Run 52: Run 52: Over-the-Rhine

Like Downtown, Over-the-Rhine is the kind of neighborhood that makes me stop and remember that this is a running blog. If I tried to cover more than the run in this recap, I would only do it injustice.

Quickly, though, for our out-of-town friends: in the mid-19^th century Over-the-Rhine was built by industrious German immigrants with an eye for style. Today it is the United States’ largest intact historic district. The neighborhood’s architectural significance is indisputable. The restored Italianate buildings—and those awaiting restoration—are attracting international attention. And they are textbook examples, for sure, but what is even more remarkable than the neighborhood’s architectural beauty and scale is the ongoing story of its renaissance. I was a high school senior when the Cincinnati riots made front page headlines. And Over-the-Rhine was at the center. This was 2001, but the neighborhood had been in decline for decades. In 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Over-the-Rhine one of its Most Endangered Historic Places.

But less than a decade, later “OTR” has achieved—is still achieving—the kind of turnaround that once seemed impossible. The buildings are being preserved and the neighborhood has become a culinary, retail, artistic, and entertainment mecca. Through developments that include a mixed-income/affordable housing component, the neighborhood’s socioeconomic diversity is also being preserved. Planners, developers, preservationists, and elected officials come from near and far to see the neighborhood for themselves and learn how its transformation is being accomplished.

Now on to the run!

On the morning of our run, the newly-renovated Washington Park was packed with runners. One of the Running Spot groups must be meeting there now. There is also yoga on the lawn on Tuesday nights, and Zumba on Saturday mornings. A few weeks ago, thousands of people, including us, crowded into the park for Lumenosity—a laser light show against the Venetian Gothic façade of Music Hall, set to a live symphony concert.

Washington Park was originally a cemetery serving several small churches. Today the park includes historic features, a bandstand, a spray park, a performance stage, a dog park, and a playground. It is bound on its south side by the modern School for Creative and Performing Arts and on all other sides by historic Over-the-Rhine buildings, including Music Hall. I walk here sometimes during my lunch break.

At Washington Park, we met up with Billy who knows as much about the neighborhood as anyone our age and agreed to play tour guide for our run.

Okay. Now if I had any shame at all I wouldn’t show this picture, but here is a shot of me after I thought I saw Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix in the park:

Can you tell I was excited? However, Donnie quickly crushed my enthusiasm by listing all of the logical reasons why the lookalike was not the real Allyson Felix. Although I did go home and try to Google her whereabouts, just in case it really was her.

(It was not)

We scrapped the original route that Donnie had drawn up and let Billy lead the way. Billy started us out by heading northwest and showing us some of the industrial areas of the neighborhood. The narrow, winding streets remind me of Greenwich Village in New York City:

This part of OTR is also known as the “BreweryDistrict”. There are many historic Romanesque brewery buildings remaining, several of which have been renovated into modern beerhalls, craft breweries, and entertainment venues. This is also where I suffered through the Bockfest 5k earlier this year and ended up with a stress fracture a few weeks later.

After exploring some of the less-traveled streets, we headed back to the Gateway Quarter and looped up and down Elm, Race, Vine, and Main. Along the way we saw the the remnants of a sand volleyball tournament, and so many charming homes.

Vine Street is the heart of the neighborhood’s redevelopment efforts and has seen some impressive culinary additions over the past few years, including Senate, A Tavola, Bakersfield, and Kaze. It was quiet on this Saturday morning, but by 7:00 pm the wait for a table at any of these places will be at least ninety minutes. Some of our personal favorites include Taste of Belgium, which has sidewalk tables and a great Bistro red wine, and Venice on Vine, which is a non-profit on-the-job training program inside a pizza shop.

Further east is our beloved Nicola’s. We only come here once a year on our anniversary and the bill is usually higher than a week’s worth of groceries, but it’s so worth it. This place always makes me think of one of Donnie’s most successful puns of our six-year marriage. This was the morning after our anniversary when I woke up at the crack of dawn to eat my Nicola’s leftovers before he could get up and ask to share. When he finally rolled out of bed he proclaimed, “You’ve left me at the door of hunger with gnocchi.”

On Central Parkway, Billy posed for a shot he dubbed “On the Rhine” to demonstrate how the neighborhood got its name. As the story goes, the original neighborhood was separated from downtown Cincinnati by a canal nicknamed “the Rhine” by the German immigrants who lived there. To cross the canal and head north of downtown was to go “Over the Rhine”. Of course, the canal has been replaced by Central Parkway, which is a much more convenient way to travel.

Next, I challenged Billy to a race down Pleasant Street, which runs between Washington Park and Findlay Market and is one of the prettiest streets in the neighborhood. Frankly, our race wasn’t much of a race—Billy beat me by more yards than I’m willing to admit. However, in this picture I’m smiling like a mad woman because Pleasant Street is so pretty and I was so happy to be sprinting for the first time since my stress fracture.

As Billy pointed out, if you stand on the performance stage at Washington Park and look north up Pleasant Street, you can see Findlay Market framed perfectly where Pleasant dead-ends. We capped off our OTR run with a shake-out jog up to Findlay Market, which is Ohio’s oldest continuously operating public market.

This place is always packed on the weekends with shoppers choosing cheese, wine, and produce. There is a biergarten, indoor and outdoor vendors, and a summer farmers’ market. Billy bought us post-run coffees at S&J while I checked out the displays.