New Book on Findlay Market

Arcadia Publishing will be officially releasing a new book on Findlay Market by Liz Tilton at the end of July. The book Cincinnati's Historic Findlay Market covers the history of the market established in 1852.

The book has numerous images of the market from private collections and should be an excellent read. The book is priced at 21.99 and will be on sale July 27th according to the Arcadia Publishing Website. http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9780738560533

This book is part of the Images of America series and there are a number of books in the series including books on Over-the Rhine, the Golden Age, and the Cincinnati Subway, among others.

Historic Restoration: A delicate balancing act.

I haven't posted the last couple of days as I have been writing a restoration plan for a client. Between client meetings, tons of research and design time, I've been busy. At the same time one of the boards I regularly contribute to have had a plethora of posts.

Couple that, with me working on restoring Doorknobs a Newel Post and other assorted things for the Knox Hill Project, and, well, you get the idea.

One of the things I have been doing is "looking" for a building to house our antiques business, our design showroom and a historic litho Art Gallery in Cincinnati. I've narrowed potential areas down to OTR and West End. The vast bulk of our business is by appointment but in many ways we will be 'destination/tourist' kind of business as well and we want to have some regular hours and we want to be close to historic districts where many of our clients come from. So I have been going through the MLS, Craiglsits, and the web, trying to find "the right building" for our various enterprises. We had found one building earlier last year, only to get " outbid' by an "investor type" who has no intention of doing anything with it other than sit on it until he can find someone with deep pockets to buy it.

Therein the rub, we would love to be in the Findlay Market Area, It is one of our favorite places in the city. Most of the buildings are 'cost prohibited' in the area around it, as the owners want far more than the buildings are worth and basically figure if they go downhill enough some "preferred developer" or 3CDC will come in and pay their ridiculous asking price. 3CDC has been a godsend and a curse to OTR. They have done some great projects, yet have far too many buildings sitting. Because they own so much, it has "inflated' the real estate market to a point that many buildings we could restore have such a high cost per square foot for acquisition that it is cost prohibited.

So Saturday, we drive down to "look around' some more for some tattered, faded 'for sale' signs and hope that 1.) we can find something 'with potential, and 2.) Someone with a realistic view that a 2-3 story building that needs total restore is not worth 2-300K.

I got to see the first installment of the "This Old House" restoration project last night. A Brownstone in in Brooklyn, New York. It promises to be an interesting series as the owners are adamant about preserving as many historic details as possible. You can also follow the project on their website:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/tv/current-house-project

We also plan on Driving around some of the neighborhoods and taking pictures. Our usual Cincinnati trip plan is get up at 5 AM leave at 7AM , drive down, work like crazy until 3-4 PM then drive back to Indy, eat dinner and collapse. Tomorrow is strictly an exploration day, driving neighborhoods. Walking some as well, ( yes I know its winter, but that doesn't stop Old House fanatics like us), and maybe some antiquing. I am still looking for some staircase parts.

Oh and if anyone out there has afalling apart commercial building near Findlay and doesn't want a million for it , please let me know.

Why can't Cincinnati be a "distinctive destination?"

Each year , the National Trust for Historic Preservation has selects 12 vacation destinations across the US that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, cultural diversity, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a strong commitment to historic preservation and revitalization.

Why not Cincinnati? It has the architecture, it already has some attractions? So how do we get there? Cincinnati's strongest suit is its wealth of Architecture. Few midwestern cities have the scale of historic buildings near the downtown area. It has key attractions Fountain Square, Findlay Market and Dayton Street Historic yet the city has not developed a plan to create corridors to get from A to B to C. Part of the sucess of historic and cultural tourism in other cities, is that those visiting need to feel safe. No I should point out that Ive been to New Orleans and I was well aware of where I was at, what areas were safe and not so safe, but causal "historic toursists" may not know this. The city needs to create corridors of redvelopment off say, Central Parkway to these areas.

It also needs to push the streetcar, It needs to start attracting "Historic tourism " businesses like carriages, horsecart tours and bike rentals. The areas around Fountain Square, Findlay and Dayton Street Historic need comprehensive plans to attract a good mix of businesses to the areas around them like galleries, antique dealers and restaurants. Fountain square has been more sucessful at this , its time for Findlay and Dayton St to do the same. The city must be prepared to argue that bringing in toursim actually helps the economy by providing entry level jobs, as the "save the poor" crowd will yell gentrification. It can happen that Cincinnati could be a Charleston SC. It will just take some planning and hard work.

Cincinnati Part 2

Cincinnati is a preservationists dream. So much quality property and people just dont realize what they have. We spent some time down at Findlays Market. I was impressed by the architecture of course and overall the area looked very much like New Orleans or Charleston SC.

I took hundreds of photos.

We met with our realtor and the first house was a bit of a bust, key was not in the lockbox. House looked like it had potential, the details were all there on the oustide..if I just could have seen the inside. Second house has even better exterior details, much larger suffered from the usual maladies of being a slum property for 40 years but, I could see past that. High ceilings, nice trim and an extra lot.

While most would see a run down house, I could see the new two story carriage house off to the left in the extra lot, the stone walled courtyard with brick patio and fountain. I could see the new fourth floor, master suite with a rooftop deck.

As we walked the neighorhood with the realtor looking at homes I was struck by the fact that the few remaining residents there, that in 3-5 years they all be gone. Prices would go up, landlords under pressure to meet codes would sell and like gypsies they would be off to the next

enclave of section 8 housing. They seemed oblivious to their impending plight. The drug dealers would be gone, the bottles of cheap wine would no longer litter the streets and the neighborhood will have gone full circle. neighborhoods have a way of bouncing back given time, investment and desire by a few people to reclaim them. Its funny in a way, the suburbs, the place everyone went to to get away from downtown is likely where the unfortunates will wind up as people, driven by proximity to work and quality of like reclaim the city centers. You look at properties for sale for less than a used car and you just wonder how people drive by everyday and dont see the potential. Those are the people who move in 5-10 years down the road, pay way too much and don't have the satisfaction of earning their place in the neighborhood, they just buy it.

The area is just a few years away from trendy galleries, upscale pubs, antique shops and micro brewerys. Ive seen it too many times and I can spot it everytime. I think Cincinnati has potential, I think it will once again have a totally vibrant downtown. I think Over-the Rhine will be the new trendy neighborhood, You can see it as the 3-400K condos march down the hill. I hope it doesnt become another suburbia though!