Mount Adams is a geographic landmark and residential neighborhood of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, located directly east of downtown Cincinnati, south of Walnut Hills, southwest of

East Walnut Hills East Walnut Hills is a neighborhood on the Southeast side of Cincinnati, Ohio. The population was 4,103 at the 2020 census. Demographics Source - City of Cincinnati Statistical Database History Founded in 1867 as the incorporated Village of Wo ...

, and west of the

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. Mount Adams is surrounded by one of Cincinnati's finest parks—

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

. The park borders the hill on three sides and gives residents a sense of removal from the hustle and bustle of the city. Located within the park is the

Krohn Conservatory The Irwin M. Krohn Conservatory is a conservatory located in Eden Park within Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States. History The conservatory was completed in 1933, replacing smaller greenhouses that had stood in Eden Park since 1894. Originall ...

and one of Cincinnati's oldest water works projects, now part of the park. Mt. Adams landmarks include the Cincinnati Art Museum,

Playhouse in the Park The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is a regional theatre in the United States. It was founded in 1959 by college student Gerald Covell and was one of the first regional theatres in the United States. Located in Eden Park, the first play that p ...

Rookwood Pottery Rookwood Pottery is an American ceramics company that was founded in 1880 and closed in 1967, before being revived in 2004. It was initially located in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has now returned there. In its heyday ...

(now converted to a restaurant),

Pilgrim Presbyterian Church Pilgrim Presbyterian Church is a historic church building in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, near the Ida Street Viaduct.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: ...

, Holy Cross Monastery and the

Immaculata Church The Church of the Immaculata, or Immaculata Church, is a Roman Catholic church atop Mt. Adams, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. The church commemorates the Immaculate Conception and serves the Holy Cross–Immaculata Parish in the Archdiocese ...

. The 1,578 residents of Mt. Adams have a median household income of $99,125.

Demographics

Source - City of Cincinnati Statistical Database

History

Mount Adams was originally known as Mount Ida. The namesake was from Ida Martin, a washerwoman who lived in the

hollow Hollow may refer to: Natural phenomena *Hollow, a low, wooded area, such as a copse * Hollow (landform), a small vee-shaped, riverine type of valley *Tree hollow, a void in a branch or trunk, which may provide habitat for animals Places * Sleepy ...

of an old sycamore tree located on a steep hill. In the early 1800s the steep Mount Adams hillside was largely barren as early settlers had cut down all the trees for timber to construct their homes. In 1831, Nicholas Longworth, a wealthy attorney, purchased the mansion that is now the

Taft Museum of Art The Taft Museum of Art is a fine art collection in Cincinnati, Ohio. It occupies the 200-year-old historic house at 316 Pike Street. The house – the oldest domestic wooden structure in downtown Cincinnati – was built about 1820 and housed ...

and the large lot of land behind including barren Mount Adams. He transformed the hill into a

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

. Longworth would become the first commercially successful winemaker in the United States, and has been called the "Father of the American Wine Industry." During the 1830s and 1840s Longworth cultivated Catawba grapes, which were used in making his champagne known as Golden Wedding. The wine inspired

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

to write the poem "Ode to the Catawba Wine." Contemporaries reported that Longworth's wine "transcends the Champagne of France." The winemaking industry around Cincinnati grew rapidly for several decades until it was virtually destroyed by downy mildew, powdery mildew, and black rot around 1860. The

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

created a shortage of manpower needed for vineyard labor, and the death of Longworth in 1863 furthered the end of Cincinnati's wine industry. Allegedly to increase his property value Longworth donated a portion of the hilltop to the Cincinnati Astronomical Society for an observatory. When the

Cincinnati Observatory The Cincinnati Observatory is located in Cincinnati, Ohio (United States) on top of Mount Lookout. It consists of two observatory buildings housing an 11-inch (28 cm) and 16 inch (41 cm) aperture refracting telescope. It is the old ...

opened in 1843 it owned the most powerful telescope of its kind.Mount Adams Today
Mount Adams History
Retrieved on 2009-01-11 The hill was renamed Mount Adams in honor of President John Quincy Adams, who delivered the observatory's dedication address. The observatory is still in operation today, though in 1871 it was moved to its current location in Mount Lookout due to excessive smoke from downtown buildings. The old observatory later became the

Holy Cross Monastery and Church Holy Cross Monastery and Church is a registered historic building complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, listed in the National Register on September 13, 1978. Founding Between 1873 and 1977, the Holy Cross Monastery was a Roman Catholic monastery atop ...

and expanded, but closed in 1977. The monastery is now the corporate headquarters of Towne Properties – a property management company. Although Cincinnati was largely

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

in its early history, Mount Adams was originally a strongly

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

working-class community composed of the Germans and Irish. The first

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

church of any denomination to be founded in that neighborhood was

on Ida Street, near the Ida Street Viaduct. During the

two artillery emplacements were installed on the hill to help defend the city from the Confederacy. One was installed at Fort View Place and the other near the present location of the

. Neither gun was ever fired. The Mount Adams Incline was completed in 1872 and linked downtown Cincinnati with the hilltop community. The Highland House, the incline hilltop resort, was a popular entertainment venue. Around that time the hill became occupied by a working-class blue-collar population. The Incline was closed in 1948. Then in 1892 Maria Longworth, granddaughter of Nicholas Longworth, opened

. Her work is still collected today by many and highly sought after. In the late 1960s people began to gentrify the hilltop neighborhood, including workers who wanted to live near their downtown offices.

References

External links

Mt. Adams
{{Authority control Neighborhoods in Cincinnati