Cincinnati, << `sihn` suh NAT ee, >> is a major industrial and commercial center of the Midwest. It is one of the largest cities in Ohio. Cincinnati lies on the Ohio River in the southwestern part of the state. It is one of the most beautiful cities in the nation and was once called the Queen City of the West.
In 1788, settlers established a village called Losantiville on what is now the site of Cincinnati. In 1790, General Arthur St. Clair, the first governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name to Cincinnati. He did so to honor the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization that was formed by Army officers of the Revolutionary War in America (see Cincinnati, Society of the).
River trade accounted for much of Cincinnati’s growth during the 1800’s. Steamboats linked the city with many major ports. The opening of the Miami and Erie Canal turned the city into a center of agricultural processing and industry. Later, after railroads became the chief method of transportation, Cincinnati lost much trade to other cities. Today, Cincinnati’s economy relies on many kinds of manufacturing and service industries.
Metropolitan Cincinnati
Cincinnati lies on the north bank of the Ohio River. The Great Miami and the Little Miami rivers flow into the Ohio on the west side and the east side of the city, respectively. The Cincinnati metropolitan area occupies 4,381 square miles (11,347 square kilometers) and extends over Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties in Ohio; Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton counties in Kentucky; and Dearborn, Franklin, and Ohio counties in Indiana.
The city.
A flat plain called the basin extends north into Cincinnati from the Ohio riverfront. In this area are the city’s central business district, some manufacturing sections, and several old residential areas. Hills surround the basin on three sides.
Downtown Cincinnati centers around Fountain Square Plaza, between Vine and Walnut streets. The 49-story Carew Tower, a landmark hotel and office building, rises west of the square. The 665-foot (203-meter) Great American Tower, the city’s tallest building, stands at Queen City Square near Fourth and Sycamore streets. A convention center stands at the western edge of the business district. It was expanded in 1987 and again in 2006. The birthplace of United States President William Howard Taft lies north of the business district.
The metropolitan area.
Residential areas occupy the hillsides surrounding the basin. Cincinnati suburbs include Forest Park, Madeira, Norwood, and Saint Bernard. Other large communities within the Cincinnati area include Fairfield, Hamilton, and Middletown, in Ohio, and Covington, in Kentucky.
The people
African Americans make up about 40 percent of the city’s population. Following the destruction of residential neighborhoods in the West End during highway construction and urban renewal projects in the 1960’s and 1970’s, most Black people lived north and east of downtown. But since about 1980, increasing numbers have moved to areas throughout the city and the suburbs. About 20 percent of the people have German ancestry, though the city lacks a strong ethnic identity. Other major groups include people of English, Irish, and Italian descent. In Cincinnati, poverty is a problem—especially among white people from the Appalachian Mountains and African Americans.
Economy
Industry and commerce.
The headquarters of several of the nation’s largest corporations are in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati area ranks as one of the world’s leading detergent and soap producers and as one of the nation’s leading producers of machine tools and playing cards. Other major Cincinnati industries produce aircraft engines, automobile parts, food products, machinery, chemicals, fabricated metal products, and printed materials. Such industry groups as manufacturing, health care, education, social services, retail trade, and hotels and restaurants are leading employers in the Cincinnati area.
Transportation and communication.
Cincinnati links Ohio and the other North Central States with the South. Railroad passenger trains and rail freight lines serve the city. Several major highways, including three interstate routes, pass through Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is along Interstate 275 in Boone County, Kentucky. It serves millions of passengers a year and has become a hub for air freight carriers.
The Port of Greater Cincinnati handles millions of tons of cargo annually. It is one of the largest inland ports in the United States. Numerous barge lines operate on the Ohio River.
Communication.
Cincinnati has a daily newspaper, The Cincinnati Enquirer. Several suburban newspapers also serve the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The area is also served by a number of radio stations, broadcast and cable television stations, and Internet providers.
Education
An elected Board of Education supervises the Cincinnati public school system. Many of the schools are magnet schools that offer special training in a particular field, such as the visual and performing arts or foreign languages. The metropolitan area also includes many other public and private school systems.
The University of Cincinnati was founded in 1819. Other schools in the area include the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion, the oldest Jewish theological school in the United States; Miami University; Mount St. Joseph University; Northern Kentucky University; Thomas More University; and Xavier University. The Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library has branches throughout the city.
Cultural life
The arts.
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Opera perform at the Cincinnati Music Hall. The Cincinnati Ballet performs at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Cincinnati’s annual May Festival, first held in 1873, is the oldest choral festival in the nation. Cincinnati also has two professional theater companies. These are the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, which performs in Eden Park, and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati.
Museums.
The Cincinnati Art Museum, in Eden Park, has more than 100 galleries of famous art works, including collections representing ancient civilizations. The Taft Museum of Art features Flemish, French, and English paintings. The Contemporary Arts Center showcases works of artists from the late 1900’s to the present. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center tells the story of the informal system that helped enslaved people escape to the northern United States and Canada during the mid-1800’s. The Cincinnati Museum Center complex at Union Terminal train station has several cultural attractions, including the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, and a children’s museum.
Recreation
The Ohio River provides a setting for many recreational areas in the Cincinnati area. During the summer, excursion boats operate on the river. Many people also enjoy several artificially created lakes near the city.
Parks and playgrounds
in the city cover more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares). Mount Airy Forest, the largest park, has about 1,500 acres (607 hectares) of camping grounds, picnic areas, and woods. Eden Park includes the Krohn Conservatory, which is famous for its tropical and seasonal plant displays. The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden houses one of the nation’s largest collections of animals. It has earned an international reputation for its breeding programs for rare or endangered animals.
Sports.
The Cincinnati Reds of the National League play baseball in the city. The team was the nation’s first professional baseball team. The city is also the home of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League and FC Cincinnati of Major League Soccer.
Government
Cincinnati has a mayor-council-manager form of government. Voters elect the mayor to a four-year term. The nine council members are elected at-large to two-year terms. The mayor hires a city manager with the advice and consent of the council. Cincinnati gets most of its revenue from a payroll tax.
History
Early days.
The powerful Miami, a Native American tribe, once hunted in what is now the Cincinnati area. In 1788, settlers arrived there and founded a village called Losantiville. In 1790, General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, renamed the settlement Cincinnati.
Many settlers came to the village during the late 1700’s. They opened new businesses or set up farms in the surrounding area. Cincinnati was incorporated as a town in 1802. By 1810, it had more than 2,500 people.
The 1800’s.
Much of the town’s growth during the early 1800’s resulted from river trade. Steamboat service, which began on the Ohio River in 1811, permitted goods to be transported quickly and inexpensively. Cincinnati soon became an important river port and, in 1819, received a city charter. In 1827, workers completed the first section of the Miami and Erie Canal. This canal, which connected Cincinnati with northern Ohio communities, greatly increased local trade. By 1830, the city’s population had risen to nearly 25,000.
During the 1830’s and 1840’s, thousands of Germans left their country and settled in Cincinnati. A large German-speaking community, known as the Over-the-Rhine area, grew up north of the business district. Germans contributed greatly to the cultural and economic development of the city. In the 1840’s, many Irish immigrants came to Cincinnati after fleeing a potato famine in their homeland.
A number of slaughterhouses and pork-packing plants opened in Cincinnati during the 1830’s and 1840’s. Farmers sent their livestock, especially hogs, to be processed in the city. The meat was then shipped down the Ohio River to other ports. By 1850, Cincinnati had become the nation’s chief pork-packing center.
During the mid-1800’s, Cincinnati became an important point on the underground railroad, which helped enslaved people escape to the North. Harriet Beecher Stowe gathered much material in Cincinnati for her famous antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Trade between Cincinnati and the South ended during the American Civil War (1861-1865). But several merchants made up their losses by establishing arms and ammunition factories and selling their products to the government.
After the Civil War, trade expanded from Cincinnati into the Southwest, and the city’s river traffic increased. The Art Museum, Fountain Square, and the Music Hall were built. Cincinnati also annexed more than 20 neighboring communities during the 1860’s. By 1870, the population of the city had reached about 216,000.
Cincinnati’s position as an important commercial center declined during the 1870’s. River trade dropped because railroads were carrying more and more freight to Chicago and other cities. Cincinnati revived its Southern markets in 1880, when the Cincinnati Southern Railway, built by the city, reached Chattanooga.
During the late 1800’s, manufacturing became one of the city’s main sources of income. With the growth of Procter & Gamble and other soap companies, Cincinnati’s population rose to more than 325,000 by 1900.
The 1900’s.
During the early 1900’s, many wealthy Cincinnati residents moved from the basin area to the surrounding hillsides. The riverfront became the site of factories, railroads, and shipping facilities, and the houses near the river turned into slum dwellings.
World War II (1939-1945) brought defense industries to the area. Great numbers of rural people moved to the city to take factory jobs. Most of these workers remained after the war, and the government built many low-rent apartment projects to house them. The government also rebuilt parts of the riverfront district.
Cincinnati experienced a population shift to the suburbs in the late 1900’s. but its neighborhoods remained lively, and its downtown continued to grow. Many office towers, department stores, shops, and hotels were constructed in the downtown area.
Recent developments.
Hamilton County voters approved a new sales tax in 1996 to fund two new sports facilities. In 2000, construction of a new football stadium was completed. A new baseball stadium opened nearby on the riverfront in 2003. Meanwhile, public education and services in the city continued to struggle for funds. In 2001, Cincinnati’s poorer, Black neighborhoods erupted in rioting. Worsening police-community relations sparked the disturbances. But the rioting highlighted the growing gap between rich and poor in the region as one of the city’s greatest challenges for the future. In the 2010’s and 2020’s, redevelopment in the city’s Over-the-Rhine and West End areas highlighted the effects of gentrification—that is, increases in a poor urban neighborhood’s housing values and costs.
