Over-the-Rhine, a 319 acre neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, has gone through a lot of change in its nearly 200-year history. In the 1830s, German immigrants began to move to the city, congregating on its north side, eventually building a community that, by 1883, Harper’s magazine called “considerably more German than Germany itself.” By that time, it was one of the most densely packed neighborhoods in the United States, and German influence could be seen in its German street names, beer halls, churches, and German-language newspapers. One important community site was Findlay Market, which opened in 1855, and today remains the oldest municipal market house in Ohio, and the only surviving public market in Cincinnati.
Like many neighborhoods in major cities, Over-the-Rhine changed dramatically in the 20th century, gutted by white flight and ignored by urban renewal efforts. But over the last few years, it has seen a rebirth. “Over-the-Rhine is such a special place,” said Jennifer Walke of the Model Group, a Cincinnati-area developer with a long track record for redeveloping historic neighborhoods and buildings. “The character of the neighborhood is strong and unlike anywhere else. But at the end of the 20th century, there were over 700 vacant buildings in the neighborhood and it was more known for its crime than for its history.”
