Look at this route.
It’s sort of convoluted, huh?
Pendleton is teeny, tiny so in order to get in our full three miles we had
to run almost every street in the neighborhood. Creating this route felt like
one of those puzzles where you have to count the number of triangles inside a
triangle.
Pendleton is just east of Over-the-Rhine, and in fact, the
back of the Cincinnati clock and bell tower says “Over-the-Rhine.” There are plenty of reasons for the
confusion. Most obviously, the architectural
style and the density of Pendleton’s buildings resemble those in
Over-the-Rhine. Over-the-Rhine’s National
Register Historic District includes Pendleton. Both are arts hot-spots. And to our surprise, on this run we learned
that Nicola’s (featured in our Over-the-Rhine run) is actually in
Pendleton. Whoops!
When we showed up for our Pendelton run, we quickly realized
that we would have company. The Hudepohl 14k happened to intersect our route. Or
more accurately, I guess, our route happened to intersect the Hudepohl
14k.
So we became accidental, momentary bandits when we joined up
with the runners who were making the turn from East Liberty onto Reading/Central
Parkway.
These people were not clapping for us:
This downhill turn is also in the OTR 5k route and the Bock Fest 5k, so it was familiar to me. I could feel the runners’ relief as they turned onto the downhill stretch immediately after the long, steep climb up East Liberty.
The first time I ran the OTR 5k, the Horseshoe Casino was
just a twinkle in the eye of local gamblers.
Today, in addition to featuring the typical casino attractions, it also
serves as a concert venue and one of Donnie’s favorite buffets.
For the record, Donnie likes all buffets. However, this one must have been particularly
good because when he came home from eating there he did a little jig and burst
into song. If I had saved the video of
him doing his “I just ate at the casino buffet” dance, I would embed it here. Lucky for him, my phone doesn’t have the
space to store all that stuff indefinitely.
Across from the casino is the Pendleton Pilates Studio where
I took five classes on a Groupon earlier this year. Let me go ahead and trademark my next blog
here before anyone else thinks of it. It
is going to be called “My Year of Groupon Workouts” and it will feature me
buying Groupon deals for all the exercise classes in town. TM.
Across from the Pilates studio is the Bell Event Center. The event center is in the old
St. Paul’s Church which also houses the Verdin Bell and Clock Museum. Donnie used to work on the fourth floor of
the office building next door.
We closed the loop on the triangle-shaped boundary of
Pendleton by running up Sycamore Street.
Here, we passed the old School for Creative and Performing Arts, which
was housed here prior to its move to Over-the-Rhine. Before that, this building
was home to Woodward High School. I was
tickled by how the historical marker described Woodward on one side and SCPA on
the other.
I just reread that and will admit that being “tickled” by a
double-sided historical marker is nerdy to say the least. What am I, eighty years old? Feeling old beyond my years may also explain why
I have never been to Joe’s Diner across the street. It’s been a long time since I’ve been out
late enough to warrant a visit.
After we traced the boundary of the neighborhood, we headed
inside to check out 12th, 13th, 14th,
Pendleton, Broadway, and Spring Streets.
Although there are some cool modern loft condos that I’ve always loved
next to the Bell Center, much of the housing stock in Pendleton is made up of
renovated two, three, and four-story Italianates.
I love the deep, shady patios and the contrast of glass and
brick on the lofts:
This is the view from East Liberty looking through Pendleton towards Downtown:
Can you see the Great American Tower in the background?
I dubbed this street “Carriage House Row:
On the corner is a barber shop with a retro pole:
Nearby, these window boxes make me feel really bad about the plants I killed on my patio this summer:
On East 13th, we came across the Pendleton Children’s Garden, which has pretty flower and vegetable beds planted by kids. Although the growing season at the Children’s
Garden has come to an end, it also made me feel really bad about the plants I
killed on my patio this summer. If kids
can do it, I should be able to, too!
Although I say the same thing about Dance Moms and we all know that is wishful thinking.
On the final Friday of each month,
Pendleton residents and visitors alike come out for the “Final Friday” gallery
walk in OTR and Pendleton. During Final
Friday, the Pendleton Arts Center is open and gallery-walkers can check out the
studio spaces and see artists at work. I
learned on the Pendleton Center’s website that the building was originally a
shoe factory and was later purchased by the Shillito Department Store chain as
a warehouse. In 1991, the Verdin
Company—which clearly has deep Pendleton roots—opened the building back up as a
way to showcase local artisans. The PAC claims to have the world’s largest
collection of artists under one roof—200 of them!
Nearby is one of my favorite ArtWorks murals:
ArtWorks murals are like neighborhoods: I find myself asking “How many favorites am I
allowed to have?”
-K.
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