books were purchased for the Ohio School and Family Library and was located, for a short time, at Central High School in the West End. It was shortly transferred to the Ohio Mechanics Institute on the corner of 6th and Vine. By 1868 the library moved to the building you see in the next five cards. Located at 629 Vine Street the building was built originally to be used as a opera house so it was basically nothing but a four story auditorium. The center was nothing but a huge open well reaching from the floor to the roof. The books were kept on all 4 floors around the outside walls. Since this arrangement would only hold 200,000 volumes, the remaining 800,000 books had to be housed in a library annex on College Street and in other buildings. Because Hamilton County voters kept defeating bond issues to erect a new structure, it was not until 1955 was the library able to move into the building seen in the next three cards 2 blocks north on the northeast corner of 8th and Vine Streets.
A. Nielen's Lantern Slide Cabinet
Library's Tulip Tree
Library's
Garden
Statue-Children's
Dept.
Atrium
These three cards are of the Mercantile
Library Building at 414 Walnut Street. In 1845 (before the existence of the
public library) 45 young businessmen founded the Young Men's Mercantile Library
Association "for the purpose of establishing a library and reading room, to
be appropriated to the use of young men engaged solely in mercantile
pursuits." In 1840 they moved their 1,660 books to the second floor of the
Cincinnati College building on this site. On January 19, 1845 the building
burned down but the books were saved thanks to the men of four fire companies
joining together to save the volumes. After the association raised $10,000 to
rebuild the College Judge Alphonso Taft wrote an agreement that gave the
association a 10,000 year lease on the second floor of the College, rent
free. Get this- the contract was renewable forever.
By 1902 downtown land had increased in value so much that
Thomas Emery's Sons bought the old College Building and struck a deal with the
Mercantile Library Association. In exchange for its perpetual lease in the
college, the library would receive new quarters on the 11th and 12th floors of
the building you see in the cards below. There is a special elevator for the use
of its members. The 10,000 year lease is still in effect and renewable.
Card showing the demolition of a building on Main near Liberty in July of 1912 by the James L. Pence Co.
Demolition of building in Mt. Healthy at 2nd and Hamilton.
