Walnut Hills United Presbyterian Church is a historic church tower in the Walnut Hills 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 ...

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. The last remnant of a landmark church building, it was designed by a leading Cincinnati architect and built in the 1880s. Although named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

a century after its construction, the building was mostly destroyed after extensive neglect caused restoration to become prohibitively expensive.

History

Pioneer

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 ...

minister James Kemper helped to organize a Presbyterian congregation in the area of Walnut Hills in 1818. After sixty years, the congregation merged with another one, which worshipped at the nearby

Lane Theological Seminary Lane Seminary, sometimes called Cincinnati Lane Seminary, and later renamed Lane Theological Seminary, was a Presbyterian theological college that operated from 1829 to 1932 in Walnut Hills, Ohio, today a neighborhood in Cincinnati. Its campus ...

, and before long the united congregation needed a larger building. Prominent architect

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 ...

was chosen to produce the design.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 685. Hannaford had already gained a reputation as one of Cincinnati's best architects, following his production of Music Hall in the 1870s, and the city's growth provided plenty of demand for the services of such an architect;Gordon, Stephen C., and Elisabeth H. Tuttle. '.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

, 1978-12-11. by the late 1870s, he had already completed designs for churches such as St. George's Catholic Church and St. Luke's Episcopal Church. His design for the Presbyterians in Walnut Hills resembled some of the others, with a large corner tower, a prominent

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

with

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

, walls faced with ashlar, and a general Gothic Revival appearance. It was twice expanded: a chapel was constructed in 1891, and Hannaford's company added a larger section in 1929, but these additions had been removed by the late 1970s. By the early 2000s, the building was no longer used for ecclesiastical purposes; preservation groups attempted to find a buyer to renovate it, suggesting that it be used for purposes such as a

community center Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

or offices for a film production firm. However, the building was ultimately destroyed: the neighboring funeral home needed the land in order to expand its parking lot, while the building's condition was poor enough that restoration seemingly would have required millions of dollars. Deconstruction began in early 2003, with the removal of stained glass and asbestos,Aldridge, Kevin.
Demolition Begins on Historic Church
, ''

Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, alt ...

'', 2003-03-11. and the building was largely demolished by mid-year. Preservationists were able to save part of the building, paying $160,000 to buy the church's tower and arrange to except it from demolition; their goal has been to ensure its structural stability and create a small monument around it, ensuring the church's partial continuation in the neighborhood's

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human a ...

.Aldridge, Kevin.
Renovation To Begin at Antislavery Site
, ''Cincinnati Enquirer'', 2003-12-04.

Architecture

Although faced with stone, the church was actually built of brick on a stone

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

and covered with a slate roof. Two and a half stories tall, it was constructed with an irregular

floor plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

, while the exterior walls rose to a large

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

near the bell tower on the corner. Dominating the fenestration was a massive stained glass window in the gable, while the tower features

Gothic windows Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

on its lower stories and paired openings to the un-windowed belfry at its top. The spire is no longer in place on the tower; like the chapel and other additions, it had been removed by the late 1970s. Remaining in place next to the tower is an entrance, which prior to demolition sat in front of the church's four- bay southern side. Scattered other components of the building survived its demolition: part of the pulpit was given to a church in Ripley, the cornerstone from the 1818 church building was donated to other Presbyterians in the area, and numerous structural elements such as woodworking and stained glass were sold to members of the public.

Historic site

In 1980, the church building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, qualifying because of its historically significant architecture; it was part of a group of more than fifty Hannaford-designed buildings submitted to the Register together as part of a

multiple property submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Its historic site status could not prevent its demolition: National Register designation places no restrictions on private owners' right to modify or destroy their properties,National Register of Historic Places Program: Fundamentals

, 2011-06-13. Accessed 2014-01-02. and neither the city of Cincinnati nor Hamilton County had given the church any legal protections. More than ten years after demolition, the entire building remains on the National Register.

References

External links

{{Samuel Hannaford and Sons TR Churches completed in 1880 Bell towers in the United States Presbyterian churches in Cincinnati Church ruins Former Presbyterian churches in the United States Gothic Revival church buildings in Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Cincinnati Presbyterian churches in Ohio Ruins in the United States U.S. Route 22 Walnut Hills, Cincinnati Samuel Hannaford church buildings 1880 establishments in Ohio