Mount Storm Park is a City 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 ...

municipal park situated on a site on the western slope of a hill overlooking the

Mill Creek Valley Mill Creek Valley was a historic neighborhood located in the central corridor between 20th Street and Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. European settlement began in the 18th century with mills established along ''La Petite Rivière'' ...

. In the mid-19th century the property comprised the site of the estate of Robert Bonner Bowler, a dry goods entrepreneur and one-time Mayor of the Cincinnati neighborhood of

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

. While visiting in Austria, Bowler met

Adolph Strauch Adolph Strauch (b. August 30, 1822 – 1883) was a renowned landscape architect born in Silesia, Prussia, known particularly for his layout designs of cemeteries like Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, Forest Lawn in Buffalo, NY and O ...

of the Vienna Imperial Gardens and invited him to visit if he came to America. Strauch did visit during a scheduled train layover and remained to develop the Bowler Estate.

"Mr. Strauch designed the Temple of Love in 1845, which still stands as an outstanding landmark to Mt. Storm today. The white columns of this
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...
style
pergola A pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. The ...
, which can be seen on the east lawn, was once the cover for a reservoir that supplied water to Mr. Bowler's seventeen greenhouses, gardens, orchards, and a waterfall and swan lake on which seven black swans swam."

Bowler hosted a number of prominent guests at the estate including Edward, Prince of Wales, later King of England, and

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

. In 1917, the 1846 Victorian mansion was razed and the site used as a parking lot. Other than the pergola, the only remaining artifact of the Bowler estate is the wine cellar. In 1938, the Clifton Garden Club restored the "Temple of Love" and surrounding gardens. Mount Storm Park's stone shelter or pavilion, built in 1935, overlooks the Mill Creek valley. The building was designed by

Samuel Hannaford Samuel Hannaford (10 April 1835 – 7 January 1911) was an American architect based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Some of the best known landmarks in the city, such as Music Hall and City Hall, were of his design. The bulk of Hannaford's work was do ...

& Sons and is characterized by the lack of ornament typical of "Depression Modern". The shelter building was built by Cincinnati contractor Holt & Reichard, Inc.

References

{{coord, 39, 9, 20, N, 84, 32, 0, W, display=title Parks in Cincinnati