Downtown Buildings 6

MUSIC  HALL  POSTAL  CARDS

1978 First Day Of Issue cards from the Post Office commemorating historic preservation.

               
Back of card on left                                                                       

   The items you see in the next two rows are images of the souvenir program given out during the First Day of Issue Ceremony for the above postal cards. The first row shows the front and inside of the program. I do not show the back since it contains only the sentence, "Program furnished by the Cincinnati Enquirer." The second row contains the insert that is stapled inside the program, it is explained in the program on the left inside section. The inside of the program is scanned in two parts due to its size.

   
Front                                          Inside (two parts)          

       
Front                                Inside                                Back

ARMORY

   Built in 1889 at 1443 Freeman Ave. it was the headquarters of the 1st Regiment of the Ohio National Guard. It also served as a center for many sports activities. It held gymnastics and track meets, athletic carnivals, bicycle races, boxing matches, roller skating, and basketball. In 1908 Cincinnati's first American Bowling Congress Tournament was held here. U.C. held many of its basketball games here. Its usefulness as a venue for sports ended by 1960. By the late 1980s it was demolished. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 3, 1980 where it remains even though the building no longer exists.

                                       
                                                                                                                  Interior of Armory                    Photograph

HAMILTON  COUNTY  MEMORIAL  BUILDING

  The Hamilton County Memorial Building dedicated June 13, 1908 is located at 1225 Elm Street (a few doors down from Music Hall). It is a memorial to the county's "soldiers, sailors, marines and pioneers". (naturally there was no Air Force) It was constructed because of the persistence of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). They were veterans of the Union Army who had 13 posts in the Cincinnati area alone. Finally a bond issue was passed to finance the construction. Inside is a kitchen and meeting rooms for veterans groups. There is a auditorium on the 2nd floor in which many events were held. There are tablets, relics, and flags from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Spanish American War. The six statues above the doors were sculpted by Clement Barnhorn, an instructor at the Cincinnati Art Academy. The College of Music (next door) used it for their performances. It is now the headquarters for the Miami Purchase Association, a local preservation group.

Not a postcard

Auditorium

                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                Photograph

CINCINNATI  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY

  The Museum of Natural History merged in 1990 with the Cincinnati Historical Society and the Children's Museum and is now located at the historical Union Terminal building.  This building was located next to Elsinore Tower at 1720 Gilbert Ave. It was dedicated on August 13, 1957 on land that had been deeded to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1881. The museum was begun in 1818 by Daniel Drake (1785-1852) and others in the Cincinnati College using their own collections of fossils and Indian relics and is the oldest natural history museum west of the Allegheny Mountains. Known as the Western Museum it was staffed for awhile by John James Audubon (1785-1851) who stuffed birds and animals and painted exhibit cases. Interest in those days was not very great and these collections were not taken seriously until a building was bought in 1877 at third & Broadway. The Society of Natural History as it was now called, created programs for children and featured world famous scientists as lecturers. In 1934 the ground floor of the Ohio Mechanics Institute was used. In 1957 OMI announced that it needed the floor space and so the construction of this building was started. The dome like part of the building seen in the second card was called the Planetarium and is where programs of the stars in the night sky were shown. Television studios have replaced this building.

 Displays in Natural History Cavern
Blind Fish                                                                      Bats display in cavern
Blind Crayfish                                                                                                            

                               
Most sought after sea shell in the world                        Bullfrog                                     "Wilderness Trail"                     
Conus gloriamarus                                                                                                                                

                               
Paleo Indian Exhibit                          Adena Culture Indians                          Fort Ancient Indians

                               
Spiny Oyster Shells (Spondylus)            Sea 400,000,000 years ago                          Larger version                   

                               
                                                          Wilderness Trail                                       Forest Floor

                               
               Wild Turkeys                         Black Widow Spider                     Great Stone Pipe            
                                                                                                              Prehistoric Indians

Koala Bear

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