Entrance to Dixie Terminal building

Tuesday
The Music Live at Lunch series have started up again at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Cincinnati, always an enjoyable feature of our week, if we have nothing else planned. They serve lunch, which you can take in on a tray, or you can take your own lunch in. Today’s music was a duo on guitar and cello, a very pleasant blend.
Afterwards we went for a short walk around the city streets, since I fancied a change from my usual nature based photography. Just along the street from the Cathedral is this ornate entrance to the Dixie Terminal building. The Dixie Terminal is a set of buildings that were completed in 1921 and served as a streetcar terminal, stock exchange, and office buildings in the city's downtown business district. They were designed by Cincinnati architect Frederick W. Garber's Garber & Woodward firm. The terminal was used for bus service after streetcar service ceased in the 1950s. Buses arriving from northern Kentucky crossed the Roebling Suspension Bridge and took ramps from the bridge into the terminal. In 1998 the ramps were removed, and the bus service ceased using the terminal. The Cincinnati Stock Exchange closed its physical trading floor in 1976 after becoming an all-electronic stock trading exchange but remained in the building until relocating to Chicago in 1995 as the National Stock Exchange. These days, the Great American Insurance Company calls this building home, and more than 1,400 employees work there.
This elaborate doorway is decorated with Rookwood Tiles, a local, nationally renowned manufacturer at this time. However, this is just a hint of the decorative interior that would greet you if you were to go through these doors. You would be treated to the arcade, which is a two-story lobby with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. All over the ceiling, amid beautiful frescoes, you’ll see sculpted tiles showing children riding various animals. Elsewhere, marble adorns walls, floors, and staircases. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to venture inside, but I hope to sometime in the future, assuming the general public is allowed in! I’ve read differing reports on line, one saying the public is welcome, another suggesting they’re not.
One of the best parts about Dixie Terminal is that the building has been meticulously maintained over the years, the latest restoration being done in 2017.
Another interesting historical tidbit about this building was that it featured in the 1980s movie, The Rain Man, which was shot in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. One scene, in particular, the bank scene, was filmed in the Dixie Terminal arcade.