Revisiting 1949

 Aerial Photo of Cincinnati [1949].
Photo source: mgsmith.

This is a composite I made of four more images from Michael G. Smith's amazing Flickr (70 Years Later set). These really need to be seen in detail, so make sure you visit each link below.
* Note: If you're new to Flickr, zoom into the image by clicking the "All Sizes" icon on the top of the photo, then click on "Original Size" at the next screen.

Some notable differences from today, in order from W to E:

West End - From top to bottom (left side), the large Roundhouse, Crosley Field, and CUT used for its original purpose (with rear concourse still intact).
Downtown West & Covington - The Fountain Square Esplanade on Fifth Street (just east of the Carew Tower), and the Cincinnati's riverfront warehouse/rail district vs. Covington's barren banks.
Downtown East & Newport - More riverfront railways heading east, Broadway Commons railyards in action, and lower Mt. Adams with houses, but no "Big Mac" bridge, nor a competing Newport-on-the-Levee.
East End - More rail/industry along the river, a full Eden Park Reservoir, and seemingly-unending highly-developed city blocks.

Again, significant differences from today: Cincinnati Union Terminal was still acting as grand entrance to the city, Eden Park reservoir was full, Broadway commons was active, and the Riverfront was still playing host to its industrial foundations... and refreshingly, all without sight of the massive spaghetti highways and large parking lots/garages that cut today's city into disparate wedges.

Incredible what 60 years does to a landscape.

Graphite Mariemont

Images from Mariemont! Move Forward.

What a better way to celebrate the new locale than through lead and cellulose.

I wish I had the dates for these sketches, but for now, they'll have to speak for themselves. I'm guessing the 20s, considering Mariemont was planned and partially constructed in that decade. As Anonymous pointed out (in the comments), the first is dated November 1922... and I'm assuming the others are around the same time.

A substantial amount on this locale in the future - our new home.

70 Years Later

Back in April, I posted the final segment of my "City to Scale" series, The City to Scale: Unbuilt Cincinnati, which sparked some speculation from Drew (of design cincinnati & drew-o-rama fame):

"...it'd be cool to find drawings of projects that were actually built and place them alongside photos of said project to see how the original vision and the end result compare."

I agreed - it would be cool, especially if time wasn't of concern. I really do wish I had an allowance to do these things... but luckily, I've found others who have jumped on these concepts, some of which I submitted later in the post, Oh, I Believe in Yesterday....

But recently, and even more entrancing position was taken by the grandson of Cincinnati photographer Nelson RonSheim, Michael G. Smith...

The 5th St. Viaduct in downtown Cincinnati frames
a steam locomotive on Eggleston Ave.
Original photo by Nelson Ronsheim, (11/16/1940).
  Recent photo by Michael G Smith (2009).
 

What differentiates this series from other before-and-after concepts out there is that everything is "in-house" - his grandfather took the originals (all of which are excellent, by the way) followed with Michael's take from the same location... 70 years later. How cool is that.

Make sure to CHECK OUT THE FULL SET! (+ another reminder to join Michael G. Smith's Flickr, if you haven't already.) 

Previous Ronsheim Posts

RF: A View from Above
RF: Winter Incline