Which number are we on? I’d say that I’ve lost track but all I have
to do is consult my spreadsheet. If you
know me, you know that “checking the spreadsheet” is pretty much my M.O. Queensgate is number 40. Twelve to go!
Queensgate is a
commercial-industrial neighborhood just west of Downtown, before you get to the
Price Hills. Because it is situated
between the neighborhoods where I have worked in for the past six years (Price
Hill and Downtown), I know it well. It
has often been my go-to spot for gas, a Frisch’s Diet Coke, and other lunch
break errands. FYI: the world’s sweetest bank tellers work at the
5/3 Bank Queensgate Branch.
We started our run from the
gateway sign on the median of West Eighth Street. Nearby, are a few office buildings, a hotel,
a gas station, a car lot, and a handful of fast food restaurants.
We made a loop around Gest and
Linn Streets, where we ran alongside some railroad tracks past a couple food
service distribution centers. As I was
researching what we should see on our Queensgate route, I learned that prior to
an urban renewal project in the 1960s, Queensgate was part of the West End
neighborhood. Aging residential
structures were cleared, leaving a large swath of land for commercial and
industrial uses.
I thought these Butternut Bread
trucks looked so pretty:
We also got a chance to get an
up-close look at the old Hudepohl Brewing Company factory:
My favorite part of this little
loop around Gest Street was spending some time with the Museum of Natural History’s Wooly Mammoth statues. The
statues stand in front of an unmarked building that we only later learned is
the museum’s Geier Collections and Research Center. Posing with them, I felt like Reese Witherspoon
in Water for Elephants. Minus the leotards. And the acrobatic skills. And Robert Pattinson.
Yeah, basically I just felt like
myself leaning against a fiberglass elephant.
Next we ran down West Eighth Street
past the Cincinnati Firefighters Union, which is adorned with a new ArtWorks
mural:
We turned down Dalton, and saw
some of the first fall leaves on the ground:
We headed toward Union Terminal,
but on the “out” part of this out-and-back, ran through the tunnel that passes
beneath the museum. I’ve driven through
the tunnel before, but this was my first time passing through as a
pedestrian.
While I was trying not to trip
over myself in the dark, Donnie kept shouting at me to take a picture of his
glow-in-the-dark shoes:
“Did you get ‘em? Are they
glowing? Did you get ‘em? … Hey, did you
get ‘em?”
(Donnie's edit: She didn't get them.)
Further down on Dalton Street, we
ran past the Samuel Hannaford & Sons Post Office. This 1930s building is an Art Deco
masterpiece.
We turned around at the very end
of Dalton Street, just past this pepper.
The pepper made me nostalgic for New Mexico:
Running back up Dalton Street, we
cut up Kenner in order to check out Union Terminal—officially The Cincinnati
Museum Center at Union Terminal.
Everyone knows that the building was originally built as a passenger
train station. What I didn’t know until
I read the Wikipedia page on this building is that in the late 1970s, it was
converted into a shopping mall called “The Land of OZ”, complete with a roller
rink and bowling alleys. There was a
Loehmann’s store in the rotunda until 1985!
I have a distinct memory of being
on a fourth grade field trip at the Museum Center, sitting on these benches,
eating a bag of sour cream and onion chips and a pack of Rolos out of my sack
lunch. Clearly 1992 was prime time for encouraging kids to eat healthy lunches.
On the way back to West Eighth,
we passed the Cincinnati Job Corps Center.
Job Corps offers academic and career education, and the building
itself—a former convent—is rumored to be haunted.
Queensgate is not a neighborhood
where we would normally think to run.
However, on a Saturday morning, the traffic was light and we were able
to get in 6 + miles with lots of long, flat straight-aways.
View the full route with mile markers here: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=528580.
-K.
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