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Standing alone, piercing into the Camp Washington skyline, sits the Crosley building. Once a factory for the Crosley company, now just an empty shell of what it once was. This is the story of many historic buildings across Cincinnati—formerly buildings of importance, now just left to rot.
According to The Enquirer, there are roughly 5,500 abandoned properties in Cincinnati alone—a massive waste of money, resources and space. Many of these places are significant parts of Cincinnati’s history as well, like the Crosley building, so letting them go unused is a disservice to the space and the
community.
Instead of leaving these pieces of history behind, we should restore the space and maintain their importance.
A major issue in redeveloping these grand, historic buildings is that companies commonly reuse them through office spaces, apartments or storage, especially when the neighborhood is undesirable to be in.
Due to the large amount of work needed to even make these places usable, the projects often end in failure.
Three major examples of these problems are the old subway tunnels, the Crosley building and the old Cincinnati Mall. They’re large spaces that require so much money and attention that it doesn’t even seem worth the effort to renovate them.
Turning the locations into something original and beneficial for the community rather than another random building would make the community a more desirable place to live, raising the property value and reinvigorating the neighborhoods.
People have tried numerous times to find a use for the subway, and failed. It’s been considered for everything from a new road paralleling the highway to a bomb shelter during the Red Scare in the 1950s. Yet, all of these attempts have failed to bring permanent use to the space.
The two-mile stretch of subway track could easily be converted into some sort of trail, running or biking track, similar to Wasson Way in Hyde Park, which had also been built off an old railbed.
This would help open up a new outlet of activities for all kinds of people in the area. Walkers would have a safer space to walk and bikers would have a dedicated space to learn tricks or even just bike along the stretch, rather than having to go somewhere like the bike trail near Nagel High School.
It’s even possible that all kinds of businesses could open up along it, if the space is busy enough, making a whole new shopping center in the Northside area.
The Crosley building sits right next to the American Sign Museum, and with the Crosley family’s history, it could be profitable for both if they made it into some sort of Crosley museum. Move some of the stuff from the Museum Center, and gather old Crosley artifacts to make it into a museum demonstrating some of the significant industrial history of Cincinnati.
As for the Cincinnati Mall, the most recent plan for the mall was an expressed interest by Hillman Solutions Corp. The mall itself would be demolished and replaced by a large central office for Hillman.
A better idea would be the plan for the mall from June of 2024, converting it into a grocery store surrounded by three industrial buildings and a few other spaces such as fast food and even pickleball courts.This would bring new life to the massive area and finally bring in revenue after the last remaining store—Kohl’s—closed down.
We’ve seen this idea work before in Cincinnati. One of the most successful redevelopments of the city is the old U.S. Playing Card factory, which was converted into Factory 52, a small community with apartments, parks, pickleball courts and many restaurants. This has brought a strong new life to the space while also keeping the historic memory of it.
When it comes to working on these spaces, an important thing to remember is that while we do want them to be useful, they are also quite significant to the city’s history, and it’s important to preserve that to honor their legacy.
