Walking Cincinnati. Danny Korman

Walking Cincinnati

points in the city. From here, go left around the church and begin to follow Guido Street. You’ll pass the former rectory and school on your right.

When you reach Pavilion Street, glance to your left to see some of the main business strip; we’ll return to that later. Instead, turn right on Pavilion. Ahead, as you continue forward, Pavilion will curve to the left and become Carney Street; walk on the left side to stay on the sidewalk and continue. For the next few blocks, headed mostly downhill, observe the colorful siding of the homes and the range of architectural styles. This is residential Mount Adams today: wealthy, private, filled with neat gardens and creeping ivy, settled closely together, intrinsically urban. Between the buildings to your right, you’ll catch more glimpses of wonderful river views.

Turn right on Parkside Place. You are now walking along the borders of Eden Park.

Just before reaching Martin Drive, turn left on the small service road that is roped off to cars. Continue up the service road as you pass Mirror Lake to your right. Initially built as a reservoir, some of the remnants can be seen on the south side of the park. If you want to add a little distance to the walk, this is a great spot to loop around the lake and enjoy Eden Park, named after Nicholas Longworth’s estate, which he called the Garden of Eden.

Continue along the road through two brick constructions and toward the back side of Seasongood Pavilion, built in 1959 and named after Cincinnati Mayor Murray Seasongood, who served 1926–1930. Walk around either side of the pavilion and continue up the path that goes through the middle of the grassy natural amphitheater. Many live music and theater events happen here, especially in the summer.

At the top of the bowl, you’ll reach Art Museum Drive. If you look to your right, you’ll see the Cincinnati Art Museum. The original building, which can’t be seen from this view but which you can admire if you follow the driveway that leads off to the left around the new additions, was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies. The museum’s collections include some 60,000 works, and admission is free. Stop and peruse a few galleries if you have time, or continue your walk by turning left at the top of the amphitheater.

Follow Art Museum Drive away from the museum as the road curves around the hill. Continue right at the fork; do not turn left on Mt. Adams Drive.

Turn left on Ida Street. You’re reentering the Mount Adams neighborhood, and to your right you will again see the beautiful narrow houses hanging off the side of the hill.

Turn left on Paradrome Street. On the corner here you’ll see a staircase leading to your left up the hill; a short distance down Paradrome Street, you’ll be able to look up and see a fine view of the beautiful Playhouse in the Park, which is at the top. Not quite visible from here are the Mount Adams playground and pool, which are hidden off to the right of the Playhouse.

Turn right on Wareham Drive, and then immediately turn left to continue on Paradrome Street.

Turn right on Louden Street. As you walk slightly uphill, you’re nearing the main area for businesses and nightlife.

Turn right on Hatch Street. Here on the corner you’ll find the Mt. Adams Bar & Grill, a former speakeasy that was the first establishment in Ohio to obtain a liquor license after Prohibition was repealed in 1933. If you step inside, you’ll appreciate the elaborate old bar and gorgeous wooden paneling. Just next door to the bar, you can creep down some steps and through a low-ceilinged alleyway to enter the peculiar garden and live music of The Blind Lemon; first, stop to see the plaque on the wall near the entrance that lists famous historical guests.

Outside the Blind Lemon, cross Hatch Street and begin to walk up St. Gregory Street. To your right you’ll see the impressive Academy at St. Gregory building. Designed by H. E. Siter and built as a public school in 1894, it was converted to host the Cincinnati Art Academy in the 1980s (which had previously occupied a building adjacent to the Art Museum in Eden Park). In 2005 the Art Academy moved to its current location in Over-the-Rhine, and this building has most recently been converted into 14 upscale condominiums.

Up St. Gregory Street a little, on the left, is a former firehouse that now houses Longworth’s, a large and popular bar, restaurant, and nightclub.

As you turn right on Pavilion Street, on the corner you’ll find the Bow Tie Café, a charming coffee shop and café that was opened by former NFL player Dhani Jones in 2010. After his friend Kunta Littlejohn was diagnosed with lymphoma, Jones started rocking Littlejohn-style bow ties to show his support, and now his Bow Tie Cause line of ties supports various charities like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

As you head up the stair-stepped brick sidewalk, take a look at the statue of the wine-sloshing monk on the patio. He’s called Father Quinn by the locals and is a tribute to one of Mount Adams’s mythic figures: Father Quinn is said to have brought provisions to the needy during the brutal winter of 1888.

Turn right on St. Paul Place. In front of you is the Holy Cross Monastery building, on a site that has been important in Mount Adams’s history.

Originally called Mount Ida, after a washerwoman who was said to have lived there in the base of a sycamore tree, the entire area of Mount Adams was purchased by Longworth in 1831. He turned the barren, deforested land into a vineyard, on his way to becoming the first commercially successful winemaker in the United States. Later, he donated 4 acres at the top of the hillside to be made into an observatory (supposedly with a mind to increase his property’s value). John Quincy Adams, in one of his last public speeches, presided over the dedication of the Cincinnati Observatory in 1843, and this is why the hill was redubbed Mount Adams.

The original observatory building was moved to Mount Lookout in 1873 to escape the air pollution from downtown, and the site in Mount Adams became home to the Holy Cross Monastery and Church. The building you’re looking at was completed in 1901 and served as a monastery until 1977. The Holy Cross Church served the Irish immigrants of the hill, and later the parish combined with the German parish of the Immaculate Conception to become the Holy Cross Immaculata that you saw at the beginning of this tour, on the other end of Pavilion Street.

The monastery building is one of several Mount Adams buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and today it houses commercial office space and an event center.

Turn left on Monastery Street and head down the hill. As you bear left on Celestial Street, you’ll see wide views opening ahead of you again. Continue to bear left

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