St. Paulus Kirche is a former German Evangelical Protestant church located at the corner of 15th and Race Streets in the

Over-the-Rhine Over-the-Rhine (often abbreviated as OTR) is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Historically, Over-the-Rhine has been a working-class neighborhood. It is among the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United State ...

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

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 ...

. It is one block from the headquarters of

3CDC Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) is a private, non-profit real-estate development and finance organization focused on strategically revitalizing Cincinnati's downtown urban core in partnership with the City of Cincinnati and ...

which are located in Saengerhalle. Built in 1850, it is the oldest surviving Protestant church in the city and the second oldest church in

History

St. Paul's was formed in 1845 as a breakaway from another German Protestant church, St. John's. Immigrants from northern Germany, who spoke

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

, felt marginalized by those from southern Germany, who spoke Swabian. The brick

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

building opened in 1850, sporting a

drugstore A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacis ...

on the corner to help pay the mortgage. In 1950, the congregation merged with St. Peter's and moved to Westwood to form St. Peter and Paul United Church of Christ. The property was then used by a succession of other congregations until title reverted to the city. The building was vacant after 1993. The church steadily deteriorated, and its historic wooden steeple was destroyed by a severe storm in September 2008. In February 2011, the city of Cincinnati and

began work to stabilize the structure. According to the March 1, 2011 feature story in Soapbox Cincinnati,
Divine Inspiration: New Uses for Old Churches"
:"Work on the church is proceeding from the outside utilizing multi-story cranes to peel the roof back to survey the damage and remediate the structural issues. Munitz estimates it will cost $600,000-750,000 to make it secure and safe - the city of Cincinnati is contributing $300,000 towards stabilization." In the summer of 2014, construction began to re-purpose the church into Taft's Ale House, a brewery and restaurant. The three-level brewpub is themed after William "Big Willy" Taft and features a blend of industrial and Victorian design. The space includes two bars, a large beer hall with communal tables, traditional dining space as well as private dining in the bell tower. Cincinnati-based HGC Construction company provided construction services for the project with an anticipated January 2015 opening. HGC stabilized the historic structure in 2011, readying it for development.

References

Churches completed in 1850 Greek Revival church buildings in Ohio Churches in Cincinnati German-American culture in Cincinnati Over-the-Rhine 1850 establishments in Ohio {{Ohio-church-stub