OTR Memory Project

Over-the-Rhine is one of the nation’s most significant chapters in the story of European immigration during the Nineteenth Century. In the 1830’s, Over-the-Rhine was separated from Downtown by the Miami & Erie Canal. From the 1830's through the early Twentieth Century, the neighborhood was primarily home to first-generation European immigrant families. People from Germanic countries were the most prevalent and they are responsible for its name (going “over the Rhine” was a tongue-and-cheek reference to crossing over the Miami & Erie Canal.) German was the primary language, but OTR served as the working class social and political center of the city. Hundreds of taverns, world-famous beer gardens, the nation’s second oldest Opera, dozens of breweries, theaters, orchestras, restaurants, markets, and brothels served as the backdrop for one of the most powerful political machines in U.S. history. However, most Cincinnatians are largely unfamiliar with Over-the-Rhine’s rich history, and few people outside of the city have even heard of this nationally significant neighborhood.

This may be attributed to the fact that OTR has experienced three distinct eras. Prohibition and WWI struck death blows to the neighborhood’s original Germanic culture. In addition, Cincinnati’s Germanic immigrants rose rather rapidly up social ranks and moved to the more affluent hilltop neighborhoods. Together, these factors caused Germans to move out of OTR over a brief period of time and the original “golden era” of OTR dwindled. Germans were replaced mostly by Appalachians moving to the city from rural poverty. In the mid-to-late Twentieth Century, the neighborhood's African American population became the predominant ethnic group. Racial conflicts mixed with federal housing policy to produce a neighborhood that was as African American by 1980 as it had been German in 1880. None of these shifts in population or culture were complete or immediate, but they were dramatic enough that the oral, social history of Over-the-Rhine has been dispersed throughout the region. There are still people who remember the later years of Over-the-Rhine’s “golden era,” but they are in their late years of life and reside in dozens of different neighborhoods.

A few Appalachian families still live in homes established 50 years ago, but most have moved away in unknown patterns. Aging African Americans can remember being displaced to the neighborhood and slowly making it home. Many more families scattered throughout the region remember trips to a father's store on Vine St. or a grandmother's stand at Findlay Market. Once home to over 45,000 people and the social epicenter of Cincinnati, Over-the-Rhine holds a prominent role in the histories of thousands of Cincinnati-area families. However, most of these people no longer have any direct connection to OTR. This places the neighborhood’s important social history in peril.

The oral history of OTR may also be capable of unlocking mysteries. There are stories about extensive tunnel systems located underneath Over-the-Rhine. These tunnels connected wings of nineteenth century breweries and are also rumored to have connected breweries with taverns as far as a mile away. Legend also claims that some remained in use during Prohibition. Two, small tunnels known to exist were sealed as recently as the 1950’s. Sub-basements contain bricked-over archways suggestive of a tunnel network. Other buildings have original blueprints for tunnel entrances that cannot be found. While the people who worked in these breweries are all deceased, there is ample reason to believe that people who sealed tunnels decades later are still living within the region. Simply finding people with first-hand knowledge could be as valuable as costly excavations, and could provide endangered sites with additional historic significance.

The OTR Memory Project is a plan to collect and record stories, photos, artifacts, and to record interviews of people with memories of Over-the-Rhine's past while those resources still exist. A disinvested neighborhood does a poor job of preserving its history -- especially the mundane aspects that capture the reality of day-to-day life. However, Over-the-Rhine's history is integral to the history of the City of Cincinnati. Its preservation is also important to Over-the-Rhine's potential as a future heritage tourism destination and to generating additional interest in saving OTR’s historic architecture.

In the winter of 2007 the OTR Foundation formed a partnership with the Cincinnati Museum Center that will permit us to house the physical assets collected from the OTR Memory Project. We also obtained commitments from historians with oral-history experience to train volunteers, and a lot of volunteer interest. In addition, a couple of rather insignificant mentions of the project prompted dozens of inquiries, offers, and a great deal of interest. All of this, combined with the relatively inexpensive nature of the project caused us to be optimistic that it could begin in the early spring of 2008 and produce a Museum Center exhibit with an online component by the spring of 2009. Unfortunately, we were overly optimistic. The OTR Foundation functions on a very small budget. It has one staff member, no endowment, and no source of significant funding. As a result, obtaining the several thousand dollars necessary to purchase equipment, cover cataloging and management work, pay for some relatively small expert consultation fees, etc. all requires grant funding. At present, we have been unsuccessful in obtaining the necessary funding. If you would like to help make the OTR Memory Project a reality, please contact us at otrmemoryproject@otrfoundation.org and/or donate to the OTR Foundation today.