Crosley - Part 2: The Return.

Two weeks ago Tron2.0, Ram23, and I had the opportunity to re-visit the Crosley Building again. Tron2.0 first explored this place in March 2007, now almost a year later we returned with Ram23 and discovered a bit more about the former tenants.

Edit: This article was published in 2008, a few years after we had first explored this building in the summer of 2007. Originally it linked to our first photographs, posted on "UER." Those photos no longer exist. 



Despite the buildings various uses and tenants, it seems one of the most recent tenants was a company called "Queen City Printing". I'm not sure if the company is still around as there about nearly a dozen companies around the city and suburbs with the same or similar name. The Crosley building is littered with key chains, coffee mugs, luggage tags, pencils, and informational booklets bearing the names of major American and Canadian cities. The items would be put into a box that would contain one of each product and could be sold at tourist spots in their respective cities. Seen above is one of the many coffee mugs laying around the factory, this one representing Charlotte, NC. Charlotte, like Cincinnati, is also called the "Queen City".

The building was the original home of 700 WLW, one of the most prominent stations in Cincinnati and the entire nation. 700 WLW was started by Powell Crosley. During World War Two, anti-nazi propaganda could be heard around the world and a good amount of it was coming from the studios atop the Crosley Building.

Powell Crosley also used the building to manufacture his famous radios, for which he accumulated a large majority of his fortune, and to manufacture certain part for the early designs of his automobiles.

While no remnants of the Crosley radios or automobiles was found during our exploration, there are plenty of remnants of the various tenants and their manufacturing operations as well as the top floor offices of former radio stations who occupied the building after 700 WLW had moved.

Seen above is an old sheet detailing the emergency procedures for evacuating the elevator in case of a fire. The building features 4 elevator shafts. The shaft for the freight elevator is wide open and the actual elevator itself is long gone, a tumble down from the top floor into this shaft would be an 8 story dive of death.

This was also Ram23's first exploration with his new DSLR, to see his photos from Crosley visit his website.


Update | Sept. 21, 2017:

• Building still stands shuttered and abandoned. A failed plan to tie its renovation into the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act never came to fruition.