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Cincinnati circa 1904. "Elsinore Tower entrance, Eden Park." Valve house for the Cincinnati Water Works. 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.
Constructed in 1883, the tower is still managed by Cincinnati Water Works.
This Google Maps aerial view of the two buildings shows that the Art Academy and the Art Museum buildings have now morphed into one large facility. You can still see the distinctive green roof shape of the original Art Museum building and on the left the rough-cut stone face of the original Art Academy building.
This photo shows the two buildings on the top of the hill.
The mansion at the upper left was the Art Academy of the Cincinnati Art Museum . The building seen to its right is the west end of the museum itself , opened in 1886 .
The Museum is now a huge complex but most of the exterior stonework of both buildings has been incorporated in the new facility and rightly so.
The bucolic atmosphere is gone. Cobblestone pavement has been replaced by a web of roadways, including I-71. The offices of WCPO Channel 9 are impinging to the immediate left of the gateway.
The waterworks contributed to the development of the city, but also resulted in the loss of elbow room and the pastoral atmosphere. Must we always pay this price?
Back in the day when the terms "public utility" and "utilitarian architecture" were not inextricably linked.
And I'd love to be able to afford to furnish, or even heat, that grand mansion in the background!
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