The Spring House Gazebo is a historic

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...

Eden Park Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is s ...

within

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Designed by architect Cornelius M. Foster and completed in , it is the oldest enduring park structure in the Cincinnati municipal park system. As an icon of the entire park system, it appears in the logo of the Cincinnati Park Board. The gazebo was constructed in the

Moorish style Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centu ...

, with brightly painted arches and ball

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s. The gazebo took its name from the old

spring house A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building, usually of a single room, constructed over a spring. While the original purpose of a springhouse was to keep the spring water clean by excluding fallen leaves, animals, etc., the enclosing str ...

it replaced. Said to have therapeutic qualities, locals hauled away the spring water by the bucketful until the spring was found to be contaminated. The well was sealed off in 1912. The Spring House Gazebo stands near the center of the park next to Mirror Lake, a large

reflecting pool A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water with a reflective surface, undisturbed by fountain jets. Design Reflecting pools are o ...

and former city reservoir with a walkway around its perimeter. The seasonal fountain in Mirror Lake shoots water in the air and can be seen from miles away from the hilltop park.

Remus incident

In 1925, popular Cincinnati attorney and bootlegger George Remus was indicted for thousands of violations of the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress designed to execute the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919) which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The Anti- ...

, convicted by a jury that made its decision in under two hours, and given a two-year federal prison sentence. He spent two years in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for bootlegging.Haunted Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio
by Jeff Morris, Michael A. Morris; Arcadia Publishing, 2009 While he was in prison, Remus befriended another inmate and told him his wife whom he adored, Imogene, had control over his money. The inmate was an undercover prohibition agent Franklin Dodge. Dodge resigned his job and started an affair with Imogene. The pair liquidated Remus' assets and hid as much of the money as possible, in addition to attempting to deport Remus, and even hiring a hit man to murder Remus for $15,000. In addition, Remus's huge Fleischmann distillery was sold by Imogene, who gave her imprisoned husband only $100 of the multimillion-dollar empire he created. Imogene then filed for divorce from Remus in late 1927. On the way to court, on October 6, 1927, for the finalization of the divorce, Remus had his driver chase the cab carrying Imogene and her daughter through Eden Park in Cincinnati, finally forcing it off the road. Remus jumped out and fatally shot Imogene in the abdomen in front of the Spring House Gazebo. George Remus acted as his own lawyer and defended himself as a man driven mad by his wife's adultery, thievery, and betrayal. He was ultimately acquitted in one of the first successful cases of the

insanity defense The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative Defense (legal), defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to a mental illness, psychiatric disease ...

. Legend has it that the ghost of Imogene Remus haunts the gazebo. Since that time, there have been reports of a ghost wearing a black dress in and around the gazebo, gazing at a reflecting pool nearby. Alleged sightings are usually at dusk in the autumn season.

References

{{coord, 39.11425, -84.49351, type:landmark_region:US-OH, format=dms, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1904 Buildings and structures in Cincinnati Eden Park (Cincinnati) Gazebos Moorish Revival architecture in Ohio Pavilions in the United States Reportedly haunted locations in Ohio