Thursday was a very special day for serious rail fans who live near Cincinnati and collect stamps. It was actually a pretty special day for casual rail fans who live near Cincinnati and don’t collect stamps. I know that because I’m in that second group. Thursday, March 9, was the first day of issue for a set of commemorative postage stamps featuring five historic train stations. Not only is Cincinnati’s Union Terminal one of those stations, but it was also the site of the dedication ceremony introducing the stamps.
Images of the stamps have been available for some time so the official unveiling would not be all that dramatic. Even so, I was surprised to see that the stamps and associated items were on sale ahead of the 11:00 AM dedication. That sign in front of the terminal can be read here.
I bought two sheets and a set of first day covers. I may save one sheet but one is definitely to use. I got the set of covers largely because I didn’t know what I was doing. I really just wanted a first day cover with the Cincinnati stamp but ended up with all five. The other stations are in Tamaqua, PA; Point of Rocks, MD; Richmond, VA; and San Bernardino, CA. Read about the stamps and the stations here. As it turned out, I would not have had to buy any as the program for the dedication was in a first day cover with the Cincinnati stamp. A cool pin was also included.
Seeing that John Lomax was the emcee was a wonderful surprise. John recently retired from WKRC-TV where he was one of my favorite news anchors. After the ceremony concluded, most of the participants stayed for autographs. I initially headed elsewhere but when the line got quite short decided to get that envelope in the previous panel signed. When I reached John, I told him that we had spent a few Reds opening days and a couple of car shows together — even though he didn’t know it.
A color guard from the Loveland American Legion and VFW posts presented the colors and DeMarco Reed from the School for Creative and Performing Arts did an impressive job singing the national anthem. We were all welcomed by Cincinnati Museum Center CEO Elizabeth Pierce and Hamilton County Commission President Alicia Reece. Pierce remarked on what a nice coincidence it was to have a commemorative stamp issued during the terminal’s 90th year. The Cincinnati Museum Center is housed in the terminal.
Daniel Tangherlini from the USPS Board of Governors presided over the actual “unveiling”. Tangherlini deviated from his prepared speech to note that this train-related event was taking place in a state where two significant train incidents (derailments near East Palestine and Springfield) had recently occurred. He called these reminders of the need to keep safety front and center in USPS operations.
Following the dedication, Janice Forte and Nicholas Cates shared personal memories of Union Terminal. Forte is a historian and docent at the building. Some of her memories involved interactions with visitors who had their own memories. Cates grew up in the area and told of his inspiring first visit while in high school and the incredible good fortune that brought him back to the city and the role of lead architect on the terminal’s recent restoration.
When all the formalities were over, I made a visit to the Amtrak passenger area next to the auditorium then joined the autograph line as I mentioned before. Back in the rotunda, the previously covered image of the Cincinnati stamp had been revealed and sales had slowed a bit but were still going strong.
Before leaving, I grabbed pictures of some of the murals in the rotunda, that iconic domed ceiling, and the model of the terminal that is part of the “Cincinnati in Motion” exhibit in the history museum.
When passenger service moved from Union Terminal in 1972, my sister-in-law and I headed there to take some pictures. We were turned away but as we walked back toward our car we saw a man with a box of toy trains being admitted. We then learned that a hobby shop temporarily remained in business inside the building and customers were permitted access. We declared ourselves customers and were allowed through the door to walk directly to and from the shop. Once there, we realized that the shop dealt in expensive (to our budgets) model train gear. Being more or less obligated to buy something, we did find one thing we could afford and each bought an envelope that had been carried and canceled on the last train to leave the terminal. That “last day” envelope, for which I paid $2 plus 9¢ tax, is pictured with the “first day” envelope, for which I paid $1.18 (set of 5 for $5.90) and no tax. A clear example of the advantage of going straight to the source and buying in bulk.
Our walk from the store was not quite as direct as our walk to it had been as we feverishly snapped pictures of anything that looked interesting. Neither was it as direct as at least one observer would have liked. We had stopped shooting and were probably halfway across the big open space when a man emerged from somewhere and shouted something with the word “pictures” in it. We mumbled something back and kept walking. He was in pursuit as we reached the door and exited but apparently decided that we weren’t worth going outside for. It is the only time I’ve ever thought it quite possible that someone might grab my camera and pull the film from it.
I know not where those pictures are. My photography was a very low-budget affair in those days. It’s likely that they were shot on black & white film that I bought in bulk and spooled and developed myself. It is also likely that few if any were ever printed. Those negatives may eventually turn up somewhere or they may be truly lost to the world. Thankfully that wonderful building has not been even though it came very close.
Loveland Stage Company was founded in 1979. I lived inside Loveland city limits from about 1981 to 1997. I visited the town frequently before I physically moved there and visit even more frequently now that I’ve moved a few miles away. I have driven by the LSC theater perhaps hundreds of times. I have seen many interesting titles displayed on that marquee. That I’d not previously been inside is both inexplicable and inexcusable. The performance I saw Sunday compares favorably with some I’ve seen in downtown Cincinnati. Walkable restaurants around LSC also compare favorably with those around the downtown theaters and the parking is cheaper. There’s some Shakespeare (Twelfth Night) coming up at LSC in a couple of months which I hope to catch. I’m also quite curious about what next season will bring.
Amy E. Brownlee is a lifelong Cincinnatian. She naturally learned a lot about the city growing up here then used that knowledge and added much more during her ten years at Cincinnati Magazine. An awful lot of the treasures she writes about in Lost Treasures of Cincinnati were lost before she arrived but a rather frightening number have disappeared during her lifetime. Of course, an even larger number have disappeared during mine. Neither of us is responsible for that. I swear it’s coincidence pure and simple.
The book opens with “Food and Drink” in Section 1 then covers “Entertainment” and “Retail” in the next two sections. The smallest section, “Media”, is followed by the largest, “Community”. Definitions for those section titles are not particularly rigid and the size of the “Community” section probably indicates that it is the least rigid of all. It is where things like churches and breweries, of which Cincinnati had more than a few, appear.
Most, but not quite all, of the breweries mentioned in the book were gone before I got here. Likewise with restaurants and attractions which together comprise the biggest part of things that have disappeared during my lifetime. I caught one show, Hair, at the Shubert (“Entertainment”) before it was torn down. I also saw one movie at the Albee (“Entertainment”) but I don’t remember what it was. I had one meal each at The Gourmet Room and the Maisonette (“Food and Drink”) before they closed. There are quite a few places in this book where I ate one or more meals or watched one or more movies, plays, games, or concerts. Encountering each of them on these pages prompted memories that went way beyond the single paragraph of text. Reading about places that were already gone when I came to Cincinnati didn’t prompt any memories, of course, but it did make me appreciate just how many treasures have been lost.
I really enjoyed reading Lost Treasures of Cincinnati cover-to-cover front-to-back but as I did, two other ways of reading the book came to mind. With its fairly short standalone essays, it seems like a natural fit for that popular personal reading room with the porcelain furniture. Its use as a reference book also seems rather natural. I don’t mean an every-last-detail reference book to use in conducting deep-dive research but a great place to answer questions like “What was the name of that boat-shaped restaurant?” or “What happened to our NBA team?”. The full index will help the book play that role.
Greg Hand has been a man of letters — or at least a man of words — his entire adult life. He began as a newspaper reporter, moved up to editor, left to head up a university PR department, co-authored three books about the university while he was there, then retired. I was not even slightly aware of any of this as it was happening. I only became aware of Hand’s existence when I stumbled upon the blog he started post-retirement. His knowledge of local history and ability to dig up information to augment that knowledge was immediately apparent and I’ve been an ardent reader of that blog ever since that happy discovery. The blog’s name is Cincinnati Curiosities and it can be found 
In fact, later in the book, Hand offers another very different capsulated view of the city. On December 12, 1890, he tells us, “The Palace Hotel had elephant steak on the menu because an elephant was executed by firing squad that morning at the Cincinnati Zoo. Hundreds of people watched. That pretty much summarizes Cincinnati in 1890.”
“The Sensational and the Senseless” is the fourth of ten chapters. Other chapters tell of monsters in the Ohio River (“The Old Weird Cincinnati”), Fanny Trollope’s visit during the “Porkoplis” period (“Tales From the Old City”), the possibility that striptease was invented in Cincinnati (“Freaks, Flesh, and Footlights”), and a large variety of other topics. The striptease claim is based on Millie De Leon’s orchestrated removal of several garters in 1901, and Hand cites the claim in suggesting that a Striptease Hall of Fame might be an “appropriate addition to our Over-the-Rhine neighborhood”. 
Hand’s usually light-hearted reports are often accompanied by contemporary illustrations. At left is a Pears Soap advertisement based on Lillie Langtry’s famous bath in Apollinaris water at Cincinnati’s Grand Hotel in 1883. It’s in the chapter titled “Nudity, Naughtness, and Negotiable Affection”, and if that doesn’t get you interested in the book I don’t know what will.
This was one of the most flat-out enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time. I have seen Katie perform many times, heard her talk on the radio several times, and even chatted with her personally a few times. I knew her as a talented musician and entertaining storyteller but I did not know her as a writer. Others, it seems, have been aware of Laur’s writing skills for some time. It’s my impression that nothing other than the foreword, an introduction, and Katie’s acknowledgments was written specifically for this book. In one of the book’s essays, Katie talks of selling her writing and says she sold everything she wrote. From that, I assume that each of the essays and stories that make up Red Dirt Girl has previously appeared in print somewhere. Where I don’t know and regret that where ever it was, it was outside my field of vision. That I am only now seeing the literary side of Katie is very much my loss. This gal can write.
