Blues Locations – Ohio – Cincinnati

Themed Photo Gallery and Information: Cincinnati, Ohio

Background

Cincinnati is a major city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and is the government seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line with Kentucky. The city is the economic and cultural hub of the Cincinnati metropolitan area, the fastest growing economic power in the Midwestern United States based on increase of economic output, which had a population of 2,190,209 as of the 2018 census estimates. This makes it Ohio’s largest metropolitan area and the nation’s 29th-largest. With a city population estimated at 302,605, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and 65th in the United States. Cincinnati is also within a day’s drive of 49.70% of the United States populace, the most of any city in the United States.

In the 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the middle of the country. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U.S. cities by population, surpassed only by New Orleans and the older, established settlements of the United States eastern seaboard, as well as being the sixth-biggest city for a period spanning 1840 until 1860. Cincinnati was the first city founded after the American Revolution, as well as the first major inland city in the country.

Cincinnati developed with fewer immigrants and less influence from Europe than East Coast cities in the same period. However, it received a significant number of German-speaking immigrants, who founded many of the city’s cultural institutions. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnati’s growth slowed considerably. The city was surpassed in population by other inland cities, particularly Chicago, which developed based on strong commodity exploitation, economics, and the railroads, and St. Louis, which for decades after the Civil War served as the gateway to westward migration.

Cincinnati is home to three major sports teams: the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball; the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League; and FC Cincinnati of Major League Soccer. The city’s largest institution of higher education, the University of Cincinnati, was founded in 1819 as a municipal college and is now ranked as one of the 50 largest in the United States. Cincinnati is home to historic architecture with many structures in the urban core having remained intact for 200 years. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as the “Paris of America”, due mainly to such ambitious architectural projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel, and Shillito Department Store. Cincinnati is the birthplace of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States.

Full background here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati

History

Cincinnati began with the settlement of Columbia, Losantiville, and North Bend in the Northwest Territory of the United States beginning in late December 1788. The following year Fort Washington, named for George Washington, was established to protect the settlers.

It was chartered as a town in 1802, and then incorporated as a city in 1819, when it was first called “Queen of the West”. Located on the Ohio River, the city prospered as it met the needs of westward bound pioneers who traveled on the river. It had 30 warehouses to supply military and civilian travelers — and had hotels, restaurants and taverns to meet their lodging and dining needs.

Cincinnati became the sixth largest city in the United States, with a population of 115,435, by 1850. Before the Civil War, it was an important stop on the Underground Railroad (see below). Due to the Defense of Cincinnati, there was never a shot fired in the city during the Civil War.

Important industries throughout its history include meatpacking, iron production, steamboat repair and construction, carriage manufacturing, woodworking, cloth production, and engines. During World War I and II, Cincinnatians rallied to serve in the military, manufacture and produce supplies needed by the military, conserve scarce goods, buy Liberty Bonds, and donate to relief funds. There were increased opportunities for women and blacks during World War II, which ultimately shifted their social position after the war. The city is now a regional and national headquarters for many organizations.

Abolitionists and the Underground Railroad

Cincinnati was an important stop for the Underground Railroad in pre-Civil War times. It bordered a slave state, Kentucky, and is often mentioned as a destination for many people escaping the bonds of slavery. There are many harrowing stories involving abolitionists, runaways, slave traders and free men.

Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1824 as the first Black church in Ohio. It was an important stop on the Underground Railroad for many years. It seeded many other congregations in the city, across the state, and throughout the Midwest.

Lane Theological Seminary was established in the Walnut Hills section of Cincinnati in 1829 to educate Presbyterian ministers. Prominent New England pastor Lyman Beecher moved his family (Harriet and son Henry) from Boston to Cincinnati to become the first President of the Seminary in 1832.

Lane Seminary is known primarily for the “debates” held there in 1834 that influenced the nation’s thinking about slavery. Several of those involved went on to play an important role in the abolitionist movement and the buildup to the American Civil War.

Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Cincinnati

Abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe lived in Cincinnati for part of her life. She wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, first published on March 20, 1852. The book was the best-selling novel of the 19th century (and the second best-selling book of the century after the Bible) and is credited with helping to fuel the abolitionist cause in the United States prior to the American Civil War. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold. In his 1985 book Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture, Thomas Gossett observed that “in 1872 a biographer of Horace Greeley would argue that the chief force in developing support for the Republican Party in the 1850s had been Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati is located at 2950 Gilbert Avenue, and it is open to the public.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, located in downtown Cincinnati on the banks of the Ohio River (see images below), largely focuses on the history of slavery in the U.S., but has an underlying mission of promoting freedom in a contemporary fashion for the world. Its grand opening ceremony in 2002 was a gala event involving many national stars, musical acts, fireworks, and a visit from the current First Lady of the United States. It is physically located between Great American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium, which were both built and opened shortly before the Freedom Center was opened.

Full history here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cincinnati

For more in-depth information about the Underground Railroad take a look at the www.undergroundrailroad.org.uk website. It the gives an insight into the Underground Railroad movement during American slavery times, incorporating a collection of references to seminal works together with personal material and anecdotes. The website includes the origins of the underground railroad, a chronology of key dates and significant events, influential people, locations and associated events, essays and articles specialising in the underground railroad, research projects, a bibliography of key reference literature, a discography of related music and video, and Internet website references.

The Underground Railroad website is associated with EarlyBlues.com.

 

Mamie Smith

Mamie Smith (née Robinson; May 26, 1891 – September 16, 1946) was an American vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and actress. As a vaudeville singer she performed in various styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American artist to make vocal blues recordings. Willie “The Lion” Smith (no relation) described the background of that recording in his autobiography, Music on My Mind (1964).

Robinson was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1891 [Update: Mamie Smith was born at 14 Perry Street in downtown Cincinnati, which is now 308 Perry Street]. The year of her birth has previously been given as 1883, but in 2018, researcher John Jeremiah Sullivan discovered her birth certificate stating she was born in 1891 in Cincinnati.

When she was around 10 years old, she found work touring with a white act, the Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager, she danced in Salem Tutt Whitney’s Smart Set. In 1913, she left the Tutt Brothers to sing in clubs in Harlem and married William “Smitty” Smith, a singer.

On February 14, 1920, Smith recorded “That Thing Called Love” and “You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” for Okeh Records, in New York City, after African-American songwriter and bandleader Perry Bradford persuaded Fred Hagar to break the color barrier in black music recording. Okeh Records went on to record many iconic songs by black musicians. Although this was the first recording by a black blues singer, the backing musicians were all white. Hagar had received threats from Northern and Southern pressure groups saying they would boycott the company if he recorded a black singer. Despite these threats the record was a commercial success and opened the door for more black musicians to record.

Smith’s biggest hit was recorded later, on August 10, 1920 when she recorded a set of songs written by Perry Bradford, including “Crazy Blues” and “It’s Right Here for You (If You Don’t Get It, ‘Tain’t No Fault of Mine)”, again for Okeh Records, A million copies were sold in less than a year. Many were bought by African Americans, and there was a sharp increase in the popularity of “race records”. Because of its historical significance, “Crazy Blues” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994 and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005.

See also Wikipedia entry for Crazy Blues.

Although other African Americans had been recorded earlier, such as George W. Johnson in the 1890s, they were performing music that had a substantial following among European-American audiences. The success of Smith’s record prompted record companies to seek to record other female blues singers and started the era of what is now known as classic female blues.

Smith continued to make popular recordings for Okeh throughout the 1920s. In 1924 she made three releases for Ajax Records, which, while heavily promoted, did not sell well. She made some records for Victor. She toured the United States and Europe with her band, Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds, as part of Mamie Smith’s Struttin’ Along Review.

She was billed as “The Queen of the Blues”, a billing soon one-upped by Bessie Smith, who was called “The Empress of the Blues”. Mamie found that the new mass medium of radio provided a means of gaining additional fans, especially in cities with predominantly white audiences. For example, she and several members of her band performed on KGW in Portland, Oregon, in early May 1923 and received positive reviews.

Various recording lineups of the Jazz Hounds included (from August 1920 to October 1921) Jake Green, Curtis Moseley, Garvin Bushell, Johnny Dunn, Dope Andrews, Ernest Elliot, Porter Grainger, Leroy Parker and Bob Fuller and (from June 1922 to January 1923) Coleman Hawkins, Everett Robbins, Johnny Dunn, Herschel Brassfield, Herb Flemming, Buster Bailey Cutie Perkins, Joe Smith, Bubber Miley and Cecil Carpenter.

While recording with the Jazz Hounds, she also recorded as Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Band, comprising George Bell, Charles Matson, Nathan Glantz, Larry Briers, Jules Levy, Jr., Joe Samuels, together with musicians from the Jazz Hounds, including Coleman, Fuller and Carpenter.

Smith appeared in an early sound film, Jailhouse Blues, in 1929. She retired from recording and performing in 1931. She returned to performing in 1939 to appear in the motion picture Paradise in Harlem, produced by her husband, Jack Goldberg.

She also appeared in other films, including Mystery in Swing (1940), Sunday Sinners (1940), Stolen Paradise (1941), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), and Because I Love You (1943).

Smith died in 1946 in New York, New York, reportedly penniless. She was interred in unmarked ground at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park on Staten Island until 2013, when a monument was finally erected.

Initially, according to the Jas Obrecht Music Archive website, Smith was buried in an unmarked grave until 1963, when musicians from Iserlohn, West Germany used the money from a Hot Jazz benefit to buy a headstone that read “Mamie Smith (1883–1946): First Lady of The Blues”. With the help of fellow blues singer Victoria Spivey and Record Research Magazine publisher Len Kunstadt, Smith was re-interred at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park in Richmond, New York. Smith’s re-interment was celebrated with a gala honoring the late singer on January 27, 1964.

However, according to the 2012 campaign website, Mamie Smith was still buried without a headstone 67 years after her death in 1946.

A successful campaign to finally acquire and erect a headstone for Smith was begun in 2012 by Michael and Anne Fanciullo Cala. The couple — a blues journalist and editor, respectively — developed a months-long crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo Web site to purchase a headstone for Smith. The philanthropy Music Cares also supported the effort. The campaign raised over $8000 that funded creation of a four-foot-high etched granite headstone featuring an image of the late blues singer.

The monument was erected with great fanfare at Frederick Douglass Cemetery in Staten Island, New York, on September 20, 2013. Excess funds from the campaign were donated to the cemetery for grounds care.  

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamie_Smith

 

Ohio Historical Markers

See below.

 

Photo Gallery

Comprising selected landmarks of Cincinnati together with the historical importance of the river port and the Underground Railroad movement.

Mural by Artworks, as part of its Cincinnati Legends Series, celebrating Mamie Smith. The mural can be found at 311 E. 13th St. in Pendleton.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a museum in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, based on the history of the Underground Railroad. Opened in 2004, the Center also pays tribute to all efforts to “abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people.”

It is one of a new group of “museums of conscience” in the United States, along with the Museum of Tolerance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Civil Rights Museum. The Center offers insight into the struggle for freedom in the past, in the present, and for the future, as it attempts to challenge visitors to contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives. Its location recognizes the significant role of Cincinnati in the history of the Underground Railroad, as thousands of slaves escaped to freedom by crossing the Ohio River from the southern slave states. Many found refuge in the city, some staying there temporarily before heading north to gain freedom in Canada.

After ten years of planning, fundraising, and construction, the $110 million Freedom Center opened to the public on August 3, 2004; official opening ceremonies took place on August 23. The 158,000 square foot (15,000 m²) structure was designed by Boora Architects (design architect) of Portland, Oregon with Blackburn Architects (architect of record) of Indianapolis. Three pavilions celebrate courage, cooperation and perseverance. The exterior features rough travertine stone from Tivoli, Italy on the east and west faces of the building, and copper panels on the north and south. According to Walter Blackburn, one of its primary architects before his death, the building’s “undulating quality” expresses the fields and the river that escaping slaves crossed to reach freedom. First Lady Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, and Muhammad Ali attended the groundbreaking ceremony on June 17, 2002.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Cincinnati Union Terminal

Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The terminal is served by Amtrak’s Cardinal line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building’s largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, a group of three museums, a library, and a theater. The Cincinnati History Museum, Museum of Natural History & Science, and Duke Energy Children’s Museum are the largest components of the museum center. The Cincinnati History Library and Archives maintains collections of Cincinnati and Union Terminal history.

Union Terminal’s distinctive architecture, interior design, and history have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Art Deco design incorporates several contemporaneous works of art, including two of the Winold Reiss industrial murals, a set of sixteen mosaic murals depicting Cincinnati industry commissioned for the terminal in 1931. The main space in the facility, the Rotunda, has two enormous mosaic murals designed by Reiss. Taxi and bus driveways leading to and from the Rotunda are now used as museum space. The train concourse was another significant portion of the terminal, though no longer extant. It held all sixteen of Reiss’s industrial murals, along with other significant art and design features.

Cincinnati’s union terminal was developed throughout the 1920s as a solution for Cincinnati’s five train stations serving seven railroads. Construction took place from 1928 to 1933, including creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. The station was underutilized at its opening, though it saw peak traffic during World War II. In the next four decades, passenger traffic decreased significantly, spurring the terminal to hold several attractions to provide income, offsetting declined transit use. Train service fully stopped in 1972, and Amtrak moved service to a smaller station nearby. The terminal was largely dormant from 1972 to 1980; during this time, its platforms and train concourse were demolished. In 1980, the Land of Oz shopping mall was constructed within the interior. Its last tenant left in 1985, and two Cincinnati museums decided to merge and utilize the terminal, creating the Cincinnati Museum Center. The museum center renovated the terminal in the late 1980s, opening in 1990. Amtrak returned to the terminal in 1991, resuming its role as an intercity train station. A two-year, $228 million renovation restored the building, completed in 2018.

Source: Wikipedia

 

The view towards downtown Cincinnati

 

Inside the terminal building

 

Have you ever seen such bizzare opening times!!

 

The Amtrak station waiting room where I spent 8 hours waiting for a delayed train to New York.

 

Cincinnati Music Hall

Cincinnati Music Hall is a classical music performance hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, completed in 1878. It serves as the home for the Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival Chorus, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. In January 1975, it was recognized as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior for its distinctive Venetian Gothic architecture. The building was designed with a dual purpose – to house musical activities in its central auditorium and industrial exhibitions in its side wings. It is located at 1241 Elm Street, across from the historic Washington Park in Over-the-Rhine, minutes from the center of the downtown area

The Music Hall was built over a pauper’s cemetery, which has helped fuel its reputation as one of the most haunted places in America.

In June 2014, the Music Hall was included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Steamboats

Steamboats revolutionized river travel during the first half of the nineteenth century. Although early Ohioans used the Ohio River to transport agricultural goods and manufactured products even prior to the invention of the steamboat, certainly their advent made travel easier. The steam engine meant that humans no longer had to power the boat themselves, and movement upstream became much easier. As a result of this new technology, river travel increased even more over time.

The first steamboat to travel on the Ohio River was named the New Orleans. Although not as well-constructed as later vessels, it managed to steam its way from Pittsburgh to the city of New Orleans in 1811. Within the next few years, many additional steamboats were built in the East. Probably the most famous builder was Robert Fulton, who often receives credit for inventing the steamboat. In reality, other entrepreneurs were also involved in building steamboats during this era. Although most of the earliest steamboats came from Pittsburgh or Wheeling, within a short period of time Cincinnati had also emerged as a significant part of the industry. Cincinnati shipyards launched twenty-five steamboats between 1811 and 1825, and the number only increased after that period. The industry and the transportation system that it developed helped Cincinnati to become one of the most important cities in the West prior to the Civil War.

Although steamboats were most common on the Ohio River, they utilized other waterways as well. The Muskingum River, with the help of a series of locks and dams, was the only river within Ohio that steamboats could access. Beginning in 1818, steamboats also traveled on Lake Erie, decreasing the time it took to travel on the Great Lakes. The first steamboat on Lake Erie was known as the Walk-in-the-Water. Lake Erie proved treacherous for steamboats, and there were some spectacular shipwrecks in the early years. The lake became safer once a number of lighthouses were built along the shore in the 1820s. A steamship-building industry emerged in some northern counties as a result of the increase in traffic. Many people migrating to Ohio from the East chose to come by steamship during this era. Canals did not see steamboat traffic-the paddlewheels’ wake could severely damage the sides of the canals.

Beginning in the 1850s, railroads provided competition for the Ohio River trade but never replaced it entirely. In the twentieth century, barges carrying coal and other materials replaced steamboats. Now steamboats are primarily a tourist attraction, carrying passengers on short trips along the river.

Source:  https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Steamboats

 

National Steamboat Monument

Rising above the concrete slopes of Cincinnati’s Public Landing at Sawyer Point is a three-story, 60 ton, exact replica of the original red paddle wheel from the American Queen riverboat.  It is positioned about 40 feet off the ground, above a series of 24 metal smokestacks in what is known as the Dan and Susan Pfau Whistle Grove.  The smokestacks showcase the importance of steam in the early days of riverboat travel and the relevance that riverboats played in the early history of Cincinnati.

Visitors to the Whistle Grove are able to control the steam released from each of the stainless steel smokestacks by simply walking by several computer synchronized motion sensors installed in each column.  Different sounds will be triggered by passing by the various columns, including calliope music, a steamboat whistle and voices of river veterans talking about the rigors of life on the Ohio.  All of the columns emit steam, generated by boilers in a nearby steam room.

 

The following images are from the Steamboat Hall of Fame (located on pillars adjacent to the Steamboat Monument).

 

Two old images of steamboats in Cincinnati

Steamboat moored in Cincinnati in 2013.

 

Historic marker in Covington , Kentucky, just across the Ohio river from Cincinnati.