steps and through a low-ceilinged alleyway to enter the peculiar garden and live music of Outside the Blind Lemon, cross Hatch Street and begin to walk up St. Gregory Street. To your right you’ll see the impressive
Up St. Gregory Street a little, on the left, is a former firehouse that now houses
As you turn right on Pavilion Street, on the corner you’ll find the
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
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 and carefully cross Celestial Street to the right side—only when you are safely past the intersection; traffic can approach quickly here.
On your right is
Just past The Rookwood, continue straight into the parking lot of Highland Towers and walk to the end of the lot. Here you’ll see an unrivaled view of downtown and the river. You’re standing on the site that used to be the top of the Mount Adams Incline, the fourth of five inclines that connected Cincinnati to the surrounding hillside neighborhoods. Built in the 1870s and open until 1948, the incline carried passengers, cars, and buggies to the top of the hill, and it brought great growth to Mount Adams. The Incline remained a popular tourist attraction, as folks from the city rode up to eat, drink, and dance at the legendary Highland House.
By midcentury, Mount Adams was mostly home to blue-collar workers, and the neighborhood had fallen into disrepair; redevelopment and renovation began in the 1960s and started the upturn that the area is still experiencing today.
Walk back across the parking lot to Celestial Street, turn right, and continue. Turn left on Jerome Street, still paved with brick, and head slightly uphill once more. When Jerome Street ends, turn right on St. Gregory Street to return to your starting point.
Points of Interest
