Description: Caption on reverse reads: "Cinci., O., Mar 1938. Copy. O.M.I. Parade Grd. College Hill." This photograph shows the Ohio Military Institute Parade grounds in on Belmont Avenue in College Hill near Cincinnati, Ohio. From the OMI alumni website: Ohio Military Institute was established in 1890, on the site the former Belmont College. Freeman Carey, a graduate of Miami University at Oxford (Ohio) had established Carey Academy in his home on the family farm in 1832. It was a success, and within a few years, Carey built a small brick school building, apparently on the site of what later became Carey Hall. Carey Academy was "the leading private school west of the Alleghenies." Dr. Robert H. Bishop, first president of Miami University, joined the faculty of Carey Academy during its final year in 1846. In 1847, the academy became Farmers' College, and it was at this time that Carey Hall was erected. This combination class-room building and dormitory would serve for the next 111 years. Dr. Bishop laid the cornerstone and stayed on to fill the chair of Philosophy and History in the faculty of the college. Shortly before his death in 1855, he ask that his body and that of his wife "might find a final resting place on the College grounds." [Old Boys will remember the Bishop burial mound, which was located at the edge of the woods directly behind Henshaw Hall. This gymnasium/drill hall was built in 1949. When the school closed in 1958, the remains of Dr. and Mrs. Bishop were dis-interned and reburied on the grounds of Miami University. There was, it turned out, no truth to the rumor that Dr. Bishop's horse had also been buried with him!] Farmers' College claimed that "its distinctive feature [was] the practical character of its course of instruction.... to qualify our youth for a higher position in any of the industrial pursuits." With the coming of the Civil War, fully two thirds of the student body rushed to enlist in the Union or Confederate forces. Farmers' College was forced to close, but not before it became a stop on the "underground railroad", assisting escaped slaves to migrate to the north. After the war the school re-opened as Belmont College, offering a curriculum more typical of the classical model of education. But Belmont debuted just as the land grant colleges were beginning to demonstrate that modern "vocational" education at the collegiate level was of more immediate utility in the dawning Industrial Age than was a classical education of philosophy, Greek, Latin, etc. With a shrinking student body, the school began to shift toward the education of younger men. In 1890, Belmont College closed, and the Ohio Military Institute opened on the same site in 1890. But the past was not completely abandoned: Portraits of Mr. Carey and Dr. Bishop hung on opposing walls of the main Study Room in Carey Hall until the buildings were torn down in 1958. Originally, the grounds comprised about ten acres of woodland, fronting on Belmont Avenue and extending westward to a deep ravine. To this was later added a large tract of virgin forest land, nearly sixty acres in extent, surrounding the original property on three sides. This land had originally been part of the Carey farm and was acquired by that family from John Symmes, who secured the grant from the U.S. Government at the close of the Revolutionary War. Harrison Hall (the old Daller House), which was used as a dormitory and recreation building for Lower School cadets, was acquired sometime in the late 1940's, and yet another four acres to the campus. The school buildings included Carey, Belmont, Bishop, Perry, Henshaw and Harrison Halls. Of these, only Henshaw Hall remains and it is apparently still used as a community center for basketball. The other school buildings were razed to make way for Aiken High School, which opened in 1961 View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F14_008_1
Subjects: Military academies; School Buildings--Ohio; Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works; Education; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: College Hill (Ohio); Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "Cincinnati- C+O bridge, West End." The C&O Railroad bridge was originally built between 1886 and 1889. By 1929 it was obsolete due to increasing weight of freight being transported, and a replacement was built immediately adjacent to the original structure. The original bridge was sold to the Commonwealth of Kentucky and retrofitted as an automobile bridge. In 1974 the original bridge was demolished, the northern pier was extended and the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge was built on the existing piers. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F01_045_1
Subjects: Street photography; Bridges--Ohio River; Buildings--Ohio; Cincinnati (Ohio)
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "Cincinnati as seen from the Kentucky shore of the Ohio. A. Suspension Bridge, B. Textile Building, C. Chamber of Commerce, D. New Telephone Building, E. Union Central Building, J. Union Gas and Electric Building, K. Old Telephone Building, L. Broadway Hotel, The new Times Star building is not shown in this picture." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F01_046_1
Subjects: Street photography; Buildings--Ohio; Cincinnati (Ohio)
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Wesley Chapel, Fifth Street between Broadway and Sycamore, demolished 1972. Red brick Georgian revival structure in imitation of John Wesley's original chapel in London. Once the largest meeting place west of the Allegheny Mountains, chapel held the funeral of William Henry Harrison. Marker in pediment reads: "Methodist Episcopal Church erected 18-1" Sign at right reads: "The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her lord 10:45 7:45" Reverse reads: "Cinci., O. Sept. 1937 Methodist Episcopal Church Wesley Chapel." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F15_033_1
Subjects: Methodist Episcopal Church; Church buildings--Ohio; Cincinnati (Ohio)--History;
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "Cinci., O., Sept. 1937 Main Street, Mt. Auburn." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F02_23_01
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio); Streets--Cincinnati (Ohio); Buildings--Cincinnati (Ohio); Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "Cinci., O., Sept. 1937 Race Street from Ninth." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F02_29_01
Subjects: Streets--Cincinnati (Ohio); Buildings--Cincinnati (Ohio); Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Original description reads: "Cinci., O., Sept. 1937 From 1700 Hughes Street." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B04F02_30_01
Subjects: Streets--Cincinnati (Ohio); Buildings--Cincinnati (Ohio); Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works.
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads "Opening in back porch of house, located at 408 East Sixth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, where slaves are said to have been stored awaiting shipment during slavery days. Photo by Writers' Projects. District #2. 11-12-36." The Underground Railroad was a system of safe houses and hiding places that helped runaway slaves escape to freedom in Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere outside of the United States. White and African-American "conductors" served as guides from place to place for runaway slaves. It remains unclear when the Underground Railroad began, but members of the Society of Friends, who were also known as the Quakers, were actively assisting runaway slaves as early as the 1780s. Some people living in Ohio began to help runaways by the 1810s. Several prominent abolitionists were from Ohio and they played a vital role in the Underground Railroad. Beginning in the late 1840s, Levi Coffin, a resident of Cincinnati, helped more than three thousand slaves escape from their masters and gain their freedom in Canada. Coffin's work caused his fellow abolitionists to nickname him the "president of the Underground Railroad." In Ripley, Presbyterian minister John Rankin served as a conductor and opened his home to African Americans seeking freedom. His home stood on a three hundred-foot high hill that overlooked the Ohio River. Rankin would signal runaway slaves in Kentucky with a lantern and let them know when it was safe for them to cross the Ohio River. He provided the runaways with shelter and kept them hidden until it was safe to travel further north. John Parker, Rankin's neighbor, brought hundreds of runaway slaves across the Ohio River in a boat. These men and many other people risked their lives to assist African Americans in their flight to freedom. Once they arrived in Ohio, some runaway slaves who decided to remain in the state. They usually settled in neighborhoods with other African Americans. Many runaway slaves continued on to Canada. At least eight cities, including Ashtabula, Painesville, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, Huron, Lorain, and Conneaut, along Lake Erie served as starting points to transport the former slaves to freedom in Canada. Historian Wilbur Siebert believes approximately three thousand miles of Underground Railroad trails existed in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F05_020_001
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Cincinnati (Ohio)--History; Underground Railroad--Ohio
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads "Suburban section, Cincinnati, Ohio" The photograph depicts a row of nearly identical two story houses with front porches and low stone fences, along a street in a Cincinnati suburb. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F05_022_001
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Cincinnati (Ohio)--Suburbs
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads "Number 408 East Sixth Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. A slave station of the Underground Railway System, reputed to be 115 years old. Photo by Writers' Projects. District #12." The Underground Railroad was a system of safe houses and hiding places that helped runaway slaves escape to freedom in Canada, Mexico, and elsewhere outside of the United States. White and African-American "conductors" served as guides from place to place for runaway slaves. It remains unclear when the Underground Railroad began, but members of the Society of Friends, who were also known as the Quakers, were actively assisting runaway slaves as early as the 1780s. Some people living in Ohio began to help runaways by the 1810s. Several prominent abolitionists were from Ohio and they played a vital role in the Underground Railroad. Beginning in the late 1840s, Levi Coffin, a resident of Cincinnati, helped more than three thousand slaves escape from their masters and gain their freedom in Canada. Coffin's work caused his fellow abolitionists to nickname him the "president of the Underground Railroad." In Ripley, Presbyterian minister John Rankin served as a conductor and opened his home to African Americans seeking freedom. His home stood on a three hundred-foot high hill that overlooked the Ohio River. Rankin would signal runaway slaves in Kentucky with a lantern and let them know when it was safe for them to cross the Ohio River. He provided the runaways with shelter and kept them hidden until it was safe to travel further north. John Parker, Rankin's neighbor, brought hundreds of runaway slaves across the Ohio River in a boat. These men and many other people risked their lives to assist African Americans in their flight to freedom. Once they arrived in Ohio, some runaway slaves who decided to remain in the state. They usually settled in neighborhoods with other African Americans. Many runaway slaves continued on to Canada. At least eight cities, including Ashtabula, Painesville, Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo, Huron, Lorain, and Conneaut, along Lake Erie served as starting points to transport the former slaves to freedom in Canada. Historian Wilbur Siebert believes approximately three thousand miles of Underground Railroad trails existed in Ohio. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F04_001_001
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Cincinnati (Ohio)--History; Underground Railroad--Ohio
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads "D. of A. Marker. On Guilford School. 4th. Str. East of Broadway." Plaque reads "Fort Washington. The ground on which this building stands formed part of the Fort Washington Reservation. 1789 - 1808. This reservation was bounded on the north by Fourth Street, on the east by Ludlow Street, on the south by the Ohio River, on the West by Broadway, which was then the eastern boundary of the city. This tablet placed by the Cincinnati chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in 1913." The Guilford School located at 421 East Fourth Street, at the corner of Ludlow Street was a public elementary school designed by Frederick W. Garber and completed in 1914. The four story brick building was named after Nathan Guilford, Cincinnati's first Superintendent of Schools in 1850. There is a D.A.R. marker on site which indicates that this area was once part of the Fort Washington military reservation. The building has since been converted to apartments. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F06_012_001
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Cincinnati (Ohio)--History; Fort Washington (Ohio); Daughters of the American Revolution. Cincinnati Chapter; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)
 

Description: Engraving of the Cincinnati Exposition Hall in the 1870's. The building is also known as Saengerfest Hall or Music Hall. The Venetian Gothic music hall was built by Hannaford,Samuel, & Sons. The land was originally purchased in 1818 for $3,200 at the West Side of Elm Street and North of 12th Street (14th street). In 1821 the building was used as Ohio's first insane asylum, later the area was used as an orphan asylum beginning in 1832. Later, during a cholera outbreak the building was used to house diseased people and the surrounding area was used as a cemetery to bury the deceased. Beginning in 1859 the surrounding area was called Elm Street Park and it remained a place for recreation until 1870 when the hall was used as an exposition hall. During the years 1870-1876 when the hall was used for industrial expositions the building was able to accommodate up to 8 acres of industrial and horticulture displays. Exposition Hall was a huge wooden structure that was 250 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 80 feet tall. In 1876 the hall was converted to a music hall with no stage. It was not until 1890 when the hall installed a proscenium theater stage so that performers had a proper environment for their acts. The hall is currently still used for musical performances and it is renowned around the world for its architectural design and strangely known for its supposed paranormal activity. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F01_029
Subjects: Cincinnati Music Hall; Historic buildings--Ohio--Cincinnati--Pictorial works; Horticulture buildings--Ohio--Cincinnati--1870-1880.
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)