The Cincinnati Subway
It was a cold night in March, 2008. I had just finished up photographing an assignment downtown when I met up with Zach. I was dressed in slacks, dress shoes and a nice button down shirt, hardly exploring clothing. I exchanged my dress shoes for muddy combat boots and my jacket for an old sweatshirt. We grabbed cameras and flashlights then headed out for a recon mission. We parked the car on Central Parkway, and walked over to the stone fence.
"That doesn't look too far down," I said.
"Yeah, we should be fine," Replied Zach.
Cincinnati's Forgotten Theatres
Standing in the vast, empty parking lot the only cars you can now hear are the ones passing by, honking their horns on the nearby Norwood Lateral. In the center of the wide expanse of asphalt is a rectangular, one story building adorned with white tiles, locked doors, boarded up windows and the words "Showcase Cinemas" across the top.
Kings Island's 230 ft. "Diamondback" almost ready.
Kings Island's newest roller coaster, Diamondback, as seen while shooting for KICentral.com. At 5,200 ft. long, 230 ft. high, Diamondback will be the park's tallest and fastest roller coaster once it opens in April and is speculated to maybe be one of the top steel coasters in the nation.
Take a Virtual Tour of the Cincinnati Skywalk - "Downtown's Ghost Town"
Skywalks. "Modern" ideas of the late 60's/early 70's born out of a major city's desire to keep shoppers downtown and out of the suburban, indoor shopping mall. These enclosed bridges crisscrossing over city streets were envisioned to network hotels, office buildings and retail centers. In the summer months they kept pedestrians cool with air conditioning and warm in the winter months with heat.
Cincinnati's Forgotten Railroad History
At the beginning of the 20th Century, Cincinnati was a chaotic mess of seven different railroad lines all converging on the Queen City. In a time before crowded interstate highways and an over priced Delta hub airport across the Ohio River, rail was king and a solution was developed to Cincinnati's growing rail traffic problems. That solution was Union Terminal, a central hub where the majority of freight and passenger lines running through the city would converge in one central location. In August 1929, construction was started on the massive Art Deco structure.
The Obama Inauguration - A Cincinnati Perspective
On assignment for school, I was tasked with documenting the Inauguration. There wasn't much going on in Athens, Ohio where I go to school. Not interested in traveling to fight the crowd in Washington D.C., I decided to head home for the assignment.
The Ruins of Hudepohl Brewing Company
Until 1985, this building was home to the headquarters of Cincinnati's local Hudepohl Brewing Company.
Forgotten Cincinnati
Forgotten Cincinnati was an exhibit of photographs taken by myself and Sherman Cahal. The first of it's kind, the gallery opened at Park + Vine on January 30, 2009 and ran till March 23, 2009.
A new year begins...
Every year in New York City thousands, maybe even millions by some estimates, crowd the city streets and Times Square to watch the ball drop and ring in the New Year. Most of the other 299 million Americans sit at home and watch Dick Clark, and now Ryan Seacrest as well, live from the center of New York City. Here in Cincinnati, while it may be on a much smaller scale, an old tradition is coming back to life; ringing in the New Year at Fountain Square.
Beneath Your Feet - Exploring a Forgotten Railroad Tunnel - and More.
Nearly two years ago I first learned about the nearly forgotten CL&N RR Tunnel. About a month ago I was crawling through thorn bushes along I-71 trying to find it.
Adventures in Avondale, in search of The Ghostbusters.
An abandoned nursing home and an abandoned tunnel - one of which was rumored to be a filming location for "Ghostbusters.”
"Light Up the Square" - Christmas begins in Cincinnati
With Thanksgiving meals from yesterday digesting and credit cards maxed out from all the black Friday deals, hundreds, maybe thousands, made their way to Fountain Square to officially kick off the holiday's in the Queen City.
Back in Cincinnati.
2.5 hours across the state, from the Southeast to the Southwest. After 10 weeks of stress, lack of sleep and frustration I got to go home. I promise to update more in the coming weeks while I'm home, but here are some photographs from this weekend.
The Queen City From the Sky - Aerial Photos from Nov. 8, 2008
Back in October my friend Gabriel offered to take me flying with him and his father.
And Consolidated came tumbling down
So back in 2008, I originally published this post. In 2014, all of the images that had been previously hosted for QC/D were lost. I was able to scrounge most of them from a backup. This particular post though lost a lot of context. So here's the gist…
Back in Athens, back to The Ridges.
"The Ridges" is the name designated for the Ohio University owned, former Athens State Hospital Property. The Kirkbride style hospital originally opened in 1874. For those of you unfamiliar with "Kirkbrides," they were a common style of mental hospitals built on large plots of isolated land where patients took care of the land. Many Kirkbrides like the Athens State Hospital featured self sustaining apple orchards, gardens, and dairy farms. The hospital in Athens became part of Ohio University in 1993 when the final patients left and the grounds were transferred to the school. Today the main ward and wings serve as an art museum and office space, unable to be photographed.
Cincinnati Bridges, Cincinnati Highways.
I drove back from South East Ohio. I had planned to actually stay there for a weekend. However, I'm not always happy there and needed to get some stuff photographed this weekend.
More to this city than meets the eye.
I have often heard people say that Cincinnati is only considered a major city because it has "major league sports teams." Nothing could be further from the truth, while the Queen City is no Chicago or New York (and is certainly better than Pittsburgh), it is in fact a major city. Facing major city problems, major city crime, and major city progress.
Abandoned Rail Depot off of 75.
Ever since I was a young kid I can remember passing this structure. While our car sped southbound on Interstate 75 you could see it sitting parallel to the railroad tracks. It had the architecture of a building you'd see sitting along your toy Lionel trains (didn't everyone have those?). However, it seems that Sir Topham Hat, Thomas, Percy, Gordon, Scheemer, and all of the other shiny time station friends (anyone get the Thomas the Tank Engine reference?) have been gone since the mid 70's according to the papers inside. You've probably seen it on your way to a Red's game, the aquarium, or for any other reason you'd go southbound on I-75, now see what its like up close.