Tag: history

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Business News

Burger Beer back in the ‘Nati

The Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co. is on a roll lately. Hot off of their Little Kings re-branding, they are now about the bring back one of Cincinnati’s most fabled beers.

On Friday, May 29th Burger Beer will be relaunched at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. The event will go from 6pm to 11pm (short presentation at 7pm) with the first 600 paid admissions ($10) will receive a FREE commemorative Burger Classic Beer Relaunch Celebration/Crosley Field Remembered retro t-shirt.

At the event fans will be able to visit the “Crosley Field Remembered” special exhibit as well as the other permanent exhibits throughout the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, enjoy some Burger Beer and watch the away Reds game (vs. Milwaukee) in the Palace of the Fans Theater beginning at 7pm.

The relaunching will bring back both Burger Classic Beer and Burger Light Beer. The beers will be available throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana for around $5.99 per twelve pack of cans and are considered full-flavored yet light-bodied American styled pilsner beers.

History:
Greg Hardman, president of Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company, has been working aggressively to restore the great Cincinnati beer brands that once made the area known world-wide for its brewing heritage.

Part of that heritage is Burger Beer which was first established in 1880 with the Burger family’s malting business. The family began brewing their own beers in 1934 following the repeal of prohibition and was one of the first brewers in the nation, and first in Cincinnati, to can its beer. Then during World War II, Burger was one of only a handful of brewers selected by the government to supply camouflaged cans of Burger beer to military personnel throughout the world.

Burger Beer was also famous for its marketing slogan, “Vas You Efer in Zinzinnati?” that played off the fondness for Cincinnati’s German Heritage, and was a nationwide hit.

One of the most significant parts of Burger’s past is its relationship with the Reds organization. During the days of Crosley Field legendary Reds broadcaster, Waite Hoyt, during the nearly quarter century that Burger Beer sponsored the Reds radio broadcasts. Hoyt would frequently plug the local beer and would refer to home runs, hit as Crosley, as being destined for the outer reaches of “Burgerville.”

Categories
Business Development News

Does casino fit for prominent Broadway Commons site?

It was announced last week that there is yet another movement to legalize casino gaming in Ohio. The difference with this proposal is its scope. Instead of a single casino for the entire state, casinos would instead be placed in each of the state’s largest cities (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo).

The intent is to reach a larger market and have broader voter appeal come November. In Cincinnati the proposal has already picked up some high-profile support in Mayor Mark Mallory, City Councilman Jeff Berding and former Mayor Charlie Luken.

The site for the proposed casino is the pipe-dream location that is Broadway Commons (GoogleMap). The site is located in the Pendleton sub-neighborhood of historic Over-the-Rhine. Its close proximity to Downtown, the convention center, several museums, gobs of hotel rooms and major tourism draws like the Reds and Bengals have long made the site a prime spot for redevelopment speculation (streetcar connectivity).

The question is what is right for such a prime location? Seems like a pretty subjective question, and it is. In the 90’s many people (including myself) thought the site would have been a perfect location for the new Reds ballpark. Other ideas have ranged from urban big-box stores, a mega park, rail transit hub and of course the mixed use urban infill that we would all love to see.

Plans for the once proposed ballpark at Broadway Commons

The problem of course has been market reality. With a slew of new condos and apartments constantly coming on the market in Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Newport, Covington and the Westend – can we really absorb more residential units, hotels, office and retail space, if so at what cost? Does it jeopardize the future success in OTR, Downtown and The Banks? Will Cincinnati ever push the rail transit agenda and make light rail, streetcars and high-speed rail reality here, if so can we afford to wait that long to redevelop this major site sitting unproductive?

The owners (Chavez Properties), of Broadway Commons, seem to be ready and willing to sell and they are on board with this casino plan. A casino would turn the giant surface lot into a tax productive use, create hundreds of permanent jobs, significantly boost tax revenues for Cincinnati and Hamilton County and potentially create some spinoff investment in the surrounding community.

At the same time the casino would seemingly prey on those with less, create a handful of social problems for a city that already has its fair share, possibly create an island development that encourages its patrons not to leave the confines and potentially insert an out-of-place building and design into one of the nation’s largest and most important historical districts.

Mixed Use redevelopment plan for Broadway Commons that competed with the ballpark proposal – Source

My preference would be for a rail transit hub with mixed use development. Another ideal scenario would be to develop the site as a high-tech business hub that would capitalize off of the proximity to both Downtown and Uptown with its hospitals and universities. At the same time I do realize the need to develop this site into something productive. So I’m decidedly undecided on the issue. Can anyone sway me one way or another?

If you’re in favor of this proposal feel free to sign the online petition.
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News

Cincinnati Bockfest 2009

In case you haven’t heard already, the annual Bockfest celebrations are taking place this weekend (3/6 – 3/8) starting with the opening of Bockfest Hall (formerly Jefferson Hall) at 4pm on Friday, followed by the Bockfest Parade at 6pm.

Bockfest started in Cincinnati in the 1800s and is the world’s oldest Bock festival. The celebrations stem from the glory days of Cincinnati’s many brewers (at one time producing more beer per capita than any other city in the U.S.). During that time a tradition developed amongst the brewers to release all of their bock beer on the same day – marking the end of the winter brewing season and the beginning of the spring.

This year’s celebration will include sub-subterranean tours of Cincinnati’s prohibition past (all 13 sold out), subway tours (all 3 sold out), the parade, glass blowing, Sausage Queen competition, book signing, live music, and of course lots of beer drinking at some of the best German bars in the city.

Click image for larger version – Parade Route = Green, Public Parking = Blue, Participating Venues = Red, Free Shuttle Route = Orange

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News

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News

The Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern Railway

The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) is a defunct railroad in southwest Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon. Chartered by the city of Lebanon in 1850, the original incarnation of the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Xenia Railroad was to create a railroad between the namesake cities, bypassing the Little Miami Railroad — today’s Little Miami Rail Trail. It would give Lebanon a railroad connection to industry and it was hoped that it would entice industry to move further inland, away from Cincinnati.

The railroad changed hands over the years due to bankruptcies, becoming the Miami Valley, Cincinnati Northern, and later the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern. A branch was constructed to Montgomery, and a connection was made to the Spring Grove, Avondale and Cincinnati Railway, which made it only as far as to Avondale due to financial issues. At one point, a 10,000-foot tunnel was planned under the Deer Creek Valley, to give a more gentle grade for the climb out of downtown Cincinnati to Norwood. Only five brief sections were completed.


Controversies surrounded the railroad. During construction of the 1,050-foot Deer Creek Tunnel in the early 1800s, debris from blasting launched projectiles throughout the Walnut Hills neighborhood, killing several workers and pedestrians. Various residences were heavily damaged or destroyed. It’s Court Street terminus also fueled much debate, due to the city of Cincinnati refusing the railroad passage over Court Street to a connection with Fountain Square via an elevated line. The city feared that an air brake on a train could fail and cause catastrophic damage.

Towards the mid-20th century, the railroad went into decline. The rail line north of Lebanon was discontinued in 1952, and so began a series of station closures and branch abandonments. The Court Street Depot was closed in 1969 and torn down in 1975, which coincided with the dismantlement of tracks north of downtown to Norwood. An uptick in freight traffic in the vicinity of Mason, and the designation of some sections as Light Density Lines, kept some of the former CL&N in operation.

In 1985, former CL&N trackage from Hageman to Lebanon was purchased by the city of Lebanon, and themed tourist trains began rolling on the then-named Turtle Creek Valley Railway. It was later purchased by several investors and re-christened the Lebanon, Mason and Monroe Railroad (LM&M), which has been successful to this day.


Today, much of the original CL&N remains abandoned or lightly used. While the LM&M operate over some of the original railroad, others are being considered for reuse, identified in the Interstate 71 Corridor Transportation Study and MetroMoves Regional Transit Plan. One can only hope that Cincinnati and Hamilton County will take advantage of this already identifiable rail corridor for future inclusion into a regional transit network, and make the most use out of existing infrastructure that is in place.