Downtown Cincinnati Trifecta of Historic Architecture, Corporate Headquarters, and Transit BOUNDARIES: Plum St., Court St., Pike St., 4th St. DISTANCE: 3 miles DIFFICULTY: Easy PARKING: Metered parking on streets; $1 parking for up to 59 minutes at two garages, including Fountain Square. PUBLIC TRANSIT: Metro (go-metro.com) and TANK (tankbus.org) buses serve downtown with routes radiating from Government Square.
Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar (cincinnatibellconnector.com) connects The Banks, downtown, and Over-the-Rhine with 18 stations. Cincinnati Red Bike (cincyredbike.org) has bicycle rental stations at Fountain Square, Duke Energy Convention Center, Main Library, and elsewhere. Walk Description As Ohio''s third-largest city, Cincinnati benefits from a downtown that is walkable and easy to navigate, mostly because it was built before the invention of the automobile. Although most streets are one-way and connect with a freeway ramp or other major thoroughfare, downtown has retained its human scale. It has a growing mix of entertainment options, green spaces that encourage both interaction and relaxation, and diverse architecture. Downtown has 50 of the 246 Cincinnati properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Eateries boast a range of flavors and ethnicities, while independent theaters, Broadway tour productions, and museums offer people multiple ways to spend their days. In all, downtown Cincinnati is a good place to experience city life. Start your tour with a cup of coffee at (1) Booksellers on Fountain Square inside Fountain Place. Across the street is (2) Fountain Square , Cincinnati''s primary public space and its heart since 1871. Enlarged and remodeled most recently in 2005, Fountain Square serves as a front door for numerous restaurants, bars, hotels, and offices. The square is the site of free concerts, festivals, demonstrations, and relaxation throughout the year. At its center is the Tyler Davidson Fountain, possibly Cincinnati''s most recognizable landmark, dedicated in 1871 and named in honor of Henry Probasco''s brother-in-law and business partner. Henry Probasco was a hardware magnate who moved from Newtown, Connecticut, to Cincinnati.
Aside from the fountain, he''s known for his historic mansion, Oakwood, in Clifton. Walk south on Vine Street and turn right on 5th Street. On the left is (3) Carew Tower , Cincinnati''s second-tallest building. Built in 1930 and rising 49 stories, it offers spectacular views and a visual overview of the city for $4 from its observation deck. Carew Tower and the adjoining Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza together create one of the nation''s finest French Art Deco ensembles. The hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, a program of National Trust for Historic Places. Its famed shopping arcade is the final point of this tour. Turn right on Race Street.
On the left, between 5th and 6th streets, is the headquarters for (4) 84.51 (formerly Dunnhumby USA). This nine-story, charcoal-gray, concrete tower was finished in 2014 and features an asymmetrical zipper design with first-floor restaurant space. Past Fountain Place on the right is the former (5) Terrace Plaza Hotel . Designed by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill and built in 1948, the hotel was the first major building to rise in downtown after World War II and the first International Style hotel building constructed in the United States. Architectural historians claim it as one of America''s Modern Movement buildings. Cincinnati''s Terrace Plaza Hotel: An Icon of American Modernism , by Shawn Patrick Tubb, is a good source of additional reading on this often-misunderstood building. As this book was going to press, development offers continued to be presented and considered--including one that would radically alter the building''s exterior.
Across from Terrace Plaza Hotel on 6th Street is (6) The Cincinnatian Hotel, Curio Collection by Hilton , the city''s finest surviving French Second Empire building from 1882. Cross 6th Street and enter (7) Race Street Historic District , a group of 24 contributing buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Streamline Moderne building at 604 Race Street was originally a two-story J.J. Newberry department store and is now Newberry Lofts on 6th. For a quick alley tour, turn right on Morand Avenue and then left on Roots Alley. To the right is the rear of the former Cincinnati Enquirer Building, at 617 Vine Street. Designed by the firm of Lockwood Greene and Company and completed in 1926, it is now Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites.
To the left is the gleaming back side of the Macy''s Inc. Building, at 7 W. 7th Street. Turn left on 7th Street and walk to Race Street, one of downtown''s most impressive corners. The four buildings contributing to this epicenter of urban architecture include (clockwise from the southwest corner) Shillito Place (see below), Pearl Market Bank Building (1910), The Groton (1895), and Jewelers Exchange (1915). The most notable building in the district is the massive John Shillito & Co. department store. Designed by James McLaughlin and built in 1878, and modernized in 1937, it originally featured five elevators and is considered a precursor to Marshall Field''s State Street flagship store in Chicago.
The landmark building is now Lofts at Shillito Place apartments, which served as a set for the movie Carol , starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, filmed almost entirely in Cincinnati in early 2014. Turn right on Race Street and walk to Garfield Place and then (8) Piatt Park , the city''s oldest park. Donated to the city in 1817, the park stretches between Vine and Elm streets. A bronze statue of President James Garfield from 1887 stands at the east end of the park. On the south side of the park is Doctor''s Building, 19 Garfield Place, a stunning Late Gothic Revival building from 1923 that serves as headquarters for LPK, an international design agency. North of the park is Cuvier Press Club Building, 22 Garfield Place, a rare surviving Italian Renaissance residence designed by Samuel Hannaford and built in 1861. Turn left on Garfield Place, and walk past Gramercy on Garfield and Greenwich apartment buildings to the statue of William Henry Harrison on horseback at Elm Street. Cross Elm Street to (9) Covenant First Presbyterian Church , which nicely terminates this end of Piatt Park with its elegant Gothic-style 1875 façade.
Cross 8th Street and turn left at imposing Waldo apartments, 801 Elm Street. Built in 1891, it''s one of four surviving late-19th-century apartment houses that brothers Thomas J. and John J. Emery built downtown.