CINCINNATI GARDENS
Built in1949 at 2250 Seymour Avenue in Bond Hill this facility contains ice-making equipment, a removable basketball floor, lighting and sound systems for shows and conventions. In the 50s and 60s it was the home court for the Xavier Musketeers, Cincinnati Bearcats basketball teams, and to the professional Cincinnati Royals. Other entertainments such as wrestling, concerts, circuses, and ice shows such as the Ice Follies and Icecapades were regularly held. Boxing matches were also held. The Beatles played here in 1965 and 1966 but the acoustics were very bad. The Royals moved in 1972 to Kansas City and increased competition from the newly opened Convention Center in 1967 and Riverfront Coliseum in 1975 led to its diminished importance. It continues in operation with car and gun shows, tractor pulls, some college basketball games, and music acts.
I know nothing about these cards but I am reasonably sure they were taken in the
Cincinnati area.
Modern postcard
1899 Sporting News
BASKETBALL
Friars' Club of Cincinnati basketball team
As part of their athletic programs, the Friars' Club was one of the earliest Catholic organizations in the city to form a basketball team. The team, shown above, won the city's amateur championship by defeating the Cincinnati Athletic Club 30 - 21. The Friars continued to field strong clubs over the next two decades.
BOWLING
Cincinnati Convention Exposition Center
The extra wide postcard above shows the site of the 1968 Annual American Bowling Congress Tournament. Over 35,000 bowlers attended this 65th consecutive yearly event. It lasted 75 days and there were 228,775 games played.
A.B.C. Tournament
King Pin Lanes
7735 Beechmont Ave.
GOLF
In 1893 Nicholas Longworth II,
Charles Hinkle, and the owner of the land Edmund P. Harrison laid out a five
hole golf course. The following year a nine hole course was laid out in one of
Longworth's pastures, and on October 28, 1895 the Cincinnati Golf Club was
formally organized. William Howard Taft was the club's first president.
The club laid out the first 18 hole course west of the
Alleghenies on farmland the club had purchased at 2348 Grandin Road. The first
clubhouse was an old farmhouse. Ropes stretched from stakes kept cows off the
putting greens; manure heaps were not recognized as legitimate hazards, though
plowed fields were. The cards below show the building that replaced the
farmhouse.
A small listing of the membership for 1906 will give
you an idea of how rich you had to be to play. Fleischmann, Groesbeck, Kilgour,
Longworth, Pogue, Proctor, Shillito, and Taft.
*
The Pillars Country Club
Elberon Country
Club
Kenwood Country Club
Terrace Park Country Club
Oakley
Tennis court/golfers on
left.
There was an Indian Mound out of the picture on the left side of the Elberon Country Club that was built on 30 acres near Rapid Run and Overlook Roads. In 1912 the name was changed to Western Hills Country Club and the club was then moved to a farm site on Cleves-Warsaw and Neeb Roads.
Hyde Park Country Club
The Wyoming Club
*
Maketewah Country Club
Pleasant Ridge Losantiville Club House
RACING
This track, River Downs, is located on the east side of Coney Island opened in 1925. Back then it was called the Coney Island Track. Financial difficulties forced the track to close from 1926 until 1933 with the exception of some harness races. After it finally became successful in 1936 it was completely destroyed by the flood of 1937. As you can see in the second card the track has a 7/8 mile green carpet turf course and a 1 mile main course.
CARTHAGE FAIR GROUNDS
Ohio saw the birth of harness racing here in 1839. Other names for this facility were the Buckeye Course and the Buckeye trotting Park. Consisting of 68 acres it is located at the southeast corner of Vine and 77th Sts. The annual agricultural Carthage Fair was first held here in 1846 although the Hamilton County Agricultural Society had been founded in 1819 with General William Henry Harrison as its president. The Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus wintered at the fairgrounds, and the First Regiment of the Ohio National Guard encamped here in 1917 to train for WWI.
Same view. Right card with Johnston Paint Co. ad.
These seven non-postcard images show the Carthage Fair track in the early 1930s.
OAKLEY RACE TRACK
These are not postcards
Front of
Clubhouse
The Oakley Race Track, referred to as the "Gentlemen's Full Mile Racing Park" was opened in 1889 around the area where Cincinnati Milacron once stood. The area was called Oakley because of the large number of oak trees that were in the area. Only a few years after the track opened crooked betting and a new state law that was passed prohibiting betting forced the closing of the track in 1904.
TRI-COUNTY SPEEDWAY
CINCINNATI SPEEDWAY
The Cincinnati Motor Speedway was built in Sharonville on 640 acres in 1916.
It
was a 2 mile high banked oval made of wood. The so-called "board
track" had 34 degree banked turns and 6 degree banked straightaways. The
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which ran its first 500 mile race in 1911,
cancelled its 1917 schedule because of WW I and was briefly used as an airplane
repair facility. Cincinnati Motor Speedway applied for the May 30 race date and
was awarded a 250 mile race. That race was won by Louis Chevrolet, who had
designed passenger cars before selling his patent to General Motors.
Unofficially, the number of people attending that race was estimated by the old
Commercial-Tribune at 65,000. Chevrolet averaged 102 MPH, and collected $12,500
prize money, a large sum in those days.
The wooden boards did not weather well outdoors, and the track
closed in December of 1919. The last event held there was a 48 hour endurance
run for Essex autos in December. The site is currently a U.S. Post Office among
other businesses. The track lumber was shipped to Chillicothe to be used in the
construction of Camp Sherman during WW I.
As seen in the 2nd non-postcard image above, the general public were able to ride these automobiles for ten cents.
There are non-postcard panoramic
views of automobile racing at the old Cincinnati Speedway. To see
PHILIPPS SWIMMING POOLS
637 Greenwood Ave.
5245 Glenway Avenue
The camp in the above card is located in Miamiville which is located on Glendale-Milford Rd. just north of Camp Dennison along the Little Miami river.
I have no idea what the two cards below are all about. They are wearing what looks to be riding uniforms, but for what purpose is anybody's guess. I do know that the patch on their left shoulder says Cincinnati.
DORSO'S COLERAIN SKATELAND
3211 Lina Place
200' south of Galbraith
NORWOOD ROLLER RINK
THE ROLLERAMA CLUB
CASTLE SKATELAND
Located in Loveland this skating rink is obviously patterned after the famous Chateau Laroche castle also in Loveland. The back states that its 85' x 180' maple hardwood floor is the most modern of all skating rinks.
PRINCESS ROLLER RINK
