Thursday, June 23, 2011

The History of 1220 Vine Street

After taking The Queen City Underground Tour tour with American Legacy Tours, I was curious about their new store location, 1218-1220 Vine Street which is shared with A Tavola. So I had to do some digging...

Before redevelopment. Credit: 3CDC
After. Photo credit: panoramio user BDRUF

The story starts with the 1850 Census and the Glossner family. Charles and Daniel Glossner emigrated from Germany and in 1850 they are operating a coffee house in Cincinnati.

In 1853, Charles and Daniel Glossner have a brewery at 436 Vine Street. (This address is the same as 1220 Vine Street after a city-wide renumbering in 1895). This continues at this location until 1864, when Adam Belz and Fred Noelp took over the brewery and added a saloon. In 1865, Ludwig Schwind was operating the saloon while Belz and Noelp continued the brewery. Belz was involved in the business until 1870. Fred Noelp continued it until 1874.

It seems by 1875, the brewery stopped but the saloon was continued by Henry Hildebrandt (1874-1877), Fridolin Schumann (1878-1886, restaurant and concert hall), William Peter (1887-1895), A. St. Lorenz (1897-1898, he named it The Casino), Herman Pfitzenreiter (1899-1900, named Cafe Cincinnatus), and Louis Marks (1901-1910, The Casino Concert Hall).

1887 Sanborn Fire Map showing Wm. Peter's Beer Garden that spanned from Vine to Jackson Streets
I found this interesting. In 1900 the following organizations listed their meeting place as 1220 Vine Street:
DEUTSCHE THEATER GESELLSCHAFT, meets at 1220 Vine.
DEUTSCHER DEMOKRATISCHER CLUB, meets every Tuesday evening at 1220 Vine.
DEUTSCHER LITERARISCHER KLUB. meets every Wednesday evening at 1220 Vine
LIEDERKRANZ GESANGVEREIN. Meets every Friday evening at 1220 Vine
SCHLARAFFIA CINCINNATIA. meets every Saturday at 1220 Vine.

A new use was found for the building in 1911, as Voss, Miller & Co., a furniture and dealer of "carpets, oil cloths & etc.". From 1915 to 1921, they switched to stoves and tinware.
From 1922 until 1951, the building was used for a variety of things and found itself vacant for a few years.

1922

Furniture

Dine-Schabell Co (The) 1220 Vine

1923

1220 Vacant

1924

1220 McDonald Jas & Sons Co (The) plumbers' supplies

1925

Attorney

Huseman Albert A 1220 Vine

Building Materials

Evendale Lumber, Millwork & Builders Supplies Inc 1220 Vine

Civil Engineers and Surveyors

Schmidt John G 1220 Vine

Consuls, Foreign

Huseman Albert A consul for Germany 1220 Vine

1926-27 until 1931-1932

1220 Vacant

1932-1933 until 1936
Harry Miller

1220 Mlller Bros Wall Paper Co 

1947, 1949, 1951

Edw Berman, Furniture

With more digging at the recorders office, I might be able to better date the building. I am not able to see the Hamilton County Auditor records for this building since it has been tied together with 1214 Vine Street to create the Duveneck Flats

Makes you wonder what other history lies under those many buildings and empty lots in Over-the-Rhine? Like what was at 1221 Vine Street which is now a parking lot? See my next blog post!