CINCINNATI GARDENS
Built in1949 at 2250 Seymour Avenue this facility contains ice-making equipment, a removable basketball floor, lighting and sound systems for shows and conventions. In the 50s and 60s it was the home to the Cincinnati Bearcat basketball team, and to the professional Cincinnati Royals. Other entertainments such as wrestling, concerts, circuses, and ice shows such as the Ice Follies and Icecapades were regularly held. Boxing matches were also held. The Beatles played here in 1965 and 1966 but the acoustics were very bad. The Royals moved in 1972 to Kansas City and increased competition from the newly opened Convention Center in 1967 and Riverfront Coliseum in 1975 led to its diminished importance. It continues in operation with car and gun shows, tractor pulls, some college basketball games, and music acts.
I know nothing about these cards but I am reasonably sure they were taken in the
Cincinnati area.
Modern postcard
1899 Sporting News
BASKETBALL
Friars' Club of Cincinnati basketball team
As part of their athletic programs, the Friars' Club was one of the earliest Catholic organizations in the city to form a basketball team. The team, shown above, won the city's amateur championship by defeating the Cincinnati Athletic Club 30 - 21. The Friars continued to field strong clubs over the next two decades.
BOWLING
Mergards
Bowling
A.B.C. Tournament
King Pin Lanes
7735 Beechmont Ave.
GOLF
In 1893 Nicholas Longworth II,
Charles Hinkle, and the owner of the land Edmund P. Harrison laid out a five
hole golf course. The following year a nine hole course was laid out in one of
Longworth's pastures, and on October 28, 1895 the Cincinnati Golf Club was
formally organized. William Howard Taft was the club's first president.
The club laid out the first 18 hole course west of the
Alleghenies on farmland the club had purchased at 2348 Grandin Road. The first
clubhouse was an old farmhouse. Ropes stretched from stakes kept cows off the
putting greens; manure heaps were not recognized as legitimate hazards, though
plowed fields were. The cards below show the building that replaced the
farmhouse.
A small listing of the membership for 1906 will give
you an idea of how rich you had to be to play. Fleischmann, Groesbeck, Kilgour,
Longworth, Pogue, Proctor, Shillito, and Taft.
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Golf Game At Grandin
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The Pillars Country Club
Elberon Country
Club
Kenwood Country Club
Terrace Park Country Club
Oakley
Tennis court/golfers on
left.
There was an Indian Mound out of the picture on the left side of the Elberon Country Club that was built on 30 acres near Rapid Run and Overlook Roads. In 1912 the name was changed to Western Hills Country Club and the club was then moved to a farm site on Cleves-Warsaw and Neeb Roads.
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Losantiville Club House
Pleasant Ridge
California golf course
Hyde Park Country Club
The Wyoming Club
Maketewah Country Club
RACING
This track, River Downs, is located on the east side of Coney Island opened in 1925. Back then it was called the Coney Island Track. Financial difficulties forced the track to close from 1926 until 1933 with the exception of some harness races. After it finally became successful in 1936 it was completely destroyed by the flood of 1937. As you can see in the second card the track has a 7/8 mile green carpet turf course and a 1 mile main course.
CARTHAGE FAIR GROUNDS
Ohio saw the birth of harness racing here in 1839. Other names for this facility were the Buckeye Course and the Buckeye trotting Park. Consisting of 68 acres it is located at the southeast corner of Vine and 77th Sts. The annual agricultural Carthage Fair was first held here in 1846 although the Hamilton County Agricultural Society had been founded in 1819 with General William Henry Harrison as its president. The Hagenbeck and Wallace Circus wintered at the fairgrounds, and the First Regiment of the Ohio National Guard encamped here in 1917 to train for WWI.
Same view. Right card with Johnston Paint Co. ad.
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These seven non-postcard images show the Carthage Fair track in the early 1930s.
OAKLEY RACE TRACK
These are not postcards
The Oakley Race Track was opened in 1889 around the area where Cincinnati Milacron once stood. The area was called Oakley because of the large number of oak trees that were in the area. Only a few years after the track opened a state law was passed prohibiting betting and thus it closed in 1904.
PHILIPPS SWIMMING POOLS
637 Greenwood Ave.
5245 Glenway Avenue
Camp Edgar Friedlander
The camp in the above card is located in Miamiville which is located on Glendale-Milford Rd. just north of Camp Dennison along the Little Miami river.
I have no idea what the two cards below are all about. They are wearing what looks to be riding uniforms, but for what purpose is anybody's guess. I do know that the patch on their left shoulder says Cincinnati.
DORSO'S COLERAIN SKATELAND
3211 Lina Place
200' south of Galbraith
NORWOOD ROLLER RINK
THE ROLLERAMA CLUB
1990 Reading Road
CASTLE SKATELAND
Located in Loveland this skating rink is obviously patterned after the famous Chateau Laroche castle also in Loveland. The back states that its 85' x 180' maple hardwood floor is the most modern of all skating rinks.
CINCINNATI SPEEDWAY
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There are non-postcard panoramic
views of automobile racing at the old Cincinnati Speedway. To see
