Steven J. Rolfes

Historic Downtown Cincinnati (Images of America) Steven J. Rolfes

Walking down the dirt, cobblestone, or paved streets of downtown Cincinnati in the past, there is no telling whom a person would meet. Someone might rub elbows with future presidents, such as Hayes, Taft, or that visiting lawyer from Illinois--Lincoln; dine with Generals Wayne, Grant, or Sherman; have tea with Harriet Beecher Stowe; or share a mug of Hauck beer with Frank Duveneck, Stephen Foster, or that poet-warrior William Lytle. A person lingering in the opulent hotels may meet visiting artists such as Junius Booth, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Henry Irving, and his manager, Bram Stoker; hear a speech by abolitionist Salmon P. Chase or flirt with the pretty Confederate spy Lottie Moon. Once the furthest expansion of the western frontier, every street and corner of downtown Cincinnati has been tread by the famous and infamous. Historic Downtown Cincinnati is the story of America, of businessmen like the brothers-in-law Procter and Gamble, of visionaries like McGuffy, and powerful political bosses like George Cox.