Park with a view

Tuesday
Late morning we drove downtown to attend another Music Live at Lunch concert at Christ Church cathedral. For the month of May, these lunchtime concerts are featuring members of the May Festival Chorus, and today it was two tenors, who sang mostly solos, by predominantly American composers, but of very different styles. They were both excellent.
Afterwards, we drove to Bellevue Park, a park I have been aware of for a while, but we’ve never actually been. It is located in an area known as Clifton Heights, quite near to the university. It is known predominantly for the great view if offers over the city. The park area was once a part of The Cincinnati-Clifton Incline Plane, or better known as the Bellevue Incline railway (or funicular railway). The incline once connected Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine to Ohio Avenue in Clifton Heights. The incline railway, which was in operation from 1876-1926, was one of six Inclines which once operated in the city, taking people up from the unhealthy air of the city basin to the surrounding hills. Unfortunately they are all now history, whereas Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that Cincinnati borrowed the idea from, still has two remaining in operation, as tourist attractions. For many years, the Bellevue House stood at the top of the incline, and was a popular destination for dancing and leisure. The ornate resort perched on the edge of the hill had a 400-foot-high rotunda, a wrap-around veranda and a crow’s nest view of the city.
The viewpoint in Bellevue Park is named after Daniel Ransohoff, 1921-1993, a fifth generation Cincinattian and one of the city’s great ambassadors. He loved thencity, it’s history it’s people and parks and he spent his life sharing his enthusiasm with others. For more than 30 years he led thousands of tours of his hometown for his students, visiting dignitaries, city leaders, and his tours always included this overlook. Ransohoff was a professor of Community planning at the University of Cincinnati, and a promoter of the city as a planner, tour guide, historian, photographer and fundraiser. He also co-founded Cincinnati’s classical music public radio station, WGUC, my favourite radio station.
My blip features some of the park’s striking pavilion, designed by architect R. Carl Freund in 1955 to serve as an outdoor dancing venue. He was inspired by some of Frank Lloyd Wrights architecture. I’ve put a collage in extras, showing more close-up views from the overlook. Top left in my collage, the two large red brick buildings are in the front Music Hall, and behind City Hall. Bottom left, the half dome building is the Union Terminal building, built as a railway station, and now a museum centre. Bottom right is TQL stadium, the city’s new soccer stadium